Greeting Pop Up Flowers Book & A Happy Birthday To Muji

Yes I finally gotten around to offloading pictures from my camera, and no I have not found my camera cable yet. Fortunately I could use my fiance's cable since we both have the same digital camera model. It was our Christmas presents.

Photo from Rano

Anyhoo, check this out, I made that purple thing up there that's smack dab in the centre of the picture that Muji (in purple) is exclaiming wow over. (I was informed by the client so it's true, thanks Haryanie) The ones giving it to her were my clients, nicest people ever, they came to see me a couple of times to discuss what they wanted.

They asked for something special, and I invited them to come over to see what I have and discuss on what it was that they were looking for. They liked the idea of the engagement folders that I had made and asked for something similar and supplied me with a photo. And my only other lead was purple, she loves the colour I was told.

My challenge was, how to make it different enough and something that I'm happy with? Rule of thumb, if I'm not happy with it, neither will the client.

And you know what she was looking at?

Pop up flowers greeting card book/folder

This.

It all came together on the nth hour. The right material just happen to land on my table, the right colours popped up and I happen to have all the colours in various forms, like they were waiting in anticipation. I was quite stressed making this but it was worth it. Smart, simple yet stunning. When I presented it to the clients they were really happy with it complete with audible gasp. Hey, it worked! Why, because the element of surprise were the flowers. They popped up.

The partially opened flower

All those pop up engineering books I have helped. I was able to solve the structural problem in order for the flowers to open up properly. It was so simple. Yet so effective.

Detailed shot of the front of the book/folder

And when the covers are closed, it's held by a double bow tie with a cascading flower gems on the front of the purple glittered chiffon covers.

Really love those pop up flowers....

Pop Up Hearts On Black

We (My H and I) just had our anniversary and to commemorate, I made this for him. The idea has been playing in my head for ages, and finally broke free of its chains and controlled the hands to make 'the book'... weelll... it's the prototype really... and it worked!

With the help of this book...

I knew of this book when I used to work with Ron King when I was a student in uni, and I love love love pop ups. But back then being a student, money was a bit tight and I only managed to get my hands on this book several years ago, it cost a pretty penny (in this part of the world) but it was worth it.

Gotta plan a book for Valentine's next....

Little Journals

As part of building up my stock I made these fat little journals. I used 80gsm paper as pages for the books in various colours and each book is about 200 pages thick, apart from the one on the far left of the picture, that I turned into a mini photo album. They're all about 1.2 inches x 4 inches x 6 inches or 3cm x 10cm by 15cm.

The materials I used were small pieces of left overs which are too big to just throw away and too small for the regular sized books. I even managed to scrounged enough for another little book from the dragonflies albums leftovers! Plus the binding method I used are easy and a couple of them are experimental bindings as well, like the rainbow exposed spine, using the glitter red and green thread, I did what I did cos I wasn't too happy with my button hole binding and I already made the cover for it, and it came out great! Will definitely do more of that binding, and maybe more experimenting, never know what else I can come up with.

The mini photo album came along cos the cover was originally for the rainbow pages. But when I put them together it didn't look so great, and made the silver cover instead. With a cover to spare I used up the leftover black card stock paper I had lying around and with an experimental binding I had used before on one of the little pink journals, and it looks really striking.

The pink and white is also a favourite using embossed paper. It's just so pretty don't you think? I'm trying out a bigger version using the same paper to see how it goes, great paper but hell to glue up. Also I had to be ever so careful putting this cover together because it was white I had to be careful not to get it dirty.

Two of them are booked already, just waiting for their owners to pick them up. Gotta make more...

Little Pink Themed Books

This is what the client is going to get

And these are what's inside when she opens them up!

Three little journals, with three different bindings. The pink and silver was an experimental binding, the thread loops in one direction and then goes back creating a criss cross pattern through the silver beads. Also my first soft spine binding, was worried how it was going to turn out, kept on reminding myself just have fun with it, you never know how it's going to turn out, and it came out great! Silver ribbon to finish off the look. An A6 with about 200 pages if I'm not mistaken.

The one with the roses is a coptic binding. The roses in the center can pop off to make writing easier in the book. The covers are slightly cushioned, the butterflies and pink ribbons ties the whole thing together. It's about 15cm by 15cm with 120 pages.

The mock leather cushioned wrap with pink leather tie I think it's a long stitch, I like doing this one, and it came out beautifully. I had this knocking around in my head, I just wasn't sure how to bind the whole thing. Saw Rhona's pink leather journals and those were gorgeous, I could've subconsciously picked it up from there.

The wrap came out from the jungles of the content of the studio so it's a one and only piece. If I could, I'd love to make more of these. The holes for the binding I pierced as I was binding so it's looking uneven. How do you guys know how to space out the holes and prior to binding the sections? That part I couldn't figure out. I tried measuring but I end up spacing the holes too far apart. Trial and error I guess...

The leather cord was a lucky thing I had, I just simply wove it through the binding threads and it stayed there relatively well. I forgot the size to this one... it's slightly taller then the pink and silver book.

So overall apart from the coptic, the experimental books went well. Feeling very happy. Can't wait to see the client's face tomorrow!

Add on: The books were for her sister, but when she saw the leather wrap one she immediately stalked claim of it. It is a very pretty book, very elegant I might add :-p Anyway, you can see more detailed images of the books here, the insides and out.