
I’m a bit frustrated at the moment because I started a project towards the end of last week, and now I’m house sitting for a fortnight so won’t be able to work on it again until I get home. Maddening!
Since the start of the year I’ve been on a mission to use up the surplus supplies in my studio. There are a lot. I could almost open a shop selling paper and card, it’s ridiculous. There’s only so much bookbinding I can do, and I’ve finally admitted that I’m unlikely ever to use up all my supplies that way. So what else can I do to use them up? That, readers, has been the question on my mind almost constantly this past month.
One of the things I have a lot of (apart from pretty paper) is thin card. I can’t recall why I bought it, although I must have had a reason, but there’s quite a bit of it and I’ve been wanting to find a good use for it. I made some book style storage boxes using thicker card (from repurposed shoe boxes) and loved the finished product, but they were very labour intensive and thus not a terribly good use of time. However, I do really like boxes that look like books so it was only a matter of time before I thought of a good compromise.
Which brings us to last week. I thought the problem with the last boxes I made was that they were too good. The quality was high because the box was the product. But what if the box was only the packaging? Which is why I’ve set my little heart on making some sets of Jane Austen stationery. Cards featuring quotes from the books, housed in a book-style box. The box will be well crafted (of course) but not made from as sturdy card. The sets will be pretty, and the box attractive enough to keep, and of course you get stationery inside which is always a good thing.
I made a prototype to work out the kinks, and it’s very promising. I had a go at embossing the silhouette on the front and that went well, I just need to fine tune the embossing of fine text/script. I also now know I need to adjust the measurements for the cover somewhat. I’m looking forward to getting back to this in a couple of weeks!





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