SQUASH BOOK

First of all, I really need to apologize. The quality of these photos is pretty awful.

You see, as I was setting up my tiny photo studio, I discovered that I couldn't turn on the lights. You all know that I've been less than happy with this set-up for ages now. So, I guess that it turned out to be quite fortuitous that I had an excuse to throw the whole shebang away at last.

But, that left me with a horrible dilemma. How was I supposed to take the photos for my blog post? I tried a couple of old school things. But nothing seemed to do the trick.

What I ended up using leaves me with all sorts of weird shadows, to say the least. So, I am so sorry that the photos today are less than pleasing.

I did order a new lighting studio, but it won't be here until next week. So, I guess I (and you!) will have to suffer through until then. The one I ordered had 4.6 stars out of 5, but you never know . . .

Anyway, another admission here. I have always been horrible at anything that involves mountain and valley folds, such as origami or Swedish stars. Things like that. A hopeless case I am.

But, several years ago, I made something they called at the time a Funky Fold Book. And I don't recall having any problems with it. So, I thought I'd try my hand at it once again. The tutorial I used was very lacking. I could not get those sections to fold up into a square. Origami time all over again. 

Finally, after lots of finagling, I was able to get it to cooperate. And I do like what I ended up with.

I used some beautiful Stampin' Up! Designer Series Paper, the Ornate Garden Speciality Designer Series Paper, found on page 149 of the Annual Catalog. The pretty frame around the title of my book, "Follow Your Heart, It Knows the Way", is created with the Ornate Dies (again! I LOVE that die set!) on page 182. 

My plan for the inside of the book is to hand letter some of my favorite quotes. Don't hold me to that though. I often have made books in the past with glorious plans, but the books remain empty.

Anyway, following are my <lousy> photos of a book that I really am proud of.

I have seen various ways of fastening this book shut, and tried a few of them. 

None of them appealed to me. 

So I ended up embedding ribbons underneath the DSP on the front and back of the book. 

I then tie them into a loose knot. 

A photo of the book partially open.

My husband is actually holding this hanging straight down. 

The whole insides do not show in the photo. 

But it gives a feeling of what it looks like in the open position.

Without the ribbons, this is how the book would look in a closed position.

I think the knotted ribbons give the closed book a neat finished look.

If you would like to try one of these books that are now referred to as Squash Books, I would give you THIS TUTORIAL. I did not follow it, but it seems to make a lot more sense than the one I followed. Thanks to LC in sunny San Diego for posting this tutorial to Pinterest. If you do a search for Squash Books, you can find lots of tutorials that are better than the one I followed. Have fun!

Squashed

Smiles.