Even though I'm a big fan of intricate sewn bindings, sometimes you just want to make something that is simple and fast.
I recently made a fun little collection of books following directions I found through Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord's website Making Books. These miniature cuties -- 12 in all, one for each month -- are housed in a custom box made from your favorite cereal carton. Susan designed this project as a Word A Day Journal, but you could also use it for any journaling thread where you want to capture just a little something each day.
Susan provides a pdf document for you with a box pattern and nameplates for the spine and cover title boxes, as well as a blank grid to create your own titles. I chose a cereal box (Kashi U, my current favorite) that was too small to accommodate the base pattern, so I cut one of the box side panels from the back side of the carton and then attached it with some decorative paper. My book pages are made of Astrobrite copy paper in a variety of wild colors, to match the graphics on my box.
You can watch Susan make this project on her YouTube video, Word A Day Journal. If you've been away from making books for awhile, this sweet thing could get you kick started again. It takes a few hours to complete, and you can work on it in five minute increments if time is short.
So, finish off that box of breakfast cereal before the weekend and save it to make something fun!
