Shortly after I got my adorable little die cutting machine last year, SeaLemon posted a new book binding tutorial on her YouTube page.
I wanted to combine making it with using the die cut machine, and I had a perfect idea. I was going to use a glitter washi tape rainbow card I’d made while messing about with tape ages ago, and a unicorn die cutter. I’d cut a unicorn shape out of a piece of pretty card and use that over the washi to create a rainbow washi unicorn silhouette.
However I encountered a few problems. I used A5 sketchbook paper for the inside of the book, and it was too big for my little machine.
Which meant that I couldn’t stick an A5 piece of card in the machine to cut out a unicorn shape from. Okay, fine. Well I’ll leave a rainbow border then. Except that I couldn’t find an orientation that would get the whole rainbow inside the unicorn shape.
Right. Well, what about a rainbow cover, with just a unicorn silhouette then? That’ll work. I’ll use the cutout from the first attempt.
I folded the signature and trimmed the edges so it was flush. I copied the nice neat corner folding from SeaLemon’s video.
And then the glue stick tore off the unicorn’s tail.
I tried again – using the same paper as the cover so it would match. And when I flipped it to glue to the back I must have put it down on some glue somewhere, because I managed to tear the colour from his nose and lose his back hoof.
Right – just rainbow it is then.
I used duct tape for the binding tape, and then quite frankly it got put in my To Do pile and forgotten about for months.
When I finally got around to finishing it, the rubber band I’d used to hold it together had dented the duct tape spine a little.
But I carried on regardless. I used my awl to poke out holes for the stitching.
I grabbed the cord I keep with my bookbinding pieces and pulled some through the wax.
I threaded my bookbinding needle, started stitching, and encountered the next problem. My curved needle was the wrong shape and/or too big.
So I switched to a straight needle and stitched the notebook. I did a saddle stitch, because by this point I had completely forgotten that the whole point of this project was to do that pretty chain stitch.
It’s very messy, and it doesn’t close properly. But it’s a completed notebook, and it has a glittery rainbow on it. And in the end, isn’t a glittery rainbow all that matters?
I will do that chain stitch. As well as the other very pretty stitch that SeaLemon just released a tutorial for. At some point.
Crafted By Colette 