Book of Cards

If you don't know what to do with that box of cards you've saved over the years, here's a way to keep them, re-read them, and enjoy them for years to come: I will bind them into a book for you!

The grizzly bear card roared until the battery wore out. We gave it to Darryl on our trip to Alaska.

For Father's Day 2013 I bound anniversary, Father's Day, and birthday cards given to Darryl over the years into a hardcover book.

Beauty and the Beast

Now I can show the project, safely delivered yesterday!

I didn't realize the margins of the box lid would fade against the tablecloth in a photo. But they're there.

It just looked better to sew in the original dust jacket.

This is What a Shortcut Looks Like

Lovely mess, isn't it? I used a book's original cover boards for a rebinding in leather. I had assumed the covers were the right size because, after all, they were the originals. But no: they were 1/8" narrower than the pages. The covers had been cut so skimpy that the heavy cotton back liner I used added too much bulk and the pages protruded beyond the covers. By the time I discovered this, I'd already covered the boards in full leather and had no inclination to waste them. So, I pulled off the new sewn endpapers and the extra back liner. I peeled away paper layers from the flex-board spine. I lifted the pasted leather headcaps and back-cornered the spine edges. I swapped out thinner mull. Finally, I trimmed 1/8" from the foredges, which fortunately had wide margins. (I triple-checked the spine width, so that the text block wouldn't gape when everything was cased back in.) I felt guilty about trimming, but it had to be done. This one time. The book looks good and none the worse for wear. I won't show photos of the completed work until after I hand it to the person, because it's a surprise gift.