May I Have Your Autograph? + GIVEAWAY!

Back in grade school, we didn’t have yearbooks. What can I say, we were twelve. We did however have a penchant for autograph books (and those hideous stuffed wiener dogs that were made of itchy white fabric and stuffed to the gills with so much sawdust that after three swipes of an inky pen they started to leak said sawdust all over the place). How lovely those autograph books were. With their pastel pages folded to alternate points, they were happy little bound bits of memories.

Often, as I encounter those that brighten my day, I wish for an autograph book to appear so that I may treasure that moment. Just last week I was at an author event and while I had oodles of kids books signed and garnished, I wished I had an autograph book along as well. And then I thought; what am I waiting for? I should make one for myself and so I did.

Using the Dill Blossom collection, I was able to create an autograph book that not only was useful but pretty to boot. Here’s how I did it.

First, I swept through the tiny casa in search of blank pages I could add to the book. Forgoing the buttermint look, I culled from my paper collection of newsprint, copy paper, vintage books and other fun pages. I thought that I could add business cards and other accoutrements to the printed pages while signatures could camp out on the blank pages.

Next, I sized my pages using a regular old sheet of notebook paper as my guide. I folded it in half width wise and tore along the fold so that I had two strips of paper measuring 4 ¼ by 11 ½ inches. I cut up the remaining pieces of paper to follow suit and stacked them all up on top of each other and then folded them in half.



Here’s the fun part. After you have folded all your sheets, play around with the ordering and layering. Once you turn all the pages into a book, the bulk of your pages are going to be folded into partial triangles so you will want a fun collection of solids and prints to shine through with plenty of accent pages in between.

Once you are set, stack all your pages up and cut yourself a slightly bigger strip from a sturdier paper, cardstock or thin cardboard. This will be your cover. Add your cover on the bottom of the stack and stitch or staple your binding. I like the way sewn paper looks so I stitched mine up using the longest stitch on my machine, which is a four. I had to make two signatures though as my pages were thick. (Oh, and yes, that is a lunch sack poking out just after the cover. I thought it would be neat to add a place to hold cards and other momentos).



Because I had to stitch up two signatures, I needed to glue those together. I uses a line of tacky glue as it is pretty pliable and I held the pages in place using two clothespins.



Decorate your cover as you see fit and once everything dries, go through your book and fold your pages into that classic autograph fold. Starting with the second or third page, fold down the corner so that it lines up with the edge of the paper and crease. This makes a triangle point. For the next page, fold down the opposite corner and continue on. Leave a few pages flat and add photo corners or brackets for future photos or cards.



My book ended up being quite fat so I hand stitched a strip of ribbon from the collection along with a button directly onto the front and back covers. Now I had a pretty way to keep my book closed and all its goodies inside. You can even scrap up a few of the pages to help you remember the event where you collected all your autographs or make a special book exclusively for a party you are attending. It’s like a wee mini collaborative scrapbook and it fits in your bag!



Now, if only we could throw a party right now and swap autographs. How nifty would that be?

Thank you, Jessica! Doesn't she have such lovely photos and creative ideas? She makes me want to get up, make the bed pretty, have some special oatmeal, and get baking and crafting. Lucky for you we are having a give away with the products Jessica used to make this autograph book so you can do just that! Just leave a comment by Sunday October 18th at midnight telling us which post was your favorite. We will announce the winner Monday. Be sure to check back next week to see if you are the winner because if we don't hear from the winner by October 26th we will pick a new winner!