book review: at home with handmade books

I received a copy of by At Home with Handmade Books by Erin Zamrzla (published by Make Good Books) and with my weakness for paper it was easy to for me to get into it. There is a lot of information about Japanese bookbinding and it includes ideas on how to use recycling materials. Excellent!

The book has 28 projects that can be made to suit your style and interests. There are ideas for journals, notebooks, a travel album and even a gardener's journal—a lot of applications and all really beautiful. I'm particularly taken by the Idea File project on the left side of this photo—it's one of those "why didn't I think of that before?!" projects.

Instead of having the typical pretty final photo and instructions grouped together for each project, this book has all the finished projects at the front of the book, the techniques and materials section in the middle and the instructions for individual projects in the back. I like this approach because you enjoy all the projects at once (like flipping through a pretty magazine or portfolio piece) and when you've decided what project you're interested in, you go to the back for the instructions.

I've always wanted to tackle this type of binding. This recipe book would be a cute way to give recipes to a friend that loves to cook!

The instructions and diagrams for each project couldn't be any clearer. They all are very easy to follow.

Like I've said before, I really like the design of this series of books. Their design is simple, well photographed and styled. The craft ideas are very approachable and beautiful. This book is no different. There are more photos and even a video about the book and author here.

Now for the fun part— The publisher has graciously offered two At Home with Handmade Books for a giveaway! The drawing will be open until Monday, March 28th at midnight and I'll be announcing the winners on Tuesday the 29th. The good news is that they are willing to mail the books to any part of the world so you're all welcome to participate.

To enter the giveaway— All you need to do is leave a comment on this post by answering the following question (let's make this a little fun, ok?):

If given the gift of time to craft (let's say a couple of hours—dinner is taken care of, the house is clean, and if you have kids there's a babysitter already watching them—ahhh!) what would you make?

Please!! - Make sure to include your email address to contact you.

Have fun dreaming (and maybe make a plan to make it happen—why not?) and have a great weekend!