Another Amigurumi and some Papercraft

Yes I have definitely become a collector of these patterns. I needed a ladybird for a gratitude gift I was putting together and so off I wandered to the land of Etsy and found just what I wanted at Lis Tan-Chaong's shop - Simple Arts Planet. The pattern is called ClawlieBuggie, The Lucky Ladybird. I ordered the pattern and it was in my e-mail inbox before I could blink. How's that for service. Later that night there was one completed ladybird and one half done. Both have since been added to the Gratitude Gift and are on their way, with the rest of the parcel, to the lucky recipient (who shall remain nameless at this stage) .

From Crocheted Flo...

My other crafting endeavour, also for the parcel, was a handmade book.

From Assorted Pape...

This little book is the continuation of an idea that started two years ago. As parent help at my daughter's school I was asked to be involved with some crafting sessions. I came up with the book idea as an introduction to mono line calligraphy. Over about 8 weeks the group practiced their calligraphy and produced all the parts to make a birthday book. Each page was a pocket page and an index card slipped inside to record birth dates for each month. Having them on index cards meant that they could remove a card and put on the fridge. Their books looked like this:

I didn't want plastic comb binding on the one I have just made and so the whole idea was to explore a different method of binding. I added a hinge to the pocket pages and then used thread to join all these together. By doing this the pages turned very freely. I was quite pleased with the end result but am still trying to think of some other ways to bind my book. Here is one last picture showing the inside of the book.

From Assorted Pape...

I had fun with the Gocco stamp I talked about in another post and hand lettered the months and then stuck these on over some gold paint. My daughter's DYMO label maker came in handy for the smaller month names on the index cards. I used clear plastic tape in the machine.