Nice! And Naughty!

Introducing...

The cutest thing I have ever made.  Ever!

 

It is a fully functional, hand-bound book, made from a cracker box, obsolete letterhead, scrapbook paper and a page from a recycled book.  I have added a hanging ribbon to make it a Christmas tree ornament. 

 

 

For days, I toyed with ideas for the front cover decoration.  I played with vintage mother-of-pearl buttons, postage stamps, and a construction paper Christmas tree, but none of those ideas made me happy.  I finally settled on this genius idea:  A Nice List for Santa Claus.  If I had more time, I would make a companion Naughty List. 

 

The book is about 2 inches wide by 2.5 inches tall.   

 

 

I laid awake last night wondering how to hang the ornament and how to keep it from opening when hanging on the tree.  What I came up with is so simple.  As you will see in a later picture, the green ribbon is just tied around the front cover and then knotted to form a hanger.  I used red, sparkly gift elastic to tie it closed.  The tie can be slipped off to open the book.

 

 

The book is bound with the "Coptic with Concertina" method.   

 

 

A piece of recycled book page forms the concertina, seen above and in the next two pictures. 

 

 

 

The ornament is intended to accompany several food items in a White Elephant gift exchange for my family.  We'll see if I have the nerve to give this away. 

 

The last book I made, I gave away before I thought of taking pictures and posting them.  Bummer. 


Update:  I figured out how to add "Naughty" without making a companion ornament.  I just stamped "Naughty" on a piece of recycled book page and slipped it into the completed book. 

Looks cute, no?