Swap Project - Love Your Inner Geek art book [Pic Heavy]

The last thing I made for my #loveyourinnergeek swap buddy was an art book. It took me way, way too long to make it. As usual, I bit off more than I could chew. And, as a result, I ended up sending this super late, and she got it three days after the end of the swap. *blushes*


I had never attempted to make an art book before, so this was all pretty new to me. I had attempted to start a beginner art book a while back, but that was by altering an already made book.


I had originally thought I would take pictures of the whole process, but realized pretty quickly that this book was going to take a long time already, so I didn't bother taking progress pics. These three are the only in progress pictures I took.

I jumped the gun and cut the pieces of chip board before the book was actually done. Lesson learned - I ended up having to cut a wider middle piece. The bubbly pink paper I found while looking for other papers at Michaels. I saw it and thought it would be the perfect cover for this art book.


I also found this pretty space-themed paper at Walmart.

My buddy likes space, so... I figured it'd be a good inside cover design.



I decided to use greeting cards for the pages.

They're all already the same size and folded in half, so it worked out nicely. I actually sent some of the extra cards as a day in part of the rest of the swap for her.

That's all as far as in progress shots. lol. On to the rest of the book!!




Here's the book:

While wandering around Hobby Lobby and looking for something else for the swap, I came across that pretty gem sticker that I used for the cover.


When I was doing research on art books, I saw a couple of books that had a way to hold it together.

So I found a pretty jewelry thing from Hobby Lobby. I attached it to a tiny pink binder clip.


I also liked the idea of an attached bookmark, so I picked up a chain and the large bead at Hobby Lobby... but then when I finally attached it to the book, I realized it looked pretty plain and boring.

So I found some extra random beads and whatnot at Walmart and piled them on. Looks much better, yeah?


Just a couple more shots of the book:

I attached the back of the chain by punching a hole in the middle of the back cover. Then I used a tiny decorative brad to attach it. A large dab of hot glue to make sure it stays.


The rest are pretty much the pages within the book.

Here you can see the inside cover page, along with the This Belongs To page. In hindsight, I probably should have made the inside cover page a little wider, so that white gap in between the pages didn't show. Ah well.


Pages 2 & 3:

Share a photo of you / make a painting of you

Pages 4 & 5:

IGGPPC Pride!

Pages 6 & 7

Favorite Recipes / A person who loves you

  Page 5 and 6 are sewn together to create a pocket to fit the recipe cards.

The recipe cards are just pretty index cards with tabs glued on top.


Pages 8 & 9:

Words that describe you / One thing that's just for you

Pages 10 & 11:

Share a happy childhood memory / Write a letter to past you

Two pocket pages, one pocket has some plain paper in it for the memory. The pocket of page 11 is an envelope I made. Inside are tiny pages. And then there's a dyed, full sized page in the pocket just in case.



Pages 12 & 13:

Share a smile / Write a letter to future you

Same sorta pocket. Made the envelope, and inside there's some pages. In the pocket, there's a page I designed to look "future-y". Haha. It's pretty lame, but I tried. lol.


Pages 14 & 15:

Fave songs / Shhh... share a secret

Another sewn page. 15 & 16 are sewn together for the secret.

Inside is some pretty lined paper glued on to some brown cardstock.


Pages 16 & 17:

Share something beautiful / Share something that makes you feel beautiful

Pages 18 & 19:

Fave movies / Fave fandoms

Pages 20 & 21:

Fave books / Things that make you laugh

Pages 22 & 23:

Decorate these pages - Princess Pen Pals style

I left six pages blank in this book, because I didn't want to disrupt the themes for those pages.



Pages 24 & 25:

Share a scar / Fave DC Characters

Pages 26 & 27:

Fave tweets

Pages 28 & 29:

What makes you happy? / Write a letter to cheer up sad you

Just a little slot for a page of pink paper for the letter.


Pages 30 & 31:

Decorate with your favorite colors

Pages 32 & 33:

Fave quotes

Pages 34 & 35:

Free pages - what goes in here is up to you

Pages 36 & 37:

What is your best physical feature? / Things you like about yourself

Pages 38 & 39:

Places you'd like to go / Fears

Pages 40 & 41:

A cute jean pocket to hold anything you want / Decorative page

Real jean fabric, from old jeans. The pocket was actually a tiny bit too large, so I had to trim it.

I tried to glue the denim on to the page, but - surprise! It didn't stick, So I had to sew the denim on to the page.

The decorative page was originally supposed to be last page 42, but I figured this decorative page would be better right next to the jean pocket. Still not sure about that, but eh.



Last page 42:

Wishing well - three wishes

I drew the wishing well on water color paper, lined it with a Sharpie then colored it in with watercolors. Glued it to a pocket, and added three strips of paper for wishes.

The back inside cover has a robot on it. LOL. It was a button that I took the insides out of. The hole and brad that I used to attach the chain was showing through here and I needed to cover it with something. I was planning on using the button in the Future Letter page 13, but changed my mind. So I had it handy and figured why not.



Here's a closeup of the back where the chain is attached.

And one last shot of the book:

Tada! Overall, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out! I also tried my hardest to not get attached to the book, as was possible to happen. Haha. I was successful in that respect, because I did end up sending it. lol. Woot!