2019 #8 Put a Brush on it: Brush-bound notebook with EKD {by Dounia Large}

2019 Topic 8: Put a Brush On It

Here we are at the last post of this topic, and Dounia has created a lovely book-spine with her paintbrushes! Great idea! ~Leandra.

Hi everyone, it's Dounia with you today, and I'd like to share with you nice way to recycle your old paint brushes into the spine of a notebook!

I must admit have ruined a few paint brushes with glue or insufficient washing. This Topic was a great opportunity to redeem them (and myself!) through another love of mine: notebook making!

I was inspired to use the brushes as a spine by classic book binding techniques that use thin sticks as hinges or anchors. I wanted a colorful and hand-drawn theme to go with the brushes and Kim Dellow's style is perfect for what I had in mind! In the EKD02 plate, the graphic plants are full of possibilities and the little birds are so cute! Also I am a fan of clouds so I didn't hesitate long...

The line art of these stamps make sprucing up the pages of the notebook quick and easy, without making them too busy. The brushes provide a spine for the booklets with a very easy sewing pattern.

The booklets are assembled by weaving ribbons around the brushes in between the binding stitches. It can easily be done in an pattern (two contrasting colours would look great!) but I chose to randomly use a variety of colours and textures to go with the quirky handmade feel.

With this technique both sides of the binding are pretty. A clear advantage here as the spine is visible inside in between booklets!

For sturdy covers, able trap and hide the ends of the ribbons, I used Heavy Smoothy. I regularly use Fresco Acrylic paints for some background stamping before applying Infusions as it creates a lovely and subtle resist effect. I love the steaky effect achieved when Infusions are "activated" with a babywipe. With 2-3 colours it also makes gradients easy!

Using a limited number of stamps made it easy to give the whole project cohesion without too much planning. I really love this branch with fruits so I made it the star of the first page.

For the covers, the guests of honor could only be the birdies! With a tonal background, color contrast was the way to make them pop. Creating a focal point via a cut-out is certainly an oldy but I love it so...

I didn't go all out for the back cover but I still think the contrast birdies and white highlights do the job!

I think keeping the covers relatively toned-down colourwise really bring out the bright ribbons and brushes, which are supposed to be the focus of this project after all!

This project ended up pretty involved but the binding technique itself is quite simple and very versatile. From a single card to a full notebook with ribbons, any size is possible. The brushes are both useful and decorative and can be a nice detail in a gift for a fellow crafter (or for yourself!). So don't hesitate and give a new purpose to your old brushes!

Stay crafty!
Dounia x