Birthday on Paper

I celebrated a birthday recently. A little girl who knows her mother well slipped this envelope under the door as a special-delivery birthday surprise. The stamp and postmark made me smile, but knowing my daughter made a card that so suited me really warmed my heart.

As a birthday gift to myself, I bought this little bookbinding kit:

I'm no Leonardo da Vinci, that's for sure, but he was an Aries just like me and was born this time of year. He liked to write and draw on loose leaf papers, not in bound notebooks. So I'm taking a cue from Leonardo and I'll write on the pages first and then bind into a notebook later, rather than making the notebook with blank pages.

Stash of Notebooks

When I read description on the package of these four little notebooks, I swooned. The package says, "These handsome journals are perfect for bookworms, font fanatics, and anyone who loves the craft of typography." Love it.

I scanned these notebooks on my printer and then colored the background white. I didn't do a perfect job, and it might have been more fun sniffing White-Out, but messing around with the Paint program on my computer was fun, too. Good way to keep occupied while procrastinating working on my taxes.

The Typographica! Pocket Pads are made by Clarkson Potter.

Current Stash of Notebooks

Topping the pile is a Paperchase small notebook with a plain brown cover purchased at Borders Books). I taped a lino print I made of a flower on the cover.

I keep a series of notebooks I call Paper Trails. I tape scraps like receipts, snippets from brochures, business cards, found pieces of paper in the books, and I write tidbits about my day or about my thoughts on the pages. I keep the format very (very) informal, and I think that's why my series of Paper Trails notebooks are so easy for me to keep up.

The pages of the little notebook are filled now to bulging, and I started another Paper Trails book.