Category Archives: Stationery

Tutorial: Christmas card with dried flowers

Posted on in All, DIY, Rubberstamps, Stationery.

Hey guys, let’s make an easy christmas card with some dried flowers and a piece of ribbon.

First you want to cut your piece of dried flower to the size you want and optional, give it some color or glitter by dapping some on. I like to dap some color/glitter on the top of each branch so you have a little sparkle but you can see the original color on the rest of the branches. Set the flower aside and let it dry.

I used off-white cardstock as my base and cut a piece of light brownish cardstock to size to use as my second layer. I always cut the second layer a little bit smaller than my base so I get a nice border when attaching it to the base later.

With a candy cane stamp and some white stamp ink, I stamped a simple pattern on my second layer and added a piece of ribbon to it, which I attached with double-sided adhesive tape.

On a smaller piece of the off-white cardstock I stamped “Frohe Weihnachten” (which means “Merry christmas” in german) in a light brown ink and to give it an interesting shape I cut off all four corners of my banner. On the back I used some double-sided adhesive foam rubber.

Use a dap of glue – I used bookbinding glue – to secure your flower piece to your card, hold it in place and adhere your banner over the cut end of your flower piece.

Put some glue (again I’m using bookbinding glue but you can also use the double-sided adhesive tape you used for the ribbon or a glue stick) on the back of your second layer and adhere it onto your base card.

Your card is ready to make someone else happy!

Love,

-Ema-

New notepads

Posted on in All, Bookbinding, Graphic Design, Packaging Design, Stationery, Typography.

The last days I designed some new notepads. Some of the designs will look familiar because they are already available as a stamp, like the small perpetual circle. Others are brand new. Besides the standard DIN format there are a lot notepads of unusual formats available – just because I love stuff that is unusual. Not everything has to be a DIN standard, right?

Now nothing stands in the way of stylish notes. Enjoy a lot of variety in your planner, journal, diary and scrapbook.

The smallest ones of my notepads are the ticket notepads. They come in a lot of different colours and every colour has it’s own design. The biggest notepads are the DIN A4 notepads. The newest addition to those is a notepad with beautiful letter paper. It has a oval in the middle where you can write down your letter and an endless tendril pattern that was drawn by hand, that flows around it.

In the video you can see the following notepads: The notepad “perpetual square” in which you can playfully add a date and time in the top part of it and use the rest of the space for a note. After that you see the “from-to-message” notepad where you also have the option to fill in a date and a recipient and a message in the graph paper section. The “magenta quilt-ruling” is a pink-coloured notepad that doesn’t have a standard format or standard ruling. The forth notepad is named “small perpetual circle” where you can also put in a date in the design and have lots of space for notes, love notes or ideas. The last notepad in the video is named “meet with” and is a minimalistic version of a notepad.

Although I like these new notepads very much, I can promise that they won’t be the last designs I make. Altogether we don’t want to get bored in our analogue love for paper!

Love,

-Franziska-

How to use the rubber stamp “social circle”

Posted on in Graphic Design, Rubberstamps, Stationery.

Here is an example on how to fill out my new rubber stamp the “social circle”. You can write down a date, name and place for the upcoming social engagment. In the middle is a clock where you can draw in the hand clock to define a time and you can mark with some colour what kind of sociel engagment it will be. A meeting or a party or even a rendezvous? To all that you can also mark if it’s a regular or an important social engagment and if confidentiality is needed.

Of course some of the fields ar optional. If you use the rubber stamp for remembering that an e-mail or a call is due on day X, I won’t need to fill out a place. Or instead of a private persons name I can fill in the name of my dentist and make sure I keep track of my next appointment.

Or you use the rubber stamp for your nect party invitations! What would you use the rubber stamp for? Let me know in the comments!

Love,

-Franziska-

Sealing a small package

Posted on in All, Art, DIY, Packaging Design, Rubberstamps, Stationery, Work in progress.

No matter if it’s a small or a big package – sealing them with wax is so much fun! In this video I packed up a notecard set in a semi-transparent paperbag, decorated it with a piece of an old bookpage, some rubber stamps and a red/white twine and sealed it with a black wax seal were I put a small flake of roségolden metal on.

Because of the roségolden metal flake some of the details of the seal get a little bit lost but I don’t think it derogates it.

Love,

-Franziska-

Small illustration

Posted on in All, Art, Graphic Design, Illustrations, Rubberstamps, Stationery, Work in progress.

I made a timelapse video of a small tassel illustration. Unfortunately the end of the video is missing because I was so concentrated on drawing that my smartphone slipped out of my hand. But I think you get a small glance at how my illustration work looks like.

Later I scanned the illustration in high-resolution and made a stamp out of it.

Love,

-Franziska-

Freebie: Pattern with christmas stockings

Posted on in All, DIY, Freebies, Graphic Design, Illustrations, Pattern, Stationery.

The last few days I have repeatedly drawn christmas stockings to provide a new freebie for you guys. From a lot of christmas stockings I now made a pattern that you can download, print and use as wrapping paper.

Of course you can do much more with the pattern. You can make small bags, envelopes, cards or use it as a cover for a booklet. You also can use it as a coloring page or a mood tracker. Or you cut out the single chistmas stockings and make a garland out of them to decorate a table in your home.In addition to a neutral black version of the pattern – which is particularly suitable for a coloring page – there are different single- and multicolored versions of the pattern available. I already used my first prints as wrapping paper for small gifts.

Have fun printing and coming up with your own ideas on how to use the pattern. And I hope some of you will show your creations on instagram or elsewhere.

Love

-Ema-

New autumn rubberstamps

Posted on in All, Art, Graphic Design, Illustrations, Rubberstamps, Stationery.

Autumn is fast approaching and this year I’m prepared! At least as far as for having autumn-like rubberstamps for decorating my snailmail. For some time mushroom illustrations have been increasing in my sketchbooks. Some of them are now available as rubberstamps, so you can celebrate autumn with your snailmail friends as well.In total, there are eight new mushroom rubberstamps. All created from my own illustrations. What I’m doing with the rest of the illustrations or if I’m even doing anything with them is not decided yet. Ofen I draw simply because of drawing and not for developing a product out of my illustrations.However, I can imagine making a whole mushroom stationery set with them. Containing rubberstamps, notepads, stationery paper, envelopes, wrapping paper, stickers, banderoles and more. Until I put this idea into concrete terms, I play around with the new rubberstamps for a little while.

 

Love

-Ema-

DIY: Journal with small stitching

Posted on in Bookbinding, DIY, Rubberstamps, Stationery, Work in progress.

bookbinding, kleinstichtige heftung

In this DIY tutorial I will show you how you can make your own journal with small stitching. It is similar to the exercise book binding.

You will need:

  • cardstock for the cover
  • paper for the journal, 15 sheets
  • scissors
  • two needles
  • a piece of cardstock
  • pen
  • ruler
  • awl
  • bone folder
  • thread
  • beeswax
  • a small weight
  • cutter
  • self-healing mat
  1. Make one section out of the 15 sheets and fold it in half by hand. Fold the cardstock in half with the help of the bone folder.
  2. The piece of cardstock should have the same height as the cover. With pen and ruler mark the positions where you want the holes to be.
  3. Put the cardstock with the marks into the middle of the section and with the awl make your holes. Repeat with the cover.
  4. The thread must be three times the height of the cover. Wax the thread with some beeswax and put a needle on every end of the thread.
  5. Put the cover around the section, lining up the holes. With the section openend up in the middle, put the small weight on one side so your journal won’t slip while you’re working. (The foldback clip is just for making it easier to photograph the tutorial.)
  6. Put one of the needles through the first hole. The thread should have an equal length on both sides.
  7. Put the second needle through the second hole.
  8. Pull all the thread from the inside of the journal through the second hole. Both needles should be on the outside now.
  9. Put the first needle through the second hole from the outside to the inside and make sure the thread is tight. Pay attention to not pierce the thread that is already laying in the whole with yur needle. Otherwise you won’t be able to tighten your thread when needed.
  10. The whole binding is made this way. One needle goes from the inside to the outside and the other through the same hole from the outside to the inside and then pull the thread tight. Repeat ’til only two holes are left.
  11. When you have two holes left you will only need the needle on the outside for the rest of the binding. If you want to you could finish the binding with the same method but I like to change it here because the knot and both ends of the thread won’t be that near to the edge of the finished journal.
  12. With the needle from the outside you have to go through the second to last hole to the inside and from there through the last hole out again.
  13. From the outside go through the second to last hole again. Now you won’t need the needles any more so you can put them away.
  14. Pull the thread tight and make a square knot.
  15. With the scissors cut the ends of the thread, leaving half of an inch to secure it won’t come undone. Here you can see why I don’t like to make the knot at the last hole: the ends of the thread would stick out of the bottom of the journal.
  16. Optional: You can cut the three open edges of your journal with cutter and a metal ruler if you want to. I also rounded the edges of my journal.
  17. Optional as well: I decorated my cover with different elements. With a sheet of this notepad, some pieces of old books, rubber stamps, an old stamp, some bakers-twine and sealing wax.

Have fun making your own journals!

 

Love

-Ema-

My new book “Meine neue Buchbinderei” (my new bookbindery)

Posted on in Bookbinding, Freebies, Pattern, Stationery.

meine neue buchbinderei www.emadam.de

Since last thursday, the 16th of March 2017, my new book “Meine neue Buchbinderei/My new bookbindery” about bookbinding is available. Unfortunately it’s only available in german. But if you know an american publisher who could like the concept let me know and my german publisher can reach out to them.

Like my first book “Meine Buchbinderei/My bookbindery” this book is filled with step-by-step tutorials for several bookbinding projects. Starting with easy projects like the swiss brochure, to medium projects like building a slipcase and ending with challenging projects like the coptic stitch. There is much to try!

Beside the tutorials for making books there are also three tutorials for making boxes. One of them you can see at the cover of the book.

I had a lot of fun making all the projects for the new book. Not at least because it gives me the possibility to give the joy of learning a trade to other people. The trade of bookbinding is near to my heart and is a part of my work as a designer and artist. For giving some more of this passion to you, I made some printable pattern and labels for you. There is a pattern of brushstrokes, a folklore pattern, a fresh heart pattern, a pattern made of mosaic windows, a geometric pattern and a hearty fall pattern. You can use the pattern for covering your books, making envelopes or using them for covering your boxes with it. Whatever floats your boot! The labels can be print too. Put them on your works for making it easier to remember whats in the book or box.

I really hope you like my book and the pattern. Have fun with it!

-Ema-

Merken

Weekly pattern

Posted on in All, Art, Freebies, Illustrations, Pattern, Stationery, Work in progress.

markmakingbluetones

I made a seamless vectorbased pattern out of my blue brushstroke pattern from last week. With the vectorization I reduced the colors to six colors only. So there are six shades of blue in the pattern. On the one hand I liked the effect the reduction has but on the other hand I had to reduce the colors because with to many colors the number of anchorpoints can really go out of control if you don’t do that. You don’t always have to use just six colors. It really depends on your pattern and of course the performance of your computer.

I made a new arrangment with the strokes. This a little bit uncontrolled than it was in the original. And because there are never enough free patterns out there I made four versions for you to download. The blue and rose pattern are landscape format and the green and grey are portrait format. They are all made for a A3 print. Bind some books with them, wrap gifts or make other cool stuff with it!

Of course you can print the pattern in any size you want. Just choose your favorite format in the printer dialogue. If you resize the pattern with your paper format the printer will make the pattern smaller so it fits on your format. If you want the pattern to have the original size, you have to check or uncheck the box for that option in your printer dialogue.

Please resepct that every pattern is just for personal use only. Have fun and you’re welcome to share your creations by making a comment, write a message on facebook or link me at instagram.

 

Love,

-Ema-