Crafts and fun: Letter Bookmarks

Hello  there everyone!

I´m writing from my father´s computer, since my poor laptop´s power cord died on me.....and I have to wait for the new one I ordered to come. It´s actually quite strange, not having a laptop to use whenever I feel like it. Thank goodness for my smartphone: I can actually check my email.

I thought blogging was definitely out of the question until my father brought his work laptop home, though. A big thank you for him, since he was nice enough to lend it to me for awhile----

Now, these past few days I´ve been feeling "crafty". I´ve seen what wonderful things some of my friends have made, and decided that I wanted to do something creative (that doesn´t involve cosplay in any shape or form, hahaha). However, it´s not like I usually have many materials on hand--quite the opposite. Ask me for a gajillion sewing supplies, and I´ll probably have them and shove my surplus in your direction. Craft supplies? Not so much.

That´s when I saw my pride and joy--my letterbox. I had the greatest idea flash!! Being the lengthy letter-writer that I am, I am forever buying letterpaper. However, most writing paper brands seem to think that the acceptable length for a letter is 2 pages--when I write a 5-page minimum amount on principle. Not to mention those writing paper brands (Western, all of ´em) that for some strange reason make envelopes in which the paper doesn´t fit because they´re too effing small. The result should be quite obvious: I have a lot of leftover unused envelopes lying around, doing absolutely nothing. Well, nothing but existing and being there and completely useless and taking up valuable space..

Besides being a letterwiter, I´m also a reader. I read a lot. Most of the time, one or two books at the same time (not literally!). I use lots of bookmarks. But.....I am a complete disaster and always end up losing one or twobookmarks for every six or seven books I read. That´s just not fun! I like cute ones, but end up using pieces of paper because I don´t want them to disappear randomly.

Combine these two situations?

Yes, that´s it! I decided to use the extra envelopes I had to make bookmarks. After all, it´s not like I was going to use those too-small envelopes, really. As an experimental procedure, I decided to use two differnt kinds: one bunch of envelopes with a flower (daisy) theme, and another with a Tinkerbell theme, since those are the ones I had the most of.

Here are the original daisy envelopes (no pictures of the Tinkerbell ones alone, sorry!):

And here is my "Daisy bookmark", compared to the envelope. I made each side of the bookmark "different", trying for an "opposite" look, to make it more interesting and use the envelope material in the most thrifty way:

Side 1, the "front"

Side 2, the "back"

I used three envelopes to make it, as well as half of a soft thin cardboard card that came as "support" in the pack of writing paper.

The Tinkerbell envelopes had a lot less decoration on the original envelope, so they had less "creative possibility". I ended up making a cute Tinkerbell "character bookmark".  I also switched where her name was from one side to the other, because I thought that it´d be boring otherwise.

Side 2, the "back"

Side 1, the "front"

I used two envelopes for this bookmark, since there weren´t any particular designs that I could "thrift" as it were. Also, the other half of the soft cardboard "backing".

I wanted to add tassels to the bookmarks too, but I thought that it might be a bit too much.







What do you think about these designs? Do you like them? Which one do you like better?











Which sides do you like best? Have you ever done anything like this? I´d love to know! I really enjoy getting comments! <3

Book fair weekend plans

This weekend is the Annual Book Fair in Madrid. I´m going to be going down to "The City" on Saturday or Sunday--probably Sunday, since there´ll be less people, but it really depends on the weather--to check it out.

Who knows, I might go ahead and buy a few books while I´m at it, if there are any good deals. I´m keeping my fingers crossed; it´s been awhile since I bought a physical book, and I´m really looking forward to feeling that weight in my hands, reading an unread adventure and smelling that unique "new book" smell.

Am I a bit of a book geek? Yep. Definitely and without a doubt.

Book Hauls

A few weeks ago, I ordered some books that I thought I needed. They got here on Monday, to my surprise and delight. I love getting books in the mail.

I didn´t think to take a picture, but you should have seen my mailbox! It was so crammed with books that not a letter more could have fit in! Makes me wonder why the postman didn´t just ring the doorbell to give them to us, actually. Fortunately, it didn´t rain, and we usually pick up our mail right after the postman comes by, so they didn´t get even a drop of water on them.

To tell you the truth, I have our postman´s routes timed and calculated to a tee. He always comes by our house at 11am on the dot. For bigger packages, they (another pair of postmen in a truck instead of on a motorcycle) come by at 1pm or so. ^_^ You can´t tell at all that I love getting mail and/or packages, right? Hahaha.

I get along so well with one of our postmen that he even caught a package that had been mislabeled once (my house number is 36, and the label said 3). Showed up at my door with the package and said "This says three on it, not thirty-six, but I knew this one was yours, it´s from Japan!".

So, pictures of my books!!

 These 4 are from my "I-want-to-be-a-better-teacher" part of the haul. Almost exclusively for my Proficiency class: I want them to write better, as well as have extra grammar exercises for them. The last one, "Grammar for English Language Teachers" was recommended to me by two other teacher-friends. So I bought it, and it is admittedly quite thorough. Being more of an instinctive-english girl than a grammarian, I know that this will really help me explain in those lessons where I need to teach direct grammar. I´ve already used it for one class (yesterday); it was quite useful.

 

These other two books are from my "I want to enjoy life and hobbies somehow" section of the book haul. I couldn´t resist the "Dressmaker´s technique bible". I´ve only skimmed through a few pages, and I can already tell that it´ll be essential. It shows you from how to do seams  to how to distinguish cloth types. As for the "Historic costumes" book, it was on sale (nearly 50% discount!) and I thought it might be useful for the Three Musketeers clothes. So far, it looks like it focuses on English outfits and is a bit confusing.....but I´m sure that something can be salvaged from it as soon as I actually read it. There are a lot of dress patterns, so I might actually end up making myself a medieval dress sometime!

All in all, I´m really happy with my haul. The only problem now will be finding where to put them! I have entirely too many books on my shelves......