Fall Book Covers

One of the reasons I love working with RDCBs is because the covers have the most beautiful colors and patterns. There are some for every season. And the ones for autumn are spectacular! 

There are some beautiful rich brown and orange herringbone (and bright blue and green if you're not over spring yet).

If you're not into herringbone, how about stripes?



Then are the ones in lush ochres and deep greens. The green one is made more special by metallic gold highlights.

These are two of my favorites! Both remind me of home and wheat.

More metallic gold on the one on the left! It's a real show-off on a shelf.

I made this Harvest from a book like the one on the right.

And the books are so very versitile, too. I made this vase of wheat from the same kind of book.

Now's the time to order your books for your fall decorations and gifts. Just click this link and tell me which cover you'd like me to use. If you can decide...

Where the Waving Wheat...

Exactly 120 years ago today, they all showed up. Where the night before there had been nobody, on this day they were everywhere. They came from every corner ...

from Germany...

...and Illinois

...and Indiana, just to name a few. They came to a land of few trees and big skies and put down roots.

They lived and they loved...

...and they raised big families

And for generation...

...after generation...

...after generation...

...one thing seemed to define them. 

Wheat.

Wheat fields surrounded everything.

Their homes.
Their towns.

Roads from farm to market ran through corridors of wheat.

Combines and wheat trucks shared space with cars and pickups in the driveway.

And so because September 16 always seems to make me a little wistful and nostalgic, here is my latest. 

Santa Got Run Over By a Pair of Fiskars

Last February when I came home from vacation with this

and book folding fever, my first task was to find a source for books to cut up. I started at antique book shops. Stupid idea because a) antique books are too pretty to cut up and b) people who own antique books know how pretty they are and charge an arm and a leg.

And then I discovered (cue celestial music):

 Until then I didn't know that Dollar Tree sold books and best of all

So about three times a week I would have lunch at Whataburger and then meander across the parking lot to Dollar Tree to see what was available that day. This goes a long way of explaining why my attic looks the way it does.

Anyway, one fine March day I marched in and found that the shelves were full of this:

I instantly fell in love with this book because it had flying reindeer on the cover...

 and on the inside great illustrations

like this

 and this

So I bought one...

ok, maybe two...

Ok, four.

But hey,

My first Santa project was to make a secret book box. By day it is an innocent copy of a holiday classic lying on a shelf.

but at night it becomes...

...a festive M&M holder!
This was one of my first experiences with scrapbook paper. And also balsa wood. I love balsa wood. It's so easy to work with, it makes me feel like a master carpenter.

My next project was to make the bookmobile that was on the front of The Repurposed Library. It was a fight between me and the hot glue gun the entire night, and although the glue gun won several battles, I won the war. 

 For someone without an artistic bone in her body, I found this to be a fun project. I liked choosing where to put the loops and where to add a little fanfare. I decided to make one whole section out of the illustrations which ended up looking really cool.

Now I'm left with these...

 

I've been thinking about using one of them to make a wreath. I'll use regular pages for the outer circle and the illustrated pages for the inner circle. But that leaves me with one more.

It's too little to really fold a word or make a vase. Ideas anyone?