Magical Birthday Gift for a Harry Potter Fan

A handmade birthday gift for our daughter. Hufflepuff journal and box.

My daughter is a fan girl of... Well, a lot of things. Harry Potter is one of her long time favorites. It started when her grandmother brought home the first book (before any talk of a movie). Then took off from there. 

My husband and I wanted to do something handmade for her birthday this year. Some of the hardest things to find for the Harry Potter universe are items with Hufflepuff, or Ravenclaw on them. (Although, I hear that's starting to change.) And, since she found out she'd be put into Hufflepuff according to "Pottermore", and she loves to write, we thought we'd make something along those lines.

This is what we came up with, inspired by Harry Potter.

It started with the journal. This was my part of the gift.

Hand sewn pages with crest symbol.

Hand sewn pages and dyed leather. Hand carved and painted crest on the front. Two loops on the sides hold a pen and keeps the journal closed when not in use. It came out better than I imagined.

A lot of detail work here. Hand carved, painted and sealed. The detail part took the longest.

Once my husband saw the journal, he wanted to make something nice to put it in.

My husband's part of the gift. Beautiful box for the journal. 

The box is made from wood we salvaged from our favorite piano. We loved that piano, but weren't able to save it after it had been ruined by a flood. My husband thought our daughter might like knowing where the wood came from.

Brass hinges add a nice touch.

He burned in the lettering. Then stained it with ebony stain and sealed it. Adding brass hinges as a final touch. I think it came out great!

So did our daughter. She loved it. Loved it even more to know the wood was from the piano. She never knew we saved any of it. We're glad she approves.

Not sure what my next project should be, but my husband seems to be in the process of making Thor's Hammer for a Halloween prop. Oh boy!

-Trace

My 500 page Suede Journal

I've always wanted a thick, tome-like journal, but could never find one I liked that didn't cost an arm and a leg to purchase. So, since I've been playing around with bookbinding, I thought I'd try to make myself one.

Here it is so far. It has 500 hand stitched pages. The cover is made from sage green dyed lambskin with a raised frame in the middle of the front. It has darker green paper for inside the front and back covers. The overall size is 7" x 8.5". A little smaller than I really want, but good enough for this every day journal.

With this being my first attempt at making such a journal I made mistakes. First, because I really wanted to get it done to use it, I forgot to add in hand sewn headbands and a bookmark ribbon. I think I can still do it though. The paper is not glued to the spine. Second, I used mat board for the hardcover. It's ok, but not great. Even though this morning it seems to be a lot stiffer now that the glue dried, I'll have to find some bookbinding board next time. And last, I need to find a better way to even out the ends of the paper on a 500 page stack. Cutting it with a ruler and Xacto knife wasn't as clean as it is with smaller journals. But good enough for a book I'll use. I used a lot of rubber cement to attach the cover too. I've never used the stuff before. It dries fast. A little too fast sometimes.

All in all, I love my new journal. I'm already starting on another one with less pages. Now, where is that tutorial on how to make book headbands? Hmm


Trace
http://pixieled.etsy.com