Squishy Book

Had a fabulous, messy, fun filled day making Squishy Books with Jeni Calkins. She is a wonderful teacher. Had us making the covers, inside pages, special translucent pages, special embellishments and binding it all together with loads of fabulous fibers. I can not do the class justice in this post. If you have the opportunity to take a class from Jeni, do so.
For some of the inside pages, on text weight and card stock, we stamped images with VersaMark ink, sprinkled on clear embossing powder and heat set.

On other papers we stamped on images in an assortment of colors:

To make the covers, paper towels were layered over freezer paper, then we tore baby wipes into strips and let them over lay each other in lovely piles:

A mixture of gloss medium, water, color wash and perfect pearls was made in a color of our choosing in a large spray bottle and we saturated the baby wipes, while adding in other torn papers, bits of fibers, coffee filters, dryer sheets, glitter, fantasy film, pretty much "whatever" while continuing to spray on the colorized gloss medium mixture. When we were satisfied with how it looked, it was set outside to dry:

While creating the cover above, we took the sheets that were previously embossed and stamped on, and pressed them into the saturated covers to add color to those papers, and pick up bits of the added torn papers, glitter, fibers, etc. We could also grab other interesting papers to add color to , that could be included in our books. Once these papers had picked up colors, they were set aside to dry in a stack with dry copy paper in between. All the while we were adding more colorized gloss medium mixture and the bits to the covers above.

For the special translucent sheets, thin tissue paper was laid on freezer paper, sprayed with our colorized gel medium mixture, then added just thin papers, glitter, fantasy film, etc. Another tissue paper was lain on top and again sprayed with the colorized gel medium mixture. We could add more glitter, fantasy film on top if desired. This was set aside to dry.

Once the cover dried, we ironed it between nonstick mats to soften it. For a really squishy Squishy Book, you would fold it in half then fold the edges into the center fold, so the inside and outside of the cover would be the same (all the lover layers of texture). I decided I liked the contrast of the front and back of the cover, so I cut up my cover in order to be able to make 3 squishy books.

We also ironed out the inside pages, using the copy sheets (that had been in between the papers while drying) to iron off the embossing powder of the sheets that had that done. All of these papers could have more color, stamping, and whatever added. They were ironed to help the different elements become embedded within the paper.

Once the translucent sheets dried, we also ironed them between nonstick mats to softening them.

Made embellishments for our books, using an ultralight polymer clay in molds. After baking, squirted rubbing alcohol over the forms, then dropped alcohol inks on them. Once dried, rubbed on Future Floor Wax with a q-tip and let dry (this could be done in layers as desired).Here are the ones I made:

Then we sorted through our inside papers, picking card stock, heavier weight papers to be the outside of the signatures, then the other papers in various sizes to be within the signatures. These were sewn into the cover with a pamphlet stitch and loads of gorgeous fibers were added to the spine. Here's the outside of my book:

Inside front cover and some of the pages showing:

Some of the inside pages:

Some more inside pages:

I will think up what else I want to add to the book, and how I want to use it once I return home. I'll also make up the two smaller squishy books with my left over covers later. Exhausted but thrilled with having so much fun and learning a fabulous way to use up lots of odds & ends.