Make Your Own Ideabook with Arne & Carlos: Create Handmade Art Journals and Bound Keepsakes to Store Inspiration and Memories

Description

An ideabook can be many things: a keepsake; a work of art; a source of inspiration; a method of organisation; a collection of memories; a way to store recipes or patterns; a genealogical journal; a wedding planner or just a peek inside the chaos and creativity of our own mind! With Arne and Carlos's wit, style and trademark handcrafting genius to guide the reader, this book will show them how to make and enjoy their own ideabook. There is guidance on the materials and tools you need and detailed, step-by-step demonstrations showing the reader how to sew the pages, tie the end threads, bind the sections of paper together, glue the spine and create the cover. There's then a large section devoted to various types of ideabook designed to inspire and enthuse the reader, including Christmas, Children's Cooking, Garden, Sewing and Travel Ideabooks.

Arne Nerjordet and Carlos Zachrison, Norwegian and Swedish respectively, established their design company ARNE & CARLOS in 2002. Drawing on traditional Scandinavian influences and the natural environment, they create original and striking knitwear, and work with such prestigious fashion designers as Comme des Garcons. Arne and Carlos's creative base is their eclectic farm in Norway, where they absorb the rich tradition of Scandinavian arts and crafts while exploring their own knitwear inspirations. www.arne-carlos.com

If you follow my reviews you will know I am a MASSIVE paper addict. I love nothing more than a handmade book and think that personal creativity can add an eclectic and beautiful look. This is one amazing book. Arne and Carlos are masters of what they do. The ideas that these two fabulous creators give us are simply divine. They make book making and journaling easy for everyone. The ideas included are both inspiring and fun. Almost every type of paper can be used and recycling is heavily encouraged. It is incredibly unique and each page is beautifully photographed with an array of colour and stunning artwork. The book includes a double sided inspiration sheet, that can be photocopied, or used as it is, to be coloured in, stamped and inked to give a impression of who you are as crafter. I absolutely love this book, it is the perfect 'go to' and of course will make an excellent gift for every papercrafter. -- Tracy Shephard * Postcard Reviews * Good book for gaining ideas and simple skills to create your own idea book. Good bright and clear photos too to help explain! * Vicky Reynolds * This is a very well presented book for anyone wishing to learn the techniques to make a handmade idea book. Clear instructions with so many pictures are included as are examples of the materials you may want to use. The last few chapters make suggestions for the uses of your handmade book such as a wedding planner, genealogy, stamps, gardening, crafts etc. Overall it is a very nice book with lots of ideas * Lynne Harvey * I am a person who cuts things out of magazines and newspapers a lot! I love the idea books, explained in this book, because they've made me pull all those ripped out bit of paper together, to make really inspiring little books. Without this book, I wouldn't have given myself the freedom to just do it and to add in bits of fabric and writing too. Great book for those full of ideas! * Mattie Richards * This book, the latest by crafting duo Arne and Carlos, tackles the subject of Ideas Books. For the ideas books here can be used to store pictures, found objects and any other inspiring material. You have to love Arne and Carlos' creativity. The pictures of their ideas books are a mix of old fabric (some particularly gorgeous ones from the 1970s), paper and embroidery. The pages are made from any type of paper and their techniques for putting them all together are quite straightforward. They use gauze from the chemist, a sewing machine to sew their papers together and clamps to hold everything in place. All these steps are illustrated with photos and instructions. In the second section, you see examples of the duo's own ideas books which, like their covers, are wonderfully kitsch. Samples of books covering subjects such as crochet, horses, house renovations, hobbies and activities are all shown, and they are all pretty fabulous. Great inspiration for how to approach a book of your own and for anyone who has multitudes of photographs and never remembers to look at them, this would be the perfect vehicle to gather everything together. Arne and Carlos have a wealth of ideas from fashion, craft, design and decor, so it's a great book to find a new and refreshing way to store our ideas in a time where everything can be stored (and lost) digitally. * Workshop on the Web * I've wanted to attempt an idea book for a while, I love notebooks, but pasting items into them seemed liked I would just end up with a book that would not close. This book has given me the inspiration to make my own using papers I already have which I love so much and don't want to use in projects I give away. I can use thinner papers and also because I am binding it myself I will be able to also bind keepsakes into the book. I'm really excited to give this a go now, so inspired by the book. * Lynn Brown * This book is great, brilliant photos which guide you and show you how to make your own ideas book with great tips and ideas on adding embellishments and memorabilia. Brilliant for a family to put together after a get together or holiday. Will definitely be trying this for our family reunion next year. * Claire Newman * What I love about this Arne and Carlos book is their bright illustrations that are scattered throughout the book. I like the easy to follow step by step guide to creating your book, which is suitably worded for the novice crafter. This book is full of inspiring ideas. It describes making your own book from sources which are readily available to buy and then moves on to ideas of how to fill your book. I Would thoroughly recommended this book to all crafting enthusiasts. * Kay sale * i was asked to review this book, and i was really surprised at how good the book is. Beautiful full colour photos, with details on how to create your own ideabook at every stage. It also has great templates on creating your own family tree at the back of the book. The book gives you plenty of suggestions and starting points as to where you can begin. I found it very interesting how you an use such simple items to create an ideabook i will be giving it ago at some point too. i love that it gives you a list of the materials that were used to and is certainly very useful. * Laura Higgins * Wow , very good , shows you exactly step by step how to make scrapbooks ect . Fantastic value , highly reccomended * Georgina Ackroyd * This book looks really gorgeous - the photographs are inspirational by themselves as they show hundreds of pages from the authors' own ideas books. Ideas books to note craft , gardening or cookery ideas, collect greeting cards , preserve your children's paintings, plan an event or create a journal of your travels. Having leafed through the pictures you may be inspired to make your own , as suggested by the title. If so, there are several chapters of meticulously detailed instructions to guide you , from choosing materials to final assembly. The process looks a little long winded to appeal to the average reader in search of a new notebook but personally I like the idea of creating a unique book from scratch using found materials so I may well have a go! * Karen Bibby * For years now I have made themed books filled with pictures which I use for inspiration in my designing work - I call them source books. I use children'?s scrapbooks, but why not take things a step further and make the actual books yourself as well? Or store more in them than just cutouts? Arne and Carlos latest book is about all that and more. As with their knitting and crochet books, this one is sumptuously illustrated with the pair's idea books. The book starts with how to make your own, talking about different sizes for various purposes (such as taking on vacation) and goes on with instructions on how to make them. This is not a book on bookbinding with all the tools required; instead it is a much simpler method involving recycling, lots of paper and the sort of tools you probably already have. There are ideas for covers, various ways of making the books up depending on what you have (sewing machine, for example) in lots of easy stages complete with large photographs. The pair has picked up some special tools in second hand stores, like a book press, but you can manage without this - I use a stack of heavy books. The making methods fill the first half of the book and I like the many options in the stages and materials; the second half is about what goes into the idea books. There are plenty of large images of pages from the pair's books and suggestions for decorations, themes and inclusions. As well as having idea books on favorite themes like children's drawings and Christmas, you can make them about a house you are doing up, an upcoming wedding, family tree, gardening yearbook and more. Use things like bubblewrap to make backgrounds, make your own stencils or use lace scraps, it is all about having fun and making something that is useful and inspiring; I know I get a lot of use out of mine. At the back is a fold-out sheet with some frames and a family tree chart to copy and use. This is the only book I have ever seen on this theme and a great way of getting anybody into making their own idea book. * Myshelf.com * Make an art journal to store your ideas and inspiration. Keep it, share it and enjoy the process of making. This book includes an introduction, materials and tools, making the book, using the book. The latter chapter is full of ways to use your handmade book. Inspiration, recycling, collage and other techniques are all found in this book. You'll see how to make a book from choosing papers to hand sewing pages, gluing the spine and making covers. There is some lovely photography, especially of the finished books. There is also a pull-out sheet of printed ideas to use. I would have liked to have seen more varied techniques and ideas, although this book is very good, the ideas keep repeating the same techniques by and large. All the journals seem to be the same shape and size. I also thought some of the ideas pages were too short and did not explore the idea fully. It is a great springboard for your own ideas. * Yarnsandfabrics.co.uk * A very well-presented book. Visually, it's extremely appealing, with good quality full colour photographs. The full content provides a good introduction to making an art journal/ideabook. * Karen *