Altered Photography and Coptic Bound Books

I logged on to the PC today to find I'd had 7 sales! Think that must be an online record for me!

This week I've relaunched my Folksy shop. I said a few weeks ago that I was going to concentrate on handbound books and while they will be a lot of what I sell, I realised that I didn't want to be restricted, so I'm branding myself as mixed media art and gifts. I hope this combines the type of things I like to make. I want to make sure I can include altered imagery, polymer clay, glass paints, fabric and watercolour (they're the main materials I like to use!).

So, here are some of the books I've made:


I love the Coptic stitching! On the fronts are some of my altered photos. At the moment I've just used a distressing technique on two of them and two others are my glass painted photos. The fifth book has no photo - just pretty paper!

And here's an ACEO I listed today:

Again, I've used one of my photos and altered it (digitally this time) to create a unique image. The pink swirls are actually a photo of a colourful glass exhibit I saw at Kew Gardens a few years ago.

I've got many more images that I'm having lots of fun altering. I'm thinking of selling these images as sheets of paper for people's crafty needs.

Here's another ACEO I made with one of the butterfly images I took last week:

The only thing I'm not sure about now is the banner. I wanted something that covers everything, but also wanted to include Frederick Frog as he's my avatar and I didn't want to change him... But the white background, whilst it looks OK on Folksy, it doesn't look right here! I wonder how people manage to get their branding right so it fits everywhere?! I guess I could change the blog background, but I like it as it is... Then there's the shop name... I want to change it, but then I can't change my blog or Facebook... and on Folksy people will still see me as Careford Creations as that's my username. Aaaarrghh!

Handbound Books... and New Business Direction

I love, love, love books! I love really old books with their dusty covers and falling apart pages, threads hanging from the spines... And I love brand new books with their crisp clean pages and that lovely new book smell! I love reading books, I love writing in cute notebooks, I love listing in them, creating in them. And I love to make books too.

I've had a long think about the direction my creative business is going. I've never been able to stick to one thing as I have several crafty passions and can't just not make! The problem I have is that my shops have always seemed a bit of a mish-mash. I thought that it could be a good thing - a bit like a handmade department store, never knowing what you might find. However, I'm not sure this really works when selling online.


So, I think I've found how to combine all my crafty things while keeping a cohesive look to my shops. I'm going to concentrate on handbound books. The books I made before were either just tied with ribbon (polymer clay books) or used Japanese stab-stitch. I've decided to have a go with Coptic stitching. Each book will have a polymer clay button and most will have an altered photograph or an original illustration.


I've mentioned altered photographs as that's how I'm going to be selling my images from now on. After some research (and a few years trying!), I've realised that standard photographs generally don't sell that well. People are looking for something different and unique. I've been learning lots of techniques on altering images and that's how I'm going to be selling them from now on - on books, as greeting cards and ACEOs.


Phew - sorry for the long rambling, but I think I needed to get it all down on 'paper' to make things clear in my head!

So - pics are my first Coptic-stitched listing on Folksy, planning for the next few books and some of my altered images I'm working on.

Anyone else out there love books?? I'm sure there are a few of you... Or is your business heading in a new direction?