Mini book inspiration

Well hello again. It's Horace here to show you a mini book made using a Youtube tutorial. Do you watch Docrafts TV? There's a fabulous tutorial
for a mini book using their new paper collection. I didn't have this collection but the bears do have the Papermania Sew Lovely collection, which has two of each design in a pack so I decided to get busy and follow the instructions. 

I didn't have the same papers that Lou Collins used, but I did find this Sew Lovely Papermania collection in our patterned paper pile. Perfect for this project. I picked out two matching papers for the outside of the book, and two for the inside.

I had to borrow Wilbear's tape measure as my ruler doesn't measure inches! 

I found my own, inimitable way to smooth down the papers once I'd secured the ribbon within them!

Folding the book is, according to Lou Collins, much like making a giant paper airplane. I didn't test mine for airworthiness!

All the folds result in some lovely pockets for the book, which I stuffed with journalling cards. 

I also added a journal card to the front, and will personalise this to send for a friend's birthday.

This is probably the easiest mini book I've made. Why don't you click the link above and make your own?

Journal collaborations with the cub

Hello there friends. It's time for more pictures than words here at The House of Bears as we take a peek at some of the pages created in the journal collabearations with the cub. As you may remember, we each have a journal to create either a full page, a background or something arty in. The page can be complete, half done, just a mist on a page etc. we then swap journals and pages that are date stamped are considered to be finished and cannot be worked on by either of us. Any undated pages are free to be altered in any way, even by completely covering the original art work. It's great fun as you never know what's going to be added when the journals are swapped.

Here are some completed and half done pages in the journal so far.

This was the first page created by the cub when she took the journal home for the first time. This is date stamped.


This is part of a double page and not date stamped, a whimsy girl drawing by the cub. Horace added a butterfly to her hair and some pink texture and the words 'if only' to the opposite page. We can't wait to see if the cub has added any more to it when we swap again.


This is a work in progress page, lots of mists, an altered envelope, some stamping. We're looking forward to seeing what happens next with this.



A finished page by Horace. Inspired by Pink Floyd song lyrics.


A finished page by the cub. Simply beautiful.


Lastly for now, a work in progress, joint collabearation page.


We'll be back to show you more as this and the journal collabearation with our friend Cath progresses.

With love from the bears

WOYWW? A TV????

Hullo there. Yet another Wednesday is here already and we all know what that means, don't we? Yet another peek at the desks of craft minded peeps worldwide, courtesy of Julia at Stamping Ground. Check out the link, join in and have a nose at what everyone is up to.

So, what's on the bears' desk this week then? A TV! A TV? I hear you ask in astonishment? Yes, a TV. But why? Well, we decided it was time for a change around in the bear room, and asked Wilbear if he would mind shifting the furniture round a bit. He huffed and puffed and sighed and cried, but eventually he agreed. We sat on the bed and watched while he got busy! Everything was put wherever it fit while the furniture was heaved into its new position, and the TV ended up on the desk for a while.



What a mess was created in the moving process, but we're now making it all ship (or should that be bear) shaped and ready for more crafty creating later today.

First a little look at other deskers doings though, any excise to delay the cleaning up!

With love from the bears