I am excited to announce that Secret Leaves' work has been published in a design book. And not just any design book. The book, 1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse is one in a series of my favorite design books, the 1000 series from Rockport Publishers. In my opinion, Rockport is one of the best, if not the best publisher of books on graphic design. I already have 1000 Graphic Elements and 1000 Greetings in my personal design library.
The Scrap Journal, a perennial Secret Leaves favorite, scored a full page (page 19) in the book, which features all manner of quirky, beautiful, useful and ingenious recycled products and art.
1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse can be purchased at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders and other fine bookstores.
Sharon
It has been a Scrap Journal factory in the studio lately. I thought you might be interested in seeing the process of making the covers.
Above are some of the basic tools. From left to right: Micro-spatula, brass rule, Teflon folder, brayer, damp rag, baby wipes, apron.
Book boards, upper right.
Glue brushes
I almost forgot the most important thing! The glue! 
Here are the covers, endpapers and "doodads" before gluing. Doodads is what we started calling the pieces that get decoupaged
on the covers: 
Here is a cover that has had the glue applied. The book board has been placed on top. The next step in turning in the, well, the turn-ins.
This is where the micro-spatula comes in handy. You can use it to carefully lift the wet cover out of the excess glue on the waste paper without getting glue all over your hands, the cover and a myriad of other places it shouldn't be. For me, keeping the glue from getting all over is the hardest part of bookbinding. That's why these are essential: 
I always keep baby wipes and a damp rag handy, and wear an apron to wipe glue off my hands. The apron is really more about protecting your work than protecting your clothes.
Burnishing the turn-ins.
Gluing down the endpapers. The cover is lying sideways in this picture.
Decoupaging the "doodad." Again, the challenge here is to not get glue all over the cover. To quote Run-DMC, "It's Tricky."
Once the covers are glued, they need to be pressed. A book press is a wonderful thing, but if you don't have one, a stack of heavy volumes will do the trick.
The finished covers: 
(Some of) the finished journals:
These can be purchased at Hollander's.
Sharon
Ann and I have been waiting for the right time to announce this, and with the beginning of a new year, it seems like the right time: Ann is leaving Secret Leaves. Since I know you will all be curious as to why, she is going back to school to take some graphic design courses. She also wants to spend more time doing this:
Stop by and see (hear) her here. Her music is lovely and she has a good blog with news about her band, great shows she has seen and various and other sundry bits of entertainment and info.
I am sad to see her go for many reasons:
Having said that, I am also looking forward to what lies ahead. I plan to make some changes to Secret Leaves that I think will bring deeper personal satisfaction for me. There are a couple of mistakes I feel I have made along the way that I want to rectify. For one, I am no longer going to worry that our prices are too high (read Ann's excellent post about this here.) Our goods are very labor intensive; we make them using real old things that are fascinating and unique; our craftsmanship and attention to detail are impeccable. The truth is that they cost what they cost and folks will either buy them or not. (I hope it's the former!)
Another mistake I have made in the past is pandering to what I imagine a specific customer is looking for. This is unwise for two reasons: first, you can't guess what someone else is going to like or want; second, they have ordered based on what they have seen on our web site or in our marketing materials, so why not do what we do? That's what attracted them to us in the first place!
I am also completely re-vamping our web site. I have also opened an Etsy store that will feature one-of-a-kind pieces and things that don't fit into Secret Leaves' lines. I hope that you will all check back here at this blog, the web site and the new Etsy store to stay posted on my progress as Secret Leaves moves forward into this new phase.
Sharon
PS. 'bye Ann--I'll miss you!
Here are some shots from around our studio.
Stack of recycled paper for Scrap Journals.
Really old books
Made by hand.
Stamps Good
Spiced Grapes
Old books...are you beginning to detect a theme?
(Very) old German paper
Stack of Take Cover covers waiting to be bound.
Scrap Journal stack with props
We heart old stuff.
Sharon
