PrintedGardenCreative

Inspired by Nótt - the Norse personification of night. The silver HTV meant to be reminiscent of the constellations in the night sky. The dragon line art an ode to Theo’s tattoos and (someone fact check me) an ancestor of his supposedly slaying a dragon.

Hand marbled endpages by yours truly.

This copy was gifted to Lizz to round out an earlier exchange. 💙 #NottPottValentine

One set made as a trade and the other for me to keep.

Design wise, these are based specifically on a chapter in Duty of Care where Ilya tries to take the blame for breaking Pike’s vase.

This first fic is Ilya getting pieced back together through acts of love by everyone around him. Kintsugi fit thematically and I absolutely love the imagery. The layered HTV is meant to mimic the vase and gold repairs and the dust jacket.

For the second fic, Holding Patterns, I wanted to continue the broken vase theme from the first bind. Except for this time, instead of it (aka Ilya) being mended back together, it’s the final fracturing of Russia. The idea for the artwork comes from a chapter in “Duty of Care” when Ilya takes the Hollanders to Russia to visit the iconic Red Square in Moscow.

This fic made me cry. 😭 it was amazing. I loved it. But wow it’s gets you in the feels.

End-pages are hand marbled, and the photos don’t do justice. I used an iridescent white that makes them sparkle along with the gold paint. For the red pages, I had initially wanted to replace the gold with black, but unfortunately black paint still hates me. Despite that, I’m still very happy with the outcome.

Hand sewn endbands to continue the color theme.

Oh, and also, I had a question about your printer which one do you use for covers?

I typeset in Affinity! Honestly, kudos to people who work with word. I never could get my brain to actually figure it out. When I first started, I still had an Adobe InDesign subscription, but those fees stack up fast. Affinity has everything I need.

I adored this fic. 🖤 As soon as it completed, I knew I wanted to bind for myself and a friend. You can read the fic for free on AO3!

Dust jacket art is by the incomparable @mina-logan 😘 Shane technically has a golden retriever in the fic, but the art just worked incredibly well and I’m tickled pink with how it turned out.

Endpage art is from that_starborn_fae who is also a delightfully talented human. 🫶🏻

I unfortunately still have beef with printing endpages, the glue always does funky things with the ink 😠 doesn’t matter what paper I print on, I always get weird bleed through.

Black matte HTV on red bookcloth.

Also…this fic is nearly 700 pages. First time using my fancy thin Japanese paper and it’s SO dreamy. It is A4 and has the incorrect grain but is still floppy AF. We shall see how it holds up to usage. It took some finagling margins, but I ultimately matched it to my other binds with trims to keep everything all pretty and even.

These have the red and white hand sewn end bands iv been sharing process of. This time I used a 1mm leather cord and I really like how subtle it is on the bind. It is however, much harder to get a decent photo of it.

Also tried something new and cranked out the legit camera for these photos. It’s more of a hassle and I need to fix my f-stop, but they are unfortunately better photos than my phone gives. So maybe I’ll get more fancy with photos in the future.

And if you made it this far into my rambles, you’re a saint. 🫣

Who knew that me being a bumbling bumpkin and accidentally breaking @sibylofthebes immaculately placed rock in ACNH would lead to being added last minute to the second (annual? 👀) Animal Crossing x Dramione/HP Exchange hosted by @thebinderwholived

(For the record, Sibyl I’m sorry about that. 🙏🏻 Forgive please?)

And then bam. Next thing I know, I draw @floralbearies , one of the very first binders I ever followed. No biggie. No stress for my bind to be immaculate or anything. It’s fine. Everything’s fine. I said it’s FINE! 🫣

A Marriage Of True Minds - Lomonaaeren

Dust Jacket: ACNH screenshot from my lovely island and @pinkbowbindery coming in clutch for the outfits and the extra character for Draco. And yes, she assisted me in this endeavor while in a cast, with a broken bone from our Seattle trip. So who’s the real MVP here?

Cover: designed with the animal crossing leaf 🍃 as the main focus and octopus 🐙 tentacles (peep the little sea creatures) because of the violent, soul devouring tentacle like tendrils of dark creature magic crazy that Harry has to deal with in the fic. Is it a stretch? Meybeh. But it was a good design element. 🤷🏼‍♀️ really relying on the “green leaf” to pull this “into theme”.

🪡 Hand sewn end bands - chaos is always part of the process.

Fonts: Yes I tracked down the ACNH fonts for the cover and chapter headers.

📝 I made a little DIY recipe notecard to hold my fancy typewriter note, a boarding pass full of embarrassing typos, Polaroid photos, and some stickers and a magnetic bookmark. (I couldn’t get it out of my head that this exchange was due on the 20th and I totally messed up ALL the dates. 🤪 Early is better than late right? Sorry Beth for giving you heart attacks.)

Oh, and if you can’t tell. They flop. 🤤

As a bookbinder - that’s actually not a funny question. 😂 most of my binds are printed on short grain bookbinders paper from Church Paper. I like the 24/60 lb. Text.

Firstly, thank you legallybooks and avadakatyvra for the first spark of inspiration for this fic. I might have stolen your paint swatch idea 🫣 but I didn’t know all of what I wanted to do until I went meandering around the bookstore and saw a book with some architecture blueprints on the cover.

Initially I wanted to work Ilya’s house blueprints into the cover - but once I pulled them up the house was WAY too long to incorporate. So I found a kitchen as reference and traced it in Procreate to make my own architectural(ish) drawing to incorporate the yellow wall.

The New Yorker cover (obviously) but I picked the one with the cat and dog because I feel like it embodies them.

Hand sewn endbands - yellow + silver, 1 strand each.

Marbled paper from maleeka_mols_creates 💛 I was super excited about the gorgeous papers anyway. But this paper was a match made in heaven.

These fics can be found on AO3. Please remember to follow fanfic etiquette - leave kudos and happy thoughts.

The chapter headers have some art, but I haven’t heard back from the artist so hopefully I can share that at a later date. 🧡

🏒 The Game Plan by @festiveferret & pouringinsheets

This delightful fic was the first Hollanov I read and I absolutely adored it. Ilya gets drafted to the Ottawa instead of Boston and hijinks ensue. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend. I’m emotional over hair ties now!

🔥🥵 Front cover art by minaloganart (please find her on Instagram!) Her art is to die for!

⛸️ Endpage and back cover jerseys drawn by muah.

🪡 Hand sewn endbands and of course the top and bottom are their respective team colors. 😉

✨ Red Holographic HTV for that extra shine. Used the last of my Joann’s supply 😢 but it was SO worth it.

[ENTER EVIL LAUGH HERE] 😈

Wow DOT was a doosie - and it crossed off the last of my fannish bingo for the absolute win. Now that it has finished its multiple week journey to the land down under, I can share it in ALL ITS GLORY!

1100 pages / 715,940 words / one volume - clocking in just shy of 3.5 pounds.

This sucker is rounded, backed, sports a sophisticated Oxford hollow for additional support, sewn endbands, and three (THREE) layers of metallic HTV on fake adhesive leather (and I didn’t burn it). You may all now bow to me. I accept worship in the form of Australian black licorice and European chocolate.

But truth - this is perhaps the MOST ambitious bind I have done to date - because my two good friends Louie and @amandabynds decided to create chaos by hosting the 2025dotagenda exchange. Not only did I read the whole fic as a birthday present for Louie, but I bound this stunning monstrosity as tribute.

Never will I ever again.

For your viewing pleasure. THE DEBT OF TIME.

Can be read for free on AO3 (I recommend reading on a kindle - because no one wants to hold a book that will break your wrists after 5 minutes.)

Bound for the #GloriousBindExchange hosted by myself and @tongueoutbinding (on Instagram) and posting on this - the anniversary of Arcane’s first episode airing.

My bind is in the wind! But, until it gets delivered, here are some details:

⚙️ Cover art by @roartowrecks

⚙️ Cover designed in Canva (art elements) and in Affinity Designer.

✨ Holographic star laminate to give it that bit of “hexcore magic sparkle”

⚙️ Sewn endbands with a little bit of chaos (green shimmer) thrown in there just for some fun.

⚙️ Multicolored paper because I have this random headcannon that Zaun wouldn’t have “pristine Piltover” notebooks that are always perfectly uniform.

⚙️ Endpage art and chapter header art was actually pulled from “The Art Of Making ARCANE” artbook.

This fic can be read for free on AO3 - and if you’re a JayVik junkie like me, I highly suggest this alternate Zaun AU fanfiction.

Nothing Fades like the Light by @rollercoasterwords

I wanted another spooky season themed bind to post, so I whipped this guy up real quick. Based on the mass market paperback size, it’s an alternative to quartos - which are just a little too small and clunky for my personal reading preference.

I’m not 100% sold on this case size - I used 8mm instead of my normal 10mm and I kinda hate it. So the boards need to be trimmed and hinges made bigger, but it is fun to experiment with new bind sizes.

Overall I’m pleased with the bind and I’m happy to add another amazing fic to my bookshelf.