The Paper Arts site talks about everything related to paper including stationery, scrapbooking, and DIY paper projects.

If you’re any kind of fan at all of Meomi then you absolutely have to run out now and get her new children’s book The Octonauts and The Only Lonely Monster. Immedium, the publisher of this unbearably cute sea adventure, was kind enough to send us a sample copy to preview.

Who are the Octonauts? They’re a daring undersea crew made up of various aquatic and landbased creatures including a polar bear, octopus, kitten and sea otter. Immedium notes that the book combines “the instant appeal of Hello Kitty with the intrepid spirit from Star Trek” and that pretty much describes what you get with this book.

I found out about this book containing 300 Papermaking Recipes through a search on making homemade paper. Needless to say, it immediately went on my wishlist of paper related books to look into in the future.

Written by two papermaking artists, Mary Reimer and Heidi Reimer-Epp, the 96 …

I got a note from John Petersen from Inkogneato. He has a studio/retail store in Washington state that specializes in an interesting crafting technique called “altered scrapbooking” and I thought that was a sort of neat thing to feature here.

Although the store also sells more straightforward items like handmade paper and spiral bound books, their main focus is on this combination of bookmaking and scrapbooking. They hold classes and demonstrate the techniques at their physical store, but you can also buy the kits to make various projects.

The project kits themselves often focus on unconventional items like the Pocket Tag Book which features actual shipping tags and is meant to be used for travel related scrapbooking. Or the Bag It! Kit, which is actually a scrapbook based upon an ordinary shopping bag.

Here’s some history about inkogNEATo, from their website:

inkogNEATo began creating greeting cards with photographs in 1997, selling at local markets and in select retail stores. By the following year, we were creating journals and albums, and launched our first website (without a .com address). By 1999, we expanded into spiral book binding and personalized guest books and invitations. Our retail store and classroom has been open in historic Downtown Kent, Washington for three years.

If you like pop-up books and you don’t know about Robert Sabuda, you should immediately head over to his website and get to know his work. I’ve found a few references to him as the “king of pop-ups” and that title is well-deserved. I can’t believe the detail of the mechanisms on some of the books he makes.

Drawing on his early love of pop-up books as a child, New York’s Sabuda utilizes his skills as a children’s book illustrator to create amazing works of art. Stunning and complex, his pop-ups challenge the boundaries between books for children and paper art. One of his most popular works is the Encyclopedia Prehistorica. I’ve shown a page from the “Dinosaurs” book in the series here. The footprint for the book is only 7 and a half by 9 and a half inches, but the popups that spring out when you turn the page are often so large that they make you wonder how it’s possible they’re contained in such a small package.

There is also an intriguing Encylopedia Prehistorica Series book coming out on April 30 called Prehistoric Sharks that I may have to get a hold of…

There are some wonderful examples of bookmaking over at the Green Chair Press which is a California based letterpress-printing outfit started by Susan Angebranndt. In addition to letterpress, Susan’s handbound limited-edition books frequently incorporate a number of whimsical elements such as pop-ups and collages. The binding …

I came across some really nice organizers and blank journals over at If’n Books + Marks the other day. Located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island the company is made up of 3 individuals (Alec, Jen and Deb) who use their illustration, screen-printing, and book-binding talents to produce a ton of beautiful books, albums, and stationery.

A little blurb of company info from the If’n website:

The If’n Books + Marks studio is located in a century-old mill building complete with high ceilings, a fabulous corner view and a super-stripey wall. We make each book by hand using vintage and contemporary equipment that is beautiful unto itself.

Their designs seem really unique and the illustrations have a really clean look to them. One of the works that I took a shine to were these Corace Organizers (named after the abovementioned Jen Corace who’s the illustrator). This one is an address book called “Hello Goodbye” and features fun pictures of kids talking into that old-fashioned tin can phone. It is screen-printed by hand on these cool boards and contains a hefty 144 pages inside along with an inside pocket to hold other things. Measurements are 5 by 6 1/2 inches.