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

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.

One of the most interesting kits is the aptly named “Books in a Book”. This kit has all the pre-cut and scored materials to make five books in one. Featured here is a version called “Marbled Forest”. Measuring about six inches square, the front of the books features a miniature version of the Pocket Tag Book described above, while the back has a 4 panel accordian. The inside has cardstock pages and pockets, and there are actually two “additional” mini-books embedded in the front and back as well!

You can check out the inkogNEATo website at:

www.inkogneato.com/