love at first site...

one of the reasons i love CHA is that every time i go i find something that makes me squeal out loud in excitement. sometimes it it the damnedest things too.

in past years it has been anything from anatomically correct looking hand drills to fabric die cutting machines.

this year it was the unibind.

 

so simple to use, so quick to bind! basically you plug it in, fill the covers with whatever pages you want and set it in the machine for 90 seconds and you have a perfect bound book!

really i am not kidding! the covers have a resin in the spine that when the spine is heated by the machine the resin permanently bonds the pages in the book. and get this...if you want to add or remove pages down the road, just heat it up again, take the book off while it is hot and remove or add the pages!

the pages can withstand up to 80 pound of pressure! at least that is what the lady at the booth at CHA said. bill and i tested it out and were quite convinced! their whole sales pitch for the unibind is that you can digitally print your pages and then easily create your own photobooks like shutterfly and the like.

blah, blah, blah...yeah yeah i know that is cool too, but that sells it totally short!

my first question to them was..."can you bind canvas in it?"

now, shut your eyes and imagine the look on the lady's face when i asked her this. she had only patterned paper, photo pages, photos, but nothing fun!

i could not wait to finally get them in the shop to PLAY and when they came in last week i put one aside just for me!

one of my favorite things about the photobooks is that they are plain. a virtual blank canvas primed and ready for altering. even as i stood at the booth at CHA, i envisioned making this book.

the first thing i did was heat emboss the cover with clear UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel) and my purely entwined stamp.

the clear UTEE creates a resist.

i then painted a water downed layer of Golden cobalt teal fluid acrylic over the embossed cover. once the paint dries you can use a baby wipe, rub over the embossed areas and the paint rubs away. 

i added ALL KINDS of fun pages...sheets of cardstock, vintage papers, manila tags, 6x6 canvas refill page, fabric tags, envelopes, vellum's, index dividers & vintage flash card. the website states the 9mm photobook that i used can hold 24-35 sheets of photo or presentation paper or 75 sheets of copy paper.

i am pretty sure i didn't even begin push the binding to its limit with what i added, but i know i like to create thick pages in my books and i wanted to leave some room

then i pushed everything as far as it could go down into the spine, placed it on the photobook creator read some emails and 90 seconds later i had a perfect bound book!

it is flippin' awesome!  (god when i think of the hell i went through with that zutter contraption, oy vey!)

i don't even want to stop and work in it, i just want to keep making more books!!

this one i created using the 8x8 photobook, but i have a 4x6 photobook sitting here next to me just itching to be filled with blank pages of canvas and such.

imagine how easy it will be to make photo albums in multiple for the holidays...portfolio samples...magazine pages i have ripped out for ideas...kids schoolwork/artwork...holy hell i need to go write all these ideas down in my journal because my head is spinning!

Comments

[Angee Lee Butler]

I just saw this posted on FB and I'm in love with it already. Have you tried the Yourstory?? Seems like the same concept. Thanks for the review.

[Tracy]

Ok yea, that is totally cool!

[Karen Ellis]

Oh dear... I think this just might be a MUST HAVE! eek! :)

[Cindy Key]

I love that! How kewl is it that you can put in all kinds of different stuff?!

[Gina Kim]

OMG....you have found the holy grail for art journalers! Thank you, thank you for this post!!!!!

[Karen W]

Oh, how cool...

[Cassie K]

what a beautiful book and a neat device

[Nolwenn]

Donna, I think you just convinced me.
I discovered this a few months ago with a video demonstration and fell in love. But I thought that every cover has a "window" and that it wouldn't be possible to customize it: you proved me wrong.

It's on my list now :)

[beth]

what and no give away :)
sheesh, i need one of those bad boys.....like now !

[Erika]

But isn't your last name spelled with an E in it? ;)

[donna downey]

hee hee, yes it is erika, but i still like it.

[Melanie K.]

I have seen this (hasn't it been around for a while?) But I like spiral binding ... so as frustrating as the BIA may be ... I will stick with it. Great sounding product though!

[donna downey]

melanie you have to stick with what works for you. i totally agree.

[Jessica Wilson-Hess]

A happy bag and now a happy book- I can't stand it!!! I think I have to have one of this immediately. Darn you Donna- I just keep buying more and more toys :)

[debbie McIntyre]

I always enjoy a new toy...(troublemaker)

[Katie]

this is AWESOME!!!!!!!

[Jen]

Damn it, Donna - couldn't you have done this a couple days ago, when you put it on your site, BEFORE the grab bag frenzy, so that I could have ordered one THEN and not had to pay shipping TWICE?! LOL Hmm...I actually don't have a BIA, but have been looking at The Cinch, the newer one out by the other company, which looks WAAAAAY easier to use than the BIA...but now you've got me wondering which way I want to go...

[Tracy]

Wow, so no issues with the canvas?!?! I've had my eye on these but was skeptical. Thanks for being the brave little guinea pig and then sharing! ;)

[Larissa Heskett]

THANKS FOR SHARING DONNA!! LOVE THE BOOK YOU CREATED!!

[Jenni G.]

STOP feeling my head with all these ideas LMBO!

[StampinCathy]

This is so awesome and inspiring. Another fun tool I need now. :)

[susie lavender]

What keeps the middle pages from pulling out? Is there a glue that grabs onto them also or is it the pressure from the heating unit that makes a tight fit? I guess you buy covers as you need them. This is a great idea. I would love to see one in person.

[BellaG]

WOW! that is a really cool product, definitely gonna have to look into it abit more, thanks for showing it to us.

[francesca di leo]

ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!! now you have my head spinning a la exorcist!!!! the ideas are endless. and i love it for my kids artwork that is piling high.. i've been waiting for the right idea, and this just seems perfect for it.

i'm starting to run out of room for my scrapbooking projects!

these people need to hire you for proper advertising! they're totally selling it short with only digi photos etc..

you're a genius my dear.

Francesca

[Mall Rat]

The Zutter one is not user friendly, I agree. I have a YouStory .. I wonder if that will take canvas pages .. Hmmmm something to try this morning. I'm going to have to check this out! Thanks Donna

[LollyChops]

Holey smokes is that thing cool! Whew!

[Donna]

Oh, thank you so much Donna for showing me a new idea for using my unibind!! Going off to play!

[Heidi]

I keep thinking GIFTS GIFTS GIFTS, but I would have to get past making one for myself first.

[Kim B]

Oh how cool. I'm going to have to check these out!!

[Candy]

So, here's the thing. I thought about getting a Unibind awhile back. At the time, I was trying the idea of altering an old book...until the original binding/glue fell apart in the book before I had even started. Then, my college son, a book hound, complained that the sun was so strong in this bedroom that the glue in some of his books had started to bubble. So, I've learned that glue in book bindings is not forever. Now, I'm back to non-glue bindings for my scrapbooks.

[Lisa]

This sounds amazing...hmmm to get my hubby to read your post :)

[Cynthia]

Totally too flippin' exciting! Looks like I'll be buying one of these cool contraptions in the future. 'Till then, I'm binding by all kinds of other methods. I recently made an album with cardstock, envelopes, manila envelopes, and transparencies all bound with a sewn edge. It's bigger than what the binder is that you are showing, so maybe that's the only option yet for such a big book. Still. . . . such a cool idea! Thanks not only for sharing, but for carrying it in your store!

[Erika]

I love it, too. I was just totally curious if it was intentional or not. I absolutely adore the ink treatment on the front.

[Liz]

doesn't look so revolutionary to me... doesn't the "your story"-book binder do the same thing?

[Kelli]

Love it and I'm glad to hear you struggled with Zutter! I have given up on perfectly round rings... I'm just meant to own ovals!

[Tina Wishart]

You know that you can totally melt it down and add more pages at any time, right!! It is very cool that way! :D