strike a match

So, I wont have my cases of paper for the book pages in time for Virginia. Usually I buy a case of parent sheets and have them cut to my specs. It gets me about 6-7000 pages. But I can't get it done for 2 weeks. It was stupid to wait so long, I know. Somehow I thought I had enough left over from last year to get a good start. Not quite.
I have bins of covers waiting and no innards. So, I bought a couple of reams and brought them to Kinko's to be cut. I was pondering the 4 1/4 inches of that beautiful heavy linen paper going to waste and an idea came to me. Matchbook journals.

Matchbooks have been around for a while but they never appealed to me because of the tiny size. They are cute, but impractical. But if I made them 4 X 4, now you've got a little purse or pocket-sized widget that has some purpose. Ah ha! I had them cut the "waste" in half and played around with the idea. This is what I have so far:



I'm going to go with just a button closure and no other decoration, but I'll use more interesting papers. And better buttons. I like them. And they are still cute. I think. I have enough paper to make a bunch and see if people actually buy the little guys.

And no waste! Al Gore would be so proud of me.