a quick birthday present

We work with this gorgeous girl who is having a birthday next week and one my colleagues said that she thinks she hangs around with really intelligent people (she probably didn't mean her work mates) and that she wishes she sometimes had more  intelligent things to say.  I find this hard to believe - but anyway, it was decided that as part of her present we (meaning me) would make a little cloth book and then we'd collect little facts that she would have readily available to impress even the biggest geek!

So, I remembered I had this cute little japanese pattern book at home with a pattern for a book cover in it and got to work deciphering the pictures and Japanese instructions. 

Her favourite colour is blue, so I tried to use blue where I could and I managed to use up a few Liberty scraps in the process.

The finished product is small - the perfect size for a credit card. It's a bit wonky (obviously), so don't look too closely at the lines, but I think this has great potential.  The instructions were in Japanese so now I've done it once I think I can improve my construction... and if I can work this out, it might just replace the tissue holder as my new go to for the end of year 'teacher Christmas presents'.