breadcatbooks

[breadcatbooks]

an anthology of fics by ariex09

May 4, 2025

Two-piece bradel with paper inlay and design in heat transfer vinyl.

What do you do when half your favorite fics in a fandom are by the same author? And many of them are too short to bind on there own? You mash em all together in an anthology. And luckily for me it just so happened to be close to the anniversary of the first fic's publication, so I could frame the book as "one year in fandom." A fandomversery present, if you will. Turns out it's hard to come up with a coherent visual theme for a book that's actually 10 separate stories. I could've gone with the tried and true beach/ocean imagery, because that comes up a lot in this fandom, but I'd done that before, and I had some nice green marbled paper I wanted to use, so I ended up theming the book around a green and gold color scheme. This is probably the most intricate typeset I've ever done, because I wanted to include descriptions and metadata at the top of every fic, and include the QR codes in a tasteful way. I knew I wanted an inlay on the front for that "classy" feel, but couldn't decide what to do with the back, so I covered the back in paper to avoid having to come up with a design.

Materials: covers - 2 mm grey board spine stiffener - paperboard covering material - green suede bookcloth, marbled jute fiber paper inlay - marbled jute fiber paper vinyl - cricut brand gold and silver foil

endpapers - cream and gold vellum paper endbands - faux double core french endband, with cotton embroidery floss textblock paper - Hammermill 20lb printer paper, cream, 8.5x11

Typeset: Designed in Microsoft Word. The body font is Amasis MT Pro, headings are in Cormorant SC, and "handwritten" sections are in Brotherland Signature, Weddingday Revisited, Antically, and Architect's Daughter. Images from Pexels.

Cover Design: Designed in Photopea. Font is Cormorant SC. Shell image from openclipart.

dimensions: 5.5"x8.5"

Some earlier design tests:

[breadcatbooks]

The Arrest of Cliopher Mdang by astrocryptographer

April 22, 2025

Three-piece bradel with paper overlay and design in heat transfer vinyl.

This fic is a fun twist of genre; it takes a character who is very much not your typical action hero and thrusts him into the role of Indiana Jones, going on a cross-country adventure to track down the artifacts needed to break a curse (all while avoiding arrest). It's thrilling and cinematic, and so my vision for the typeset is very much inspired by the "action movie" theming. All of the "location headers" are meant to be reminiscent of the LOCATION IN BOLD IMPACT FONT WHITE TEXT ON AN ESTABLISHING SHOT that was a staple of 2000s action movie editing. The font and color choices were meant to add to the bold, adventurous vibes. The "forest fire" paper is in reference to a specific scene in the fic, and the overlay technique is heavily inspired by @zhalfirin's work. This was also my first time sewing endbands.

Materials: covers - 2 mm grey board spine stiffener - paperboard covering material - black and red linen bookcloth overlay - "Forest Fire" chiyogami paper vinyl - cricut brand gold foil, siser easyweed black vinyl

endpapers - green cardstock with pearlescent finish endbands - faux double core french endband, with cotton embroidery floss textblock paper - Hammermill 20lb printer paper, cream, 8.5x11

Typeset: Designed in Microsoft Word. The body font is Amasis MT Pro, headings are in Poppins, and "handwritten" sections are in Brotherland Signature and Weddingday Revisited. Images from Pexels.

Cover Design: Designed in Photopea. Font is Cinzel.

dimensions: 5.5"x8.5"

[breadcatbooks]

somewhere up the road by @rattyjol

March 18, 2025

Quarterbinding with cloth and paper

These fics are, primarily, about people having some very difficult conversations while on a beautiful beach vacation. So the "beach" theming came on a bit strong, I will admit. The typeset heavily features shells, and the cloth and paper on the case was meant to evoke the image of sand and sea. In my defense, canon is just Like That. I don't think you can create Lays fanart with too much beach/ocean imagery. There's no such thing.

Materials: covers - 2 mm grey board spine stiffener - 2 mm grey board covering material - cream linen bookcloth, marbled jute fiber paper vinyl - cricut brand gold foil

endpapers - printed cardstock endbands - bookcloth rolled over twine textblock paper - Hammermill 20lb printer paper, cream, 8.5x11

Typeset: Designed in Microsoft Word. The body font is Baskerville Old Face, headings are in Gabriola (italics). Images from Alamy.

Cover Design: Designed in Photopea. Title is in Gabriola (italics), author name is in Alegreya Sans.

dimensions: 4.25"x5.5"

[breadcatbooks]

two days five hours by ariex09

March 16, 2025

Full cloth case binding with design in heat transfer vinyl.

This fic is a canon-divergent AU; the point of divergence is... Mountain adjacent. Even though only like 2% of this fic takes place on or near mountains, they cast such a shadow over the fic that it felt natural to include them as a focal point. The two-birds-flying-over-mountains on the back is a scene actually feature on page in the fic, though. The mountain range supposedly wraps around the front and back, but that doesn't come across that clearly.

Materials: covers - 2 mm grey board spine stiffener - 2 mm grey board covering material - black suede bookcloth vinyl - cricut brand gold foil

endpapers - printed cardstock endbands - bookcloth rolled over twine textblock paper - Hammermill 20lb printer paper, cream, 8.5x11

Typeset: Designed in Microsoft Word. The body font is Baskerville Old Face, headings are in Cormorant SC, and "handwritten" sections are in Motterdam.

Cover Design: Designed in Photopea. Stock images from Alamy. Font is Cormorant SC.

dimensions: 4.25"x5.5"

[breadcatbooks]

Friday Keeps Coming Next by @rattyjol

March 2, 2025 - March 19, 2025

Full cloth case binding with design in heat transfer vinyl.

This was technically not my first fanbinding, but it was the first fanbinding I willing to share with the world. This fic is a groundhog day AU, in which the characters have to relive the same day over and over again. I chose the belltower as the central image to design the cover around because it is A) the setting for a scene that particularly stood out to me and B) representative of the "time" theme without being too on the nose. The white and gold color scheme is appropriate to both the fandom and the setting of the fic. One detail I am particularly proud of: At one point in the fic, a character spends several days in bed in a fit of depression and grief at his circumstances. The author conveys this by using several of the "Day ###" headings that are present throughout the fic, but with no content in between, showing that nothing happened on those days (at least from the narrator's POV). When I saw that I knew I had to do the twilight thing.

Materials: covers - 2 mm grey board spine stiffener - 2 mm grey board covering material - cream linen bookcloth vinyl - cricut brand gold foil

endpapers - white cardstock with gold foil endbands - bookcloth rolled over twine textblock paper - Hammermill 20lb printer paper, cream, 8.5x11 Typeset: Designed in Microsoft Word. The body font is Baskerville Old Face, headings are in Brotherland Signature, and "handwritten" sections are in Weddingday Revisited. Cover Design: Designed in Photopea. The belltower image came from Alamy. Title font is Brotherland Signature, author name is in Alegreya Sans.

dimensions: 5.5"x8.5"

Fun fact: I actually made 3 copies of this book! The first copy, then an author copy, then I actually remade the first copy a few weeks later to fix a few issues (using bookcloth instead of random cotton, not scorching the cloth when applying the vinyl, using more appropriate font size/margins in the typeset, fixing some problems with the spine dimensions so the book would open properly. Here are the original copy and remake side by side: