chasing the whimsy one reblog at a time

| mostly here for talking into the void | she/her Staphi 28 |

[musashi]

Hey can you guys reblog Cheeseburger so he can take a sunbeam nap on lots of blogs. No other reason I just want you guys to see him.

[staphi]

HOPPER HEARD THEM KILL ME NOW

[staphi]

"Sometimes the door is just blue"

Yeah but if the author has gone above and beyond to make the audience search and dissect the story, to make the audience not believe in coincidences, to actually reward the audience for finding something and agreeing that it means something more, AND THEN getting upset that the audience is searching for more meanings, and finding actual parallels, and easter eggs, and 'coincidences'...

"Sometimes the door is just blue" yeah but sometimes blue means something.

[staphi]

Ooo a new fic, I wonder what it is abou—

[staphi]

does anyone know if thesweetestdream (talk to me dirty; talk to me sweet author) has a tumblr? I want to ask if they allow bookbinds of their fic 🥹 [personal use ofc]

Or does anyone know if they made a post about their stance on bookbinding? I haven't seen anything

[staphi]

lumax on the dancefloor in ch13

[staphi]

Lucas in every byler fic when Mike does anything

[staphi]

[staphi]

[staphi]

Yeah, so, I wanted to bind a fic illuminated manuscript style, but can't find something enough of a high resolution. My partner has a graphic tablet, and that's basically a mouse, and that's basically easy to use. So i've thinketh and saideth to myself, it can't be that hard to traceth an image, no?

original image

OH THAT SHIT IS EEEEEEASY

what the hell is this?? and how do I do an entire page without my hand cramping?

[staphi]

wtf is this, why is this mature, it's a BOOK, the only tag is "#bookbinding" , there is nothing mature here

do we go slapping "mature content" on everything now?? OH lemme post a photo of a book— sike! MATURE; OH you wanna post a full photo in studio lighting of your dick?! GO AHEAD, no contents warning there, you're free to go and post it and tag it with #flowers so everyone can see it

[staphi]

sooooo I have a book in the press (and 2 more already typesetted (?)/typesat(?) ) but I got this urge to make more books and I don't have enough presses, and all I can do is typeset another book

ummmmmm my printer is gonna hate me; my wallet is gonna hate me

my cat is gonna love me tho' she likes when the paper disappears into the printer

there are ~250ish pages full color

but it's sooooo pretty look at the floweeers

[fealtypledger]

what if we kissed 😳 in a land of myth and a time of magic 😳

[staphi]

would the destiny of a great kingdom, by chance, rest on the shoulders of a young boy? 👉👈

[staphi]

Ode to Insanity

I started to typeset DYMM, this post is for me, to track my sanity slipping away. Look at it like a journal entry. Journal entry No.1.

After trying for 2 weeks (in January 2025) to just download this fic with creator's styles turned on (AND FAILING) I found this incredible nice person on tumblr with a tutorial on how to do that.

GOD BLESS. So - easy right? Download with creator styles - print - bind. NOPE! PDF doesn't like making my life easy, I had to download as an EPUB - and edit in Calibre. Easy right? (I will say this a lot) NOPE!

After debugging the text-bubbles, I found the emails/twitters/instagram posts - and those were not nice to edit. I edited a box, another one just disappeared. I managed to not make any box disappear, now my text-bubbles reverted to some weird, wonky lineart.

Look at it - wtf is that box doing jumping out of frame like that? I didn't even touch it!

And wtf is this email doing??

And then I found the photos... Photos sent in chat. The wonderful authors did something super cool on AO3. If you click on a photo it opens in a new tab in full size, while just reading the texting in the fic you see a preview of the photo. This is cool. Printing it is not so cool.

So I stalked (sorry to the authors and binders I bothered) anyone who posted something remotely close to text-bubble printing/binding and how the photos were edited in a bind.

[I also found out that not many people bound this MONSTER of a fic - understandable i think]

SOOOO - after a quick break (from January to...now July 18th) I am taking this up again.

Another kind binder answered my ask - and I am doing this manualy after all. Fuck html&css, I am not smart enough (yet) for that. What I am smart enough (now) for is doing it in Word. Which we al know Word is shit.

I just finished text-bubbles for 4 (or 3?) chapters. And if we believe Word, then that means 52 pages out of 2600+. I haven't thought yet about chapter-title art, I don't even wanna think about what I will do when getting to the Instagram and twitter posts later in the fic.

Journal entry No.1 finished.

[staphi]

I just realized something. This being word and the text-bubbles are not fixed to the text, they're fixed to the page (if you move the text , down 1 line, the text bubble stays put) I may have to re-do the bubbles.

If I do (and will do) chapter title art and/or add some images across the text, the text will move.

Sooooo.... fuck me, right?!

(Journal entry No.2 - 25 July)

[staphi]

Soo, almost a year later, I haven't worked on this because I gave up and also life happened. Buuuuuut I got Affinity, fuck Word, I learned to do text bubbles, I've typeset another fic in a few days while COMPLETELY ignoring my earthly responsibilities (Dear Your Holiness by @mollymarymarie - I recommend with my whole heart and soul, I almost read it again while typesetting)

So, we have dropcaps, very church-y

cross-y page numbers

doves paragraph separator thingy A WHOLE LOT OF OTHER THINGS, BUT THE PIECE DE RESISTANCE

WE HAVE LEARNED THE ART OF TEXT BUBBLES, HEEELLLL YEAH BROTHA'

now I have to somehow procure special paper (found only in UK; maybe other countries too but I CANNOT FIND IT for the life of me) and get it to eastern europe without exorbitant shipping fees.

More things I found out while typesetting Dear Your Holiness:

Searching for specific fonts, while you have an idea in your head, is haaaaard (a few whole hours were spent on fonts)

Searching for specific pictures, while you have an idea in your head, is also haaaaaaaaaard (more than a few hours spent on just scrolling google images and internet archive)

It is hard not to copy by mistake another typeset. In my time on tumblr I've seen lots of gorgeous binds of this fic (and other fics too!) and it's hard to keep it 100% original. I have gone back and changed some pictures in my typeset because I have seen them used after the fact by other people.

Not typeset related: Remus says "Fuck me," A LOT in this fic.

My sanity got a bit back with Dear Your Holiness, I'm counting my blessings. It will disappear again when I'll restart DYMM.

Next Stop: DYMM text bubbles EXTRAVAGANZA. (Sometime soon, maybe this year, maybe.......)

(Journal entry No.3 - 19 April '26)

[staphi]

I wanted to print on real bible paper, because, ya know, Dear Your Holiness. BUT:

Only one store in UK has it

all online sources are saying that is next to impossible to print on sheets of bible paper on a home printer. You have to have ✨special ink✨ and you have to have ✨tension✨, and you have to print on ✨rolls not sheets✨, and you ✨can't do pictures✨. Soooooo no more bible paper ig.... (:

And I was so clooooose to buying a shit tone of sheets for this.

If anyone knows someone that printed on bible paper with a home printer hit me up :D

(Journal entry No.3.5 - 21 April '26)

[staphi]

Okay, so, this post got derailed.

I want to bind Dear Your Holiness with leather, and thought it would be nice to emboss(de-boss? stamp?) the leather and use gold foil decoration. I don't have any tools for this. I deemed them to expensive to buy.

I was complaining about this to my father, about how expensive they are, about how it would be cheaper to carve the brass myself, but it would take time, and my father, unprompted, bought a CNC.

So now I , apparently, will learn blender, to make tools for blind tooling, to stamp the leather, to bind the book.

This should have been an easy bind. Why am I this way.

Alssooooo I have half a thought to gauffer the edges, using that tutorial with the fancy peacock cover bind from tumblr. And also apply gold foil to the edges.

(Journal entry No.4 - 29 April '26)

[staphi]

Tension is lacking, I forgot about it in the press for 3 days, had to soften the adhesive to round it.

While backing I had to change to another press, it was slipping from the first one. By mistake I've hit the centre signatures while hammering at the shoulders.

Now it's in the press waiting to be sanded (I suspect a few days for each edge, gold foil included)

[I think I'm gonna do another DYH, I can do better than this]

I will gauffer the edges over the gold foil (will tag my inspiration when it's done) and will stamp the leather.

I have ordered brass round and square bars, I am currently learning blender, and learning about the ins and outs of hobby cnc'ing to make my own tools.

Pros: first tools I want are 2D so I can get away with only UGS.

Semi-pros: I want a full alphabet set in multiple fonts....... it's 2D, yes; it's a lot of pieces, also yes

Cons: I want (in the future) to make bas-relief book covers from either wood or thick cardstock. Maybe covered in leather, maybe not. If it's wood I think a nice lacquer to not get the wood dirty it's enough. That means gitting gud in blender.

(Journal No 5 - May 3rd)

[This started as a typesetting post, it got derailed. And I suspect it will get more derailed. Sorry about that]

[shalottpress]

[staphi]

Ode to Insanity

I started to typeset DYMM, this post is for me, to track my sanity slipping away. Look at it like a journal entry. Journal entry No.1.

After trying for 2 weeks (in January 2025) to just download this fic with creator's styles turned on (AND FAILING) I found this incredible nice person on tumblr with a tutorial on how to do that.

GOD BLESS. So - easy right? Download with creator styles - print - bind. NOPE! PDF doesn't like making my life easy, I had to download as an EPUB - and edit in Calibre. Easy right? (I will say this a lot) NOPE!

After debugging the text-bubbles, I found the emails/twitters/instagram posts - and those were not nice to edit. I edited a box, another one just disappeared. I managed to not make any box disappear, now my text-bubbles reverted to some weird, wonky lineart.

Look at it - wtf is that box doing jumping out of frame like that? I didn't even touch it!

And wtf is this email doing??

And then I found the photos... Photos sent in chat. The wonderful authors did something super cool on AO3. If you click on a photo it opens in a new tab in full size, while just reading the texting in the fic you see a preview of the photo. This is cool. Printing it is not so cool.

So I stalked (sorry to the authors and binders I bothered) anyone who posted something remotely close to text-bubble printing/binding and how the photos were edited in a bind.

[I also found out that not many people bound this MONSTER of a fic - understandable i think]

SOOOO - after a quick break (from January to...now July 18th) I am taking this up again.

Another kind binder answered my ask - and I am doing this manualy after all. Fuck html&css, I am not smart enough (yet) for that. What I am smart enough (now) for is doing it in Word. Which we al know Word is shit.

I just finished text-bubbles for 4 (or 3?) chapters. And if we believe Word, then that means 52 pages out of 2600+. I haven't thought yet about chapter-title art, I don't even wanna think about what I will do when getting to the Instagram and twitter posts later in the fic.

Journal entry No.1 finished.

[staphi]

I just realized something. This being word and the text-bubbles are not fixed to the text, they're fixed to the page (if you move the text , down 1 line, the text bubble stays put) I may have to re-do the bubbles.

If I do (and will do) chapter title art and/or add some images across the text, the text will move.

Sooooo.... fuck me, right?!

(Journal entry No.2 - 25 July)

[staphi]

Soo, almost a year later, I haven't worked on this because I gave up and also life happened. Buuuuuut I got Affinity, fuck Word, I learned to do text bubbles, I've typeset another fic in a few days while COMPLETELY ignoring my earthly responsibilities (Dear Your Holiness by @mollymarymarie - I recommend with my whole heart and soul, I almost read it again while typesetting)

So, we have dropcaps, very church-y

cross-y page numbers

doves paragraph separator thingy A WHOLE LOT OF OTHER THINGS, BUT THE PIECE DE RESISTANCE

WE HAVE LEARNED THE ART OF TEXT BUBBLES, HEEELLLL YEAH BROTHA'

now I have to somehow procure special paper (found only in UK; maybe other countries too but I CANNOT FIND IT for the life of me) and get it to eastern europe without exorbitant shipping fees.

More things I found out while typesetting Dear Your Holiness:

Searching for specific fonts, while you have an idea in your head, is haaaaard (a few whole hours were spent on fonts)

Searching for specific pictures, while you have an idea in your head, is also haaaaaaaaaard (more than a few hours spent on just scrolling google images and internet archive)

It is hard not to copy by mistake another typeset. In my time on tumblr I've seen lots of gorgeous binds of this fic (and other fics too!) and it's hard to keep it 100% original. I have gone back and changed some pictures in my typeset because I have seen them used after the fact by other people.

Not typeset related: Remus says "Fuck me," A LOT in this fic.

My sanity got a bit back with Dear Your Holiness, I'm counting my blessings. It will disappear again when I'll restart DYMM.

Next Stop: DYMM text bubbles EXTRAVAGANZA. (Sometime soon, maybe this year, maybe.......)

(Journal entry No.3 - 19 April '26)

[staphi]

I wanted to print on real bible paper, because, ya know, Dear Your Holiness. BUT:

Only one store in UK has it

all online sources are saying that is next to impossible to print on sheets of bible paper on a home printer. You have to have ✨special ink✨ and you have to have ✨tension✨, and you have to print on ✨rolls not sheets✨, and you ✨can't do pictures✨. Soooooo no more bible paper ig.... (:

And I was so clooooose to buying a shit tone of sheets for this.

If anyone knows someone that printed on bible paper with a home printer hit me up :D

(Journal entry No.3.5 - 21 April '26)

[staphi]

Okay, so, this post got derailed.

I want to bind Dear Your Holiness with leather, and thought it would be nice to emboss(de-boss? stamp?) the leather and use gold foil decoration. I don't have any tools for this. I deemed them to expensive to buy.

I was complaining about this to my father, about how expensive they are, about how it would be cheaper to carve the brass myself, but it would take time, and my father, unprompted, bought a CNC.

So now I , apparently, will learn blender, to make tools for blind tooling, to stamp the leather, to bind the book.

This should have been an easy bind. Why am I this way.

Alssooooo I have half a thought to gauffer the edges, using that tutorial with the fancy peacock cover bind from tumblr. And also apply gold foil to the edges.

(Journal entry No.4 - 29 April '26)

[staphi]

Ode to Insanity

I started to typeset DYMM, this post is for me, to track my sanity slipping away. Look at it like a journal entry. Journal entry No.1.

After trying for 2 weeks (in January 2025) to just download this fic with creator's styles turned on (AND FAILING) I found this incredible nice person on tumblr with a tutorial on how to do that.

GOD BLESS. So - easy right? Download with creator styles - print - bind. NOPE! PDF doesn't like making my life easy, I had to download as an EPUB - and edit in Calibre. Easy right? (I will say this a lot) NOPE!

After debugging the text-bubbles, I found the emails/twitters/instagram posts - and those were not nice to edit. I edited a box, another one just disappeared. I managed to not make any box disappear, now my text-bubbles reverted to some weird, wonky lineart.

Look at it - wtf is that box doing jumping out of frame like that? I didn't even touch it!

And wtf is this email doing??

And then I found the photos... Photos sent in chat. The wonderful authors did something super cool on AO3. If you click on a photo it opens in a new tab in full size, while just reading the texting in the fic you see a preview of the photo. This is cool. Printing it is not so cool.

So I stalked (sorry to the authors and binders I bothered) anyone who posted something remotely close to text-bubble printing/binding and how the photos were edited in a bind.

[I also found out that not many people bound this MONSTER of a fic - understandable i think]

SOOOO - after a quick break (from January to...now July 18th) I am taking this up again.

Another kind binder answered my ask - and I am doing this manualy after all. Fuck html&css, I am not smart enough (yet) for that. What I am smart enough (now) for is doing it in Word. Which we al know Word is shit.

I just finished text-bubbles for 4 (or 3?) chapters. And if we believe Word, then that means 52 pages out of 2600+. I haven't thought yet about chapter-title art, I don't even wanna think about what I will do when getting to the Instagram and twitter posts later in the fic.

Journal entry No.1 finished.

[staphi]

I just realized something. This being word and the text-bubbles are not fixed to the text, they're fixed to the page (if you move the text , down 1 line, the text bubble stays put) I may have to re-do the bubbles.

If I do (and will do) chapter title art and/or add some images across the text, the text will move.

Sooooo.... fuck me, right?!

(Journal entry No.2 - 25 July)

[staphi]

Soo, almost a year later, I haven't worked on this because I gave up and also life happened. Buuuuuut I got Affinity, fuck Word, I learned to do text bubbles, I've typeset another fic in a few days while COMPLETELY ignoring my earthly responsibilities (Dear Your Holiness by @mollymarymarie - I recommend with my whole heart and soul, I almost read it again while typesetting)

So, we have dropcaps, very church-y

cross-y page numbers

doves paragraph separator thingy A WHOLE LOT OF OTHER THINGS, BUT THE PIECE DE RESISTANCE

WE HAVE LEARNED THE ART OF TEXT BUBBLES, HEEELLLL YEAH BROTHA'

now I have to somehow procure special paper (found only in UK; maybe other countries too but I CANNOT FIND IT for the life of me) and get it to eastern europe without exorbitant shipping fees.

More things I found out while typesetting Dear Your Holiness:

Searching for specific fonts, while you have an idea in your head, is haaaaard (a few whole hours were spent on fonts)

Searching for specific pictures, while you have an idea in your head, is also haaaaaaaaaard (more than a few hours spent on just scrolling google images and internet archive)

It is hard not to copy by mistake another typeset. In my time on tumblr I've seen lots of gorgeous binds of this fic (and other fics too!) and it's hard to keep it 100% original. I have gone back and changed some pictures in my typeset because I have seen them used after the fact by other people.

Not typeset related: Remus says "Fuck me," A LOT in this fic.

My sanity got a bit back with Dear Your Holiness, I'm counting my blessings. It will disappear again when I'll restart DYMM.

Next Stop: DYMM text bubbles EXTRAVAGANZA. (Sometime soon, maybe this year, maybe.......)

(Journal entry No.3 - 19 April '26)

[staphi]

I wanted to print on real bible paper, because, ya know, Dear Your Holiness. BUT:

Only one store in UK has it

all online sources are saying that is next to impossible to print on sheets of bible paper on a home printer. You have to have ✨special ink✨ and you have to have ✨tension✨, and you have to print on ✨rolls not sheets✨, and you ✨can't do pictures✨. Soooooo no more bible paper ig.... (:

And I was so clooooose to buying a shit tone of sheets for this.

If anyone knows someone that printed on bible paper with a home printer hit me up :D

(Journal entry No.3.5 - 21 April '26)