Maze Book

Video: Maze Book - Materials

Materials Needed

•         12” x 12” paper in two colours (2 pieces each) that coordinate with chosen eco-dyed, gelli print or specialty paper
•         Cardboard for cover (optional)
•         Ruler
•         Knife
•         Cutting mat
•        Scissors
•        Adhesive

 Paper Dimensions

6” x 12”  Colour A

5.5” x 11”  Colour B

5” x 10”  A

4.5” x 9”  B

4” x 8”  A

3.5” x 7”  B

3” x 6”  A

2.5” x 5”  B

2” x 4”  A

 

Eco-dyed or Specialty Paper

2 @ 7.5” x 7.5” for cover decoration (a hard cover) to complement Colour A -- optional

2 @ 5.5” x 5.5” for cover decoration (if not making a hard cover) to complement Colour A

1 @ 5.5” x 5.5” as inner end paper decoration to complement Colour A

2 @ 5” x 5” to complement Colour B

2 @ 4.5” x 4.5” to complement A

2 @ 4” x 4” B

2 @ 3.5” x 3.5” A

2 @ 3” x 3” B

2 @ 2.5” x 2.5” A

2 @ 2” x 2” B

3 @ 1.5” x 1.5” A

Video: Maze Book - Creating the Base

Assembly

1.   Fold each strip of plain paper in half

2.   Open the 6” x 12” strip

3.   Take the next largest strip of paper – 5.5” x 11” in Colour B and with the fold facing the bottom, center it on the right half of the first strip of paper.  Leave an even border around the folded piece of paper.  You should be able to close the 6” x 12” strip of paper over the top of the piece you have just glued down. (if you did that – open it again)

4.   Open the paper you just glued down so that it lies flat and rub it down firmly. Give everything a quarter turn counterclockwise (to the left).

5.   Take the next size piece of paper (Colour A) and center it to the right of the fold line and glue it down with the fold facing down.

6.    Open the paper, rub it firmly and turn it everything one quarter turn to the left.

7.   Take the next size piece of folded paper, Colour B, and center it to the right of the fold line and glue it down with the fold facing down. 

8.   Open the paper and keep repeating these steps until you have glued all the folded sheets of paper in decreasing order of size.  Make sure each one is securely fastened by rubbing each one thoroughly when adhering them.

When the last one is secure you can begin to add the decorative element as you work your way back to the beginning.

Video: Maze Book - Decorating the Pages

Adding Decorative Eco-dyed or Specialty Element

1.   If you haven’t taken a break at this point, you will still be in the middle of your project so starting at the middle, with the smallest elements, you are going to reverse the steps that you have used so far. Using the smallest eco dyed or specialty decorative piece to complement Colour A, center it on the right hand side of the plain paper.  Turn the paper clockwise and repeat.  (If you have taken a break you will be working from the outside in, turning counterclockwise and working from largest to smallest pieces of decorative paper.)

2.   As you change coloured background you will also be changing sizes for your decorative elements.  You will be leaving a ¼ “ border around the edge of your decorative element.  If you plan to add stitching to your eco-dyed or specialty paper, this should be done before it is attached at this point. 

3.   Note:  stitching may add additional bulk depending upon the type and amount of stitching.  This is a very flexible structure and allows for expansion.  Try to avoid knots if possible.

Adding a Cover - optional

1.   Cut cardboard to desired size for cover.  Calculate the cover size by measuring the width of the page plus 1/8 and measuring the height of the page plus ¼ “.  This will give you the dimensions of the cover plus 1/8 border around the edge as a foredge (except at the spine where there can’t be any overlap).  In this case, the largest page is 6” x 6” so the cover will be 6 1/8 “x 6 ¼ “. 

2.      Cover the cardboard with decorative paper (Eco prints/gelli prints if you wish) and attach to the first and last page.

 

  

Waterfall Book

Video Waterfall Book: Materials

Materials

To make this book will need…

·         Cutting mat, knife, scissors

·         Bone Folder

·         Double sided tape, glue

·         Optional: eyelet and punch, ribbon

·         Paper

o   Cover

o   2 pieces of 4 ½″ x 8 ½“ cardboard for your cover front and back.

o   1 piece of ½” x 8 ½” cardboard for the spine.

o   2 pieces of 6”x 10“ patterned or plain paper to decorate the covers.

o   2 pieces of 4 ¼ “x 8 ¼“decorative paper for endpapers

o   2 strips of 3” x 9 ½” paper for the spine in a complementary colour to the decorative cover paper.  (the inside piece will be cut to exact size needed)

 

o   Mechanism

o   2 pieces of 3 ½ “x 8″ cardstock for the pully part of the card to reinforce it.

o   1 piece 3 ½ ″ x 12″  for your mechanism. Score along the longest side at 4 ¾“ and then every ¼″ up to 8 ¼“.

o   1 piece 3 3/4“ x 10” in same colour cardstock as mechanism (this is mechanism holder)

o   1 piece of 1 ½” x 3 ½“ eco dyed paper to trim end of pully mechanism.

 

o   Waterfall Pages

o   14 pieces of 3 ¾” x 3 ¾″ cardstock for your pages in a colour complementary to your eco-dyed paper to mat your pages.

o   15 pieces of 3 ½” x 3 ½“ eco-dyed paper.

 

Video: Mechanism Step 1

Video: Mechanism Step 2

Video: Mechanism Step 3

 Assembly

Waterfall Mechanism

1.   To begin, cut the 3 ½” x 12” piece of paper in your base colour needed for your mechanism.  Measure 4 ¾ “ along the long edge of the paper and begin scoring every ¼“ until 8 ¼” .  That should be 15 score lines.

 

2.   Fold on the score lines. They will all be mountain folds.

 

3.   Apply adhesive to the space between the score lines.  Do not impede the fold line. You can use glue, but I use double sided tape.  The fold must be able to move freely.

 

4.   Attach the mat (the cardstock that is in your base colour) to the mechanism strip.  Begin at the bottom section and make sure that you have the slightly larger piece of cardstock, 3 ¾” x 3 ¾“, centered evenly on the 3 ½“ width of paper, leaving a slight overhang on each side. When you attach the mat, make sure that the mat does not cover the fold line but is just a hair beneath it.

 

5.   Once again, starting from the bottom, attach your prints to the mat.  Your prints are 3 ½” x 3 ½“ and will have a small border around them. 

 

6.    As you attach each print, use your folding tool or finger to reinforce each fold.

 

7.   When your last print has been attached, fold the longer piece of paper at the top down the back.  It’s now time to add the 2 pieces of 3 ½” x 8” cardstock to the mechanism to complete the pulley.

 

8.   Line one piece of cardstock up on each side of the paper you folded down the back.  They should nestle in just under the fold line. Adhere them securely to the paper and each other.  When complete, the back (the pulley) will be longer than the front (the waterfall) – this is exactly as expected.

 

9.    At this stage I added a decorative trim to the bottom of my pulley, a 1 ½“ wide strip of eco print but that is completely optional.  I also used a paper punch and eyelet so that I had a ribbon pull.  Once again, that is optional but now would be the time to do something like that, before you begin putting the piece together and can’t manipulate them anymore.  I also rounded the corners of my pulley piece.

 

10.  For the pulley holder, take the 10” strip of paper and score at 4”, 4 1/8”, 8 1/8”,  and 8 ¼”. This makes a wraparound band to which we can attach the mechanism, and which can be attached to the back cover to allow the pulley to move freely.

 

11.  Position the waterfall so that the last mat and print is folded up and only the short end of the remaining paper under the fold line is showing.  This is the area that will be attached to the pulley holder.  Apply adhesive to this area.  Line this up with the holder area between the 4 1/8” and 8 1/8” score marks and try to center it to the best of your ability. You don’t want to impede the fold line, but you want to bring it up as close as you can to the line for a nice clean look.  You don’t want adhesive anywhere but on the short piece of paper and where it touched the pulley holder.

 

12.  The 15^th piece of 3 ½” x 3 ½” print paper is for decorating the front of the pulley holder.  It is an optional step, and you may choose to put something else – text perhaps, in its place.

 

13.  At this point you can see how the waterfall mechanism works.  You could close the back of the pulley holder at this point or wait until you have the covers ready.  If you close the back now, make sure that the adhesive is only on the paper of the pulley holder itself – just join the edges of the paper together.  The pulley must be able to move freely and not catch on anything.

 

 

 Video: Making the Covers

 Covers

1.   Take the pieces of 4 ½” by 8 ½” cardboard and use your choice of decorative paper to cover them.

 

 

 

 

2.   You can use decorative paper or decorative tape to cover your spine.  The spine is ½” wide to allow for the thickness of the prints.  If your waterfall is thicker, you will need to make a thicker spine piece and adjust accordingly.  Place one cover, your spine piece, and then your second cover.  You will need to leave approximately two thicknesses of the cardboard that you are using between the cover and the spine pieces.  Once you have that distance determined.  You can add adhesive to the decorative paper, covering your spine piece and lay out your pieces again.

Rotating Star Book

 

(I first came across this book through Scrapbookers Anonymous and More who called it a Kaleidoscope Album and then I found other videos on You Tube who called it a Rotating Star Book.) This is an amalgam of both.

Video: Rotating Star Book - Materials

Materials Needed

•          Paper

o   2 pieces of 8.5” x 11” paper in four different colours or you can use two solid colours and two eco printed papers/gelli printed/specialty papers.  The paper will display better if your eco prints/gelli prints/specialty papers are double sided.

o   2 pieces of eco-dyed/gelli printed paper for the cover decoration that are at least 4” x 4”

•         4 pieces of cardboard that are 2.75” x 2.75” 
•         Adhesive – glue stick or tacky glue, packing tape
•         Small, thin, magnets (I will have some available)

•         Thin ribbon for tie closure
•         Tools

o   Bone folder

o   Cutting tools – you are going to be precutting a lot of this at home

o   Scoring tool – anything pointy but not too sharp will work (tapestry needle in a cork would work)

o   Ruler

o   Cutting mat

 

Assembly

Video: Making the Sections

Making the Sections

1.  The easiest way to start is to do your scoring first.  With the short end of your 8.5” paper facing up, score down the length of the paper at .5”, 1.75”, 3” and 5.75”.  Do this with all four colours of paper.  That would be 8 sheets of paper in total.

 

 

 

2.  The next step is to turn the paper sideways and to cut it into 4 pieces.  Each piece will be 2.75” wide.  You need to have 6 pieces of each colour or pattern. Note:  you will have extra paper of each colour (save these in case you make any mistakes)

3.   After the paper is cut, you will fold each section.  The .5” tab is folded back and the 1.75” sections are folded into a V, the larger section is folded around the back to meet the tab, where the adhesive will be placed.

4.   I find it is very useful to put the folded sections under weight for a while.  They can be very bouncy when first folded.  The flatter they are before assembly; the better assembly goes.

5.   I put a strip of double-sided tape on the tab and then adhere the larger flap.

6.   When you are finished you will have a section that has a fold on one side and a V on the other.

 

 

Video: Adhering the Sections

Putting Them Together

1.    If your sections have an obvious top and bottom, make sure that you arrange them in that order as you stack them, ready for gluing.  Put them in four colour coordinated piles, folds pointing up, all oriented properly and in order so that you won’t paste any in upside down or out of order if you are working with text) (If you’re not confident about the text – you can always glue it in after the book is assembled)

2.   Place the first section with the fold to the LEFT.  Put glue on the entire surface and place the second section (next colour) with the fold facing the TOP. Rub it down well. Turn the glued pieces one quarter turn to the LEFT. (the fold will now be on the left)

3.   Put glue on the surface and place the third section (colour) with the fold facing the TOP. Rub it down well. Turn the glued pieces one quarter turn to the LEFT. 

4.   Put glue on the surface and place the fourth section (colour) with the fold facing the TOP. Rub it down well. Turn the glued pieces one quarter turn to the LEFT.

5.   You have now completed one colour change.  You need to repeat these steps until all remaining pieces have been used.  The most important step to remember is the quarter turn to the LEFT.  This is what will allow the book to rotate properly, and it is also the easiest step to forget.

Video: Creating the Cover

Video - Getting Better at the Cover

Creating the Cover

1.     You will need two pieces of 2.75” x 2.75” cardboard for each cover.  One piece of cardboard will have holes cut out slightly larger than the size of the magnets (this is to allow them to be inset into the cover of the book and covered with decorative paper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.   The magnets are adhered (I used clear packing tape) to the bottom piece of cardboard and the second piece of cardboard is glued on top.  A mark is made to indicate top and bottom and Left and Right (so we can get the polarity of the magnets on the other cover right) 

3.   The cover for the other side is made in the same way.  You will want to make sure that you line up the magnets on the second cover so that the polarity of the magnets attracts. It’s not a problem if you take the time to make sure that all the magnets on the first cover are glued with the polarity in the same direction (but they can be jumpy things and accidents do happen)

4.   Once you are sure that your covers will attract, it’s time to cover them in decorative paper.  The decorative paper covers the magnets, and the plain cardboard is the surface that will be glued to your book.

5.   Put your adhesive (I used glue stick) around the magnet area and place the cardboard on the paper.  Miter the corners and glue. 

 

6.     Before attaching to the book, you may want to add a length of thin ribbon to the back cover to keep the book closed when not on display.  It will wrap around to the front and tie.  Place the ribbon along the middle of the cardboard before attaching it to the back of the book. 

7.   After attaching the covers, place under weight until the glue dries.

 

  

  

 

Explosion Book

 

Video: Explosion Book Materials

Materials Needed

• ·         Paper

o   3 pieces of 12” x 12” paper in a complementary colour for your specialty papers

o   10 pieces of eco-dyed/gelli print/specialty paper that are 5.5” x 5.5” (this assumes a 1/4” border for a smaller border cut the paper 6” x 6”)

o   2 pieces of eco-dyed/gelli print/specialty paper for the cover decoration that are at least 7” x 7”

• ·         2 pieces of cardboard that are 6.125” x 6.125” (6 1/8” x 6 1/8”)
• ·         Adhesive
• ·         Cutting mat, knife, scissors
• ·         Ribbon

 

Video: Step 1 - Building the Base

Assembly

1.    Take a piece of 12” x 12” paper and fold it in half in both directions. Pick up one corner and fold it diagonally in one direction only.  This should leave you with two 6” squares and two areas that are divided into triangles.

2.    Manipulate the valley folds so that the triangles will fold into the center.

3.    Repeat this with the remaining pieces of background paper.

 

 

4.   To attach the papers together, put glue on one of the square sections and overlap with the square section of the second paper.  Since the triangle on the first sheet opened up into the center, for effect, I like to have the triangles of the second sheet of paper open down away from the center, rather than up.  This is accomplished very simply by turning the paper over.

 

 

 

 5.      I then have the triangles on the third piece of paper open up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

6.    Place your completed book under weight until dry.  Allowing the book some time under weight will allow the folds to be compressed.

 

Video: Step 2: Adding Decorative Paper

Decoration

1.    Once the base of your book is prepared, you are now able to create your decoration from your eco-dyed papers. Please note that the directions that follow are assuming that you have precut your eco-papers to 5.5” squares.

 

2.    The following directions assume a 1/4 “ border around your eco print paper. If you want more of a border you will need to adjust the dimensions.  If you want less of a border, you will have pre-cut the paper to 6” x 6” and trim paper now to your desired border size.

 

3.    You will need to adjust the dimensions for the triangles. Reserve 4 of the 5.5” squares for the full square sections of the book.  Fold the remaining six sections on the diagonal (to make a triangle) and mark 1/8” from the fold line.   Draw a line parallel to the fold. Trim along this line.  You will now have two triangular pieces of eco print paper that should fit the space in your book with the border that you need.  You will now have ¼“between the two triangular parts of your square – 1/8” on each side of the fold line.  You can always do it by eye and get the borders approximately even. You will need 12 triangular pieces.

 

4.    Decide where you are going to place your decorative pieces and glue in place.  Make sure that none of the pieces lie on a fold line or interfere with the smooth folding of the book.

 

Video: Step 3 - Making the Covers

Covers

1.    Use your 7” x 7” decorative paper to wrap your cardboard covers.  I frequently find it easier to apply glue to my cardboard and then place that on my decorative paper.  I then cut my corners on the diagonal leaving a few mm distance at each corner.

 

 

 

2.     Apply adhesive to opposing edges and turn in.  You can use your bone folder or thumb nail to tuck in the small edge of paper at the corner to make sure that the corner is covered.

 

 

 

 

 

3.      Repeat on the remaining sides.

4.    Before attaching the covers to the book, attach a ribbon closure along the middle of the back cover.

5.    The covers can be attached by applying adhesive to the front and back of the folded Explosion book.  The square section will be attached directly to the cover.  It is better to apply adhesive to the square and not the cover, because the cover is slightly larger than the square.  You want to try and center the square within the cover area.