Book Love!

I love books!

I have done for a number of years, going way, way back to my first years at school.

My obsession began when the school I attended was having a book sale, the books were purchased for  1p maybe 2p (cost of living was slightly different back then).

The Golden pathway was one of my favourites and is one of a few I managed to keep in  reasonable condition, it is undated  I do know its older than 45 years as it was a little battered and musty smelling when I had it. I'm not even sure if I could read it at the point I bought it, the pictures were amazing, the coloured pages have tissue paper protecting them, inside are stories, nursery rhymes all manor of tales. My brothers friend bought me his sisters old books too, I was in heaven, my own little library.

These days I still read proper books the kindle doesn't do it for me, I  prefer to pick one up and read it, no need to be charged.
As you can imagine I have a vast collection, some I will re-read others I will not pick up again.

The next question being, what to do with them?

Answer, Up-cycle of course!

I use them for crafting, stamping on the pages, re-using the pages to make home made books with a layer of gesso to obscure the writing a tad, making hidden niches and lots more. Paper folding is popular at the moment, you can find lots of books and videos on YouTube here and here for inspiration.

This is one is my version.

  Over the years I've seen many different versions of book folding, more recently people have been doing more word art. However, I wanted to keep it even more simple than that, so easy anyone can do it.

Here goes.

To begin with find a reasonable sized paperback 300 plus pages if possible although it does work with less. Ideally you want your folded book to be quite full so that you can wedge photos, tags and other memorabilia comfortably without bits falling out. 

You can use all sorts of methods to calculate how many pages you need to fold at once but I  work  on approximately 5-7 pages at a time. All you have to do in fold the pages in half ensuring you bend the spine as you go to make it bend into an arch nicely when complete, get your pages as close to the spine as possible to give an even appearance. 
 

 

Once all  the pages are folded they can be secured into position by placing double sided tape onto the edge of the page folded inwards close to the spine, this will stick to the next group of pages and create the segments.

 

Two circles of  card are folded in half and placed over the spine ends, glued into position with part on the outside of the book and the other half going under the base, you could glue small knobs or beads on theses flat edges for decoration.

 

Grey board is used as a support to give ridgitity to the base stuck with a strong glue, feet could be added to lift it off the table a little.

Once dry the painting begins, the first layer gesso, not all over though as you want to see the text a little. You could use a combination of clear gesso and white or black if you prefer.
Next the colour, I tend to use a dry brush and apply sparingly to get brush marks and layers of paint to make it appear shabby, apply one colour at a time and sometimes another layer of white until I'm happy with the effect, only two colours are used.

 

 

Tim Holtz vintage glaze is added to the ridges of the pages once dry to give an aged look.

Next a combination of hand made flowers, die cut leaves, moss and dried flowers are added to the piece and there you go, an ideal decoration to stick your letters in when they come through the letterbox whilst  waiting to be opened or to put a few family photos, receipts or just stuff.

This was the first one I did.

And this was the second one! They are slightly addictive to make next one will have a more manly appearance (no flowers).

Hope you like it!


Sue X