Rebellion Book Folding

Recently it was one of my friends birthdays(happy birthday Maddy!) and i spent hours wondering what to make for her, did she want a llama or a cake or a light box. Eventually i found the art of book folding. I had done a simple version of it before where i folded a New York city travel guide book into a hedgehog, but that was very simple as each page was exactly the same but with folding pictures into a book; every page is different. The craft is very time consuming and takes many hours of folding as well as a few prep. By the end the book looked amazing and i felt very accomplished and proud and was slightly reluctant to give i away.

Before i started to even think about what i wanted to fold i did lots of re-search and looked at and read many websites some of the most use full included 'Scrappystickyinkymess', 'Thistlewood Farms', and 'Seesaw'. Once i had an understanding i looked at many images to put on the book and then wether i wanted to use a pre-existing pattern or make my own. In the end i decided to make my own and have a Star Wars rebellion logo.

First i selected the book i was going to fold, i went to a charity shop and bought a hard back book with minimum of 400 pages. At home o made a mark 1 inch from the spine on the to and bottom of the book with a scalpel and a line in pencil 1 inch from either edge on the fore-edge. Then i counted all of the pages in the book which was about 230. I then took 5 spacer pages(flat pages that will not be folded) from either side of the book and that left me with 220 foldable ones

To make the template i traced the shape in Adobe Illustrator and copied the path onto VectorWorks, where i placed 220 vertical lines over the image, it does not matter if it is stretched as it will look fine when it is actually folded. To ensure the height is right measure the the height of the book and minus 2 inches from that measurement and set your template to that height.I added a few horizontal lines over the image so when i was folding i could ensure that template did not move around casing the folds to be inaccurate. I then printed off the template, it took about 4 pages.

Then using each vertical line as the template for each pages fold, i slotted the paper into the book about 20 pages down and folded the first page, so that the page folded back from the black shape. To give the book a uniform feel i used the line we cut into the book with a scalpel from earlier to use as the far corner for each fold. I also lined the edge of the template with the pencil marks to ensure a neatly folded pattern. After i folded each page i crossed off the line and shuffled the paper forward and proceeded to fold the next page.

I proceeded on doing this to the whole book. If there were 2 shapes to be folded on a page you folded them alternately(page1=top page2=bottom page3=top etc)

Once i had folded all of the pages i was finished. When i pushed the covers together i noticed there were a few pages out of line so i refolded those pages so they all fitted the pattern and none where dramatically out of order.

After i liked it so much that i decided to make another, i chose some cats and did exactly the same thing finding a book, making the template and folding all of the pages. When i reached the end i realised the mage i had chosen was quite detailed and some people struggled in identifying what it was meant to be, i have come to the conclusion that they look more like two puppies then two cats.

#gifts #cute