Over the last few days I have been working on making books from the cover papers that we made in art club last week. This is how I did it:
Materials needed:
Decorated paper for cover (these were papers "painted" with colored tissue paper)
Mat board or heavy cardboard (frame shops may have scrap mat pieces)
plain white paper (or other paper for pages)
paste glue (I used Yes glue)
colored duct tape
First, make the pages to insert in the book. I used ten sheets of regular copy paper. Fold the paper stack in half and stitch (on a long basting stitch) along the fold line.
Next, cover the mat board with the decorated paper. I neglected to take photos of this procedure. I hope you can figure out what I did.
Cut each decorated paper in half and used half for the front cover and half for the back. Next, glue the mat board to the paper leaving 1.5 inches on three sides and trimming the fourth side (spine of the book) even. I then trimmed the two outer corners at a 45 degree angle so that when the edges were turned in and glued down they fit together in a pretty miter.
Duct tape is used for the spine to hold the two halves of the book togther. Lay a piece of duct tape sticky side up on the work surface and then place the book covers on the tape as shown. Make sure to leave about a quarter of an inch between the edges of the cover so that there is space for the section of pages to go.
Next, fold down the ends of the duct tape.
Spread glue over the front and back of the page secton and place it even with the inside edge of the back cover. Carefully close the front cover so that the edges of the book are even. Press firmly together.
I am thrilled with how these turned out.
Most of the students made papers with many colors on them.
A few students used warm or cool colors for their covers.
This was a fun project. Older children would be able to complete the books on their own but I thought that was asking a lot of the K-2 age group.
I hope the students will enjoy having these blank books to keep.
