Through the looking glass?

Hello everyone and a big thank you for all the lovely comments you've been leaving lately.  I was really pleased to hear that some followers are having a go at folding books and I wanted to share my latest creation with you.  This one uses an easier fold which gives a bit more room to add the stamped elements and with this one, I didn't even need to fold the whole book!  Here's the finished book looking down on it to show you the folds and the 3D effect.

I'll show you some more pictures of the book shortly but first of all here are the folds.  If you're new to book folding and want to try it, get a hardback book that's all text (pictures don't work so well), choose one where you like the colour of the pages as well as the size of the print and a reasonable number of pages to keep it sturdy - this one was numbered up to 500 which meant 250 pages to play with.  Opening the book at the centre, fold one page in towards the spine, then the next page gets folded up from the bottom as shown.

Then the same page gets folded down from the top like so:

Thats it!  Just keep making these folds on alternate pages until you get as far as you want to go through the book then turn it round and do the other side the same.  Press all your folds down so you get nice sharp creases and keep that point in the same place all the time - just keep closing the book every now and then to make sure you're keeping on track with the pattern.

Once I'd folded quite a few and was pleased with the 3D pattern in the middle, I decided to cut two niches in the remaining pages on the right hand side.  I did that using two large punches, one square and one round, cutting a few pages at a time and lining the punch up with the top and bottom lines of text on the pages - take your time doing this as its a bit tricky to keep the edges in line.  Once I'd done that, I glued those pages together with glue stick to make them nice and solid, then put the frames around the niches.  I could then fasten my little "Eat me" and "Drink me" bottles inside.

Then the fun bit started with all the images being added to the folds.  This time, as well as the tabs on the sides of the figures, I used a couple of Tim Holtz memo pins which worked really well.

I really  liked the White Rabbit stamp here and just wish I was a bit braver to stamp directly onto the pages - perhaps next time!!

Here's a final pic of my book - hope you like it.  The next one will be a Christmas theme - I'm really fancying doing A Christmas Carol........

Hope you are looking forward to the Bank Holiday this weekend, looks like the weather is going to be good for a nice finale to the summer.  Margie x

7 year hitch?

Hello there friends and a special welcome to my new followers - nice to have you along.  We've had another lovely warm day here in the north east of the UK and it still feels very much like summer.  Its my youngest son and DIL's 7th wedding anniversary at the weekend and I wanted to make them a nice simple card.

The lovely stamp is from Flonz and I added the butterfly because its a little family joke.  Their wedding nearly didn't happen at all because the bride was (and still is) petrified of butterflies and just as she was heading towards the room where we were all gathered, my son noticed a big butterfly fluttering about.  He told his older brother that Nicola wouldn't come in the room if she saw it so with a magnificent leap, the butterfly was caught and released out of the window seconds before she arrived.  Phew!  We still laugh about it and I always make sure there is one little butterfly on their anniversary cards. 

Hope you are all looking forward to the weekend and enjoying some nice weather too.  Margie x

I'm entering this in the Clean & Simple challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenge.

How does your garden grow

Hello there blogging friends!  I've got a workshop coming up with 20 lovely WI ladies tomorrow night and they want to make boxes and handmade flowers so I've been playing about with some samples.  Here's one I made with the lovely Jane's Garden stamps from Oxford Impressions - really like that set.

Its just a simple pizza box and the flowers are made with five tiny circles glued onto a sixth circle and then the edges curled with tweezers and a pearl centre added.  Don't think we'll have time to make Jane's little beaded bag but it will give them some ideas anyway.  The other flowers I've planned are rolled roses and hydrangea florets - both very easy so wish me luck with my class!  I'm all prepped up and rarin' to go.  Thanks for popping in to say hello.  Margie x

What a doll ...

Playing about today making birthday cards instead of doing the housework (as you do!) and really enjoying using this new Julie Nutting stamp and the border stamp too.

I paper pieced her dress and added a piece of lace around the hem for a bit of texture.  I'm entering this card in the Runway Inspired Challenge where you can see the great pic given for inspiration.

Thanks for popping in - hope your weekend is going well.  Margie x

The perfect place ...

First of all, can I thank you for all the wonderful comments on my book art.  I really appreciate them and was thrilled to see that Julie Ann had even created her own and its magnificent - see it here That's amazing! 

I've also been doing more folding and thought I needed somewhere to display my books so I bought an old set of steps from a vintage barn store and leaned them against the wall in my dining room (just like I've seen in the magazines!)  I think they look rather good.

 

The tree shaped book is made from a paperback and you actually have to rip off both covers so that it wraps itself round and holds that shape without any glue.  The only tutorial I could find was in Spanish but I could follow the pictures.  The one on the second shelf down is an experiment and I think it would work much better in a book with lots more pages and the one on the bottom shelf is a variation on the first fold I did but it gives a bit more room at the top and bottom to add the images.  That one is going to be an Alice in Wonderland theme when I finally get all the pages folded but I thought you might like to see work in progress.  Thanks for popping in and have a great weekend!  Margie x

Oh Jane, what are your Wordsworth?

Hello dear friends, especially if you have joined me from Our Creative Corner.  I must say a big THANK YOU for all the lovely comments left on my Memory Book last time - I really appreciated every one of them.  This time the challenge was WORDS and I immediately thought about altered books and the lovely new Oxford Impressions stamp set called Jane's Garden I just bought.  I've wanted to do a folded pages project for ages - there are some great examples out there but they all looked so complex.  Anyway, here's how I turned this charity shop buy:

into this eye-catching piece of artwork:

Are you sitting comfortably?  Then I'll begin.  (Oh, that takes me back.....)

First of all you find the middle of your book and open it flat.  There are only two folds to this pattern and you make them alternately as shown here:

The first fold is just turning the page in towards the spine and creasing it flat.  The second fold turns the top corner and the bottom corner in together until they meet and then pressing them down firmly as shown.  I found it easier to cup the corners in my hands and roll them together until they met before pressing them down to avoid any tears in the page.  Continue in this way, until you get near to the cover and then do the same on the other side and you should end up with the book looking like this:

Be prepared for it taking some time - do a few pages at a time and then do something else to avoid getting bored - it does require a lot of patience to get this far!  I left a few pages at the back and front of the book but I've seen it done right to the covers and then some scrapbooking paper used to add to the background.  Both ways look good.

I then wanted to add some Jane Austen figures to look as though they were emerging from the pages so I stamped them in black on some pale cream card which went well with the book pages.  A little tip here - decide which way your figures are going to face and then make a little tab to fold and glue into the pages so that the images face the right way.  One of my butterflies is done that way and one just sticks out at an angle - learn by my mistakes LOL

I then stamped the sentiment "If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need" and stuck that in at the bottom.

The structure is quite firm and stands up really well - no fear of it falling over.  I'm now starting on a more complicated fold so watch out for version 2 of this project appearing on my blog soon.  I do hope you'll give it a go and give some new life to an unloved book.  Don't forget to see what my teamies have been up to for this Words challenge and I hope you get inspired to join us this month at Our Creative Corner.  Thanks so much for popping in and I'd love to hear any comments you have - they make my day.  Margie xx


Sharing this at Any Way You Fold It over at Frilly and Funkie