Kidzarama

I haven’t been doing much in the way of blogging this past week or so, but I have been bloghopping a bit and one of the best things I found was how to do hand~made books.

Warning: They’re so easy to make, it’s kind of addictive.

I found the idea at The Crafty Crow, who got the idea from Glittergoods.

The glitterfairy (I have no idea what her name is, as her posts are not signed and there is no ‘about me’ page, so this is the name I’ve given her) got the idea from Soulemama, who got it from the Grecos.

Confused enough?

Right, then you’re ready to start.

Because the state you’re in now is how I live.

You will need:

• A4 cardboard in various colours

• White A4 paper

• A paper cutter or guillotine

• An awl or a needle & a piece of Duplo thimble

• Some thin ribbons, pretty thread or cord. My ribbons were between 5mm (1/5in) and 8mm wide.

What to do:

• Cut a piece of A4 cardboard and some sheets of A4 paper in half.

• To make sure the pages don’t stick out of the finished book, trim the height of the paper by ¼( in ½ cm) and the width by twice that.

• Fold them in half and mark the spine lightly 1½ in from each end and again in the middle.

• This is where you will need your awl to make the holes (I used a tapestry needle & pushed it through with a piece of Duplo ~ necessity, the mother of invention).

• After punching the 3 holes, thread your needle with ribbon or thread and poke it through the centre hole from the outside of the book. Leave about 2 inches of the end sticking out.

• Come up through one of the end holes, go back down through the other end hole. Lastly, come up again through the middle hole.

• Now remove the needle and you will see that you have one long piece of ribbon stretching from the bottom hole to the top hole.

• Make sure that the ends of the ribbon (poking out of the middle hole) are on either side of the ribbon, and tie a knot around it.

Other Thoughts:

• Alternate Threading ~ Go in through the top hole, out the middle one, in the other end hole and up through the middle again. Then carefully tie a knot near the top hole, the tricky part being to make sure the knot ends up where you want it to be.

• I also made one booklet with five holes in the spine, using the alternate threading technique to tie the knot near the top hole.

• Add some beads to your ribbon or thread.

• Try using some glittery tapestry thread, fine plastic piping or curling ribbon.

• Also metallic cardboard, handmade papers, scrapbooking materials.

• Wren is using one to write a story about her guinea pig, Olga da Polga.

You’re limited only by your own imagination!

Decorating them is fun too. I’m having lots of fun looking around for inspiration on the net. I’m struggling with my early childhood conditioning against cutting up books.

I keep telling myself that it doesn’t apply to the Mr Lazy book that our very own Mr Bump has torn the pages from, but I still can’t seem to make myself do it…

So now I have a new hobby, and the kids & their friends are really enjoying decorating and filling them as well.