In our High School art class the students are making homemade books. We started out by cutting two 5 1/2 by 7 inch pieces of
corrugated cardboard.
We then took brown paper grocery sacks and crumbled them until they were soft. We painted the sacks with a base color and then dabbed a couple of
metallic paints on top. I choose a black base coat and copper and gold
metallic paints.
We then created a binding for the two cover pieces. Many of the students choose to use a 3 inch piece of ribbon to bind their books. I cut (4) 3 by 1 inch pieces of the paper I used for the cover and glued them back to back. I then glued the ends to the inside covers of my cover pieces.
After we bound our covers, we covered the inside of the cardboard. I used a couple of pieces of homemade paper my friend Elizabeth made and gave to me. The kids had to also somehow incorporate their names inside the cover. I cut my mother's name from some wallpaper samples. This book will be her Birthday present.
We created a spine by taking a 6 1/2 by 10 inch piece of card stock and
accordion folding it every inch. We glued the ends of this in before we added our inside cover. (
Oops, forgot to mention that one above.) Next we made envelopes out of paper and glue them to our
accordion folds. I made 4 envelopes using
recycled paper.
I added quotes that I like about art to the front of each envelope. I then cut 16- 4 1/2 by 6 inch pieces of watercolor paper and placed four pieces in each envelope. My mother is a watercolor artist and often "journals" small paintings of how her week has been.
Our students made 4 small journals to go into the envelopes. The cut 16 - 6 by 9 inch pieces of white paper. Folded each in half along the 9 inch side. They then made a colored cover from wallpaper samples, decorative paper samples, construction paper and we "drilled 3 holes using an awl down the center of each. They then used a sewing needle and thread to "sew" the binding of
their journal books. I am going to try and do a couple of these for myself also.
