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.
