Geez, more book folding?

A mushroom or in the future, a birdhouse!

Okay, I did NOT do this one, the hubby did.  I don't think I can do this type.  They require a lot more work and you actually have to pay attention.

It requires a template, drawing lines and did I mention, you have to pay attention?

I love it, the photo just doesn't do it justice and now he'll have to do more of them!  

Book Folding

I thought I'd get all my book foldings together.  Here are some old ones and some you haven't seen yet.

These are what started it all.  I just HAD to have a tree!

Once I started, there was no stopping.  They were so much fun to do!

My hubby surprised me with this one, made from one of his old journals from work.

Now it is time to see what other one I can do! Another one using a journal.

This one is small but fun!  Would be great for place holder or recipes.

Next ones are called cylinders.  The one on the right, back is the first one I did using a paperback book and leaving some pages on each side.

The second one I did was another one with a journal.  It is the one on the left.  Used all the pages but kept the cover.

Love this little one!  I wanted to try one completely using a book but I'm out of paperback books!  And since I can't get out for a few days, I used a small tablet that I made (one is shown in the first photo of these) and double folded the pages.  Love it and can't wait to do this with a real book!

I'm using the first one I made for photos and other various items.  I'm thinking about adding tabs to the tops of a few pages and using one of these for coupons.  Wouldn't this look awesome in a vintage book with vintage photographs?

This is what the journal one looks like on the side.  I have each of the journals set back into a cabinet shelf and one hanging above the cabinet.

This one looks nicer in real life.  I'm thinking it could be fuller but I used the entire journal.

That is one I'll have to keep working on!

This is the last one I've done and OMG, I love it.  This was made from one of those travel guides you can get from AAA.

Yes, there is one that is missing.  That great big giant one that wouldn't stand up by itself.  I just couldn't take it so I let the dog rip it apart.  Fun for both of us!

Looking forward to getting out to the thrift shop for more books!

And even more book folding

These were SO easy to do and I think the ones I like the best!  

I started this in the center and worked in both directions.

I wanted to keep some of the original book but you can do the whole thing so it is perfectly round.  This one is so simple, get the kids to do it for you!  It's one fold only, just fold the pages into the spine one page at a time.

This one reminds me of a porcupine.  Again, you can do the whole book so it goes into a circle but I wanted to do only half.  This is a 3 fold.  Top corner down, bottom corner up and then fold the point to the spine.

I think these both would be so neat to use with vintage photographs, post cards, place cards, recipes, etc.

I'm ready to do some more so I have to do something different!

More book folding

For my first try, my hubby gave me a tool and equipment catalog so I got started right away.  A few more lessons learned!  First, check how many pages you have before you start!!  And make sure the pages will be strong enough to hold it up once done!  

It's huge!  It had over 700 pages in it.  

It was good practice!  It took me so long to do that I did another style until I got this one done.

Did I tell you it is HUGE?  I don't even know where to put it, I don't have the space for it!

This is the one I did besides that one:

Much nicer and a lot more fun to do!

And it stands without help or I can use a plate hanger and hang it on the wall.

Christmas Decorating

I decided to go with handmade and trees this year.  I got lucky and found this old, vintage pom pom tinsel tree on eBay for a good price and just couldn't resist it.  It's the highlight of my decorations!

I couldn't believe my luck when I got my ornaments out to fill my bowl and realized I have these tiny glass mercury balls that went perfectly on my tree!

I hung the tree above my cabinet.

Top shelf is my vintage cheese container with Shiny Brite and Germany ornaments.  The wooden reindeer and trees on the next shelf, I made so long ago, they are vintage now!  The 3 Santas with a tree and the snowman are stitched on perforated paper.

The reindeer have twigs I found outside, another stitched tree on perforated paper and two of my book folding trees.

Sitting by the cabinet is a plastic canvas Santa door stop that was given to me ages ago.

My handmade wreaths from ornaments, the center one being my favorite:

I made this one with Shiny Brite ornaments and vintage decorations.  The twine you see between the wreaths is to clip Christmas cards on!

The dish on the left holds the clips for cards and another one of my folding book trees.  The candle has a bracelet made from plastic beads and says Noel on it.  I found the van at a thrift shop and tied a bottle brush tree to it.

This is pathetic.  LOL!  I've always wanted a decoration tree and I started back in Oct. stitching up ornaments, finally got the tree and just hate how they look on it.  I guess I should have done all uniform size ornaments.  Why do other peoples stuff always look so much better than when I try to do the same thing?

On the other hand, this is one I'm most proud of.  I stitched this up back in 1991.  

I had to relocate the hanging book folding to my paint by number wall so I could keep it out.  I don't have much room to decorate, so have to make due with what I have.

And part of my forest had to be moved too.

A funny thing happened on the way to my forest!

Okay, so, my hubby came upstairs to me and presented me with a surprise!

He uses these journals for every day on the job.  Writes down notes, hours, contact information etc.  He decided it is time to get rid of some of the old ones.  What did he do?

Made a tree!!  How cool is that?  It's dated, you can see his handwriting on some pages and it is just too neat!

Added a plate hanger to it, glued down the top corners so the pages stay flat and waalaa, a hanging book folding!

This is how it looks with the rest of the forest:

I think my hubby has been holding out on me!  It's neat that these are dated with the years on them, think I need more, don't you?  

PSSST, honey, go straighten it, it's hanging crooked!

My forest of trees

I needed to find a home for my trees and didn't want to put them away, just to get them out again in a week or two. I decided to clean off my small cabinet that usually holds my antique glassware and set it up with the forest! Along with my shell critter collection:

I cannot make anymore trees!  I don't have the room for them.

More Trees!

I thought I was done.  Really I did.  I liked this look:

I like how these looked, but then I thought, I wonder how small I could make one!  And along came these:

I had to cut and bind these myself.  I cut the first one 4 x 5" from old school ruled exhibition paper.  It worked!  I got a cute smaller one, 5" tall,  um, wonder if I could go even smaller.  I took extra cuts from the first one and cut them down to 2 x 3" and bound those, let it dry and set off to fold all the little pages!  They aren't really as white as the photo looks, they have the same vintage look as the others.  Now I have a whole forest!

I hate to say it, but now I have yet another idea for them!  Stay tuned to see if it works.

My newest project!

I've been fascinated by book folding for some time now and finally decided to give it a try.  Now, I wanted something fast and mindless to do so don't be looking for the ones you need to set up an Excel spreadsheet to do!  Those are amazing and I'll let them to the experts.

I did a search of the Internet and came up with a few different ones I thought I'd like.  I fell in love with the trees, just in time for Christmas!  Here is what I did!

Aren't they just fab!!!???  You can decorate them, if you want to but I wanted to go with a vintage look and think I pulled that off.  Some people paint the edges or glue and glitter but I'm leaving mine just like this.

The smallest one is made from about 60 pages of a paperback book.  The medium one is from a Super Pages phone book we get in this area.  The pages are lighter weight and it took a lot more pages.  The largest one and my favorite one, is made from the pages of a vintage dictionary!!  The pages are thick and easy to work with.

A few tips I had to find out on my own:

1.  Don't use any books or magazines that use staples, they won't work.  The pages will just fall out when you get to the center.
2.  When using vintage books, don't even try to use one with brittle pages, the end results aren't the nicest because the paper will feather.
3.  Watch your vintage books for how they are bound.  The dictionary I used was so old they had used thread/string for binding and this doesn't work so well, I had to use my own binding glue to glue them together before being able to use the pages but it was well worth it!
4.  Don't get discouraged if you do one and it doesn't look full in the back, I have a solution!  Make a second one using the number of pages you think you'll need, usually the same amount as the one you all ready made or more, then just hot glue the two together!!!

Think about this, these are SO inexpensive to do.  Use items around the house such as books or magazines.  The phone book was free, the dictionary I found on the curb for trash and made hubby stop and pick it up (boy am I happy he did) and paperbacks are around 50 cents each at thrift shops!  The folding is easy enough for children to do, so throw a glitter party and have them make them up for you!  LOL!

I have a few other ideas in my head that I might try but for now, that's all I've done!  Hope you like them!