Adventures with Bookmaking

Embark on an adventure with bookmaking by exploring three unique folding techniques. Finish your fold then fill the book pages with memories and tales of favorite adventures!

Part One: Zine (section of video: 0:23 – 2:49)

What You’ll Need

    • Sheet of Paper
    • Scissors

What You’ll Do

    1. Place the paper down vertically. Fold the sheet of paper in half, connecting the top right corner to the top left corner. Crease the edge to mark the fold.
    2. Unfold back to a flat sheet of paper.
    3. Flip the paper to face horizontally. Fold the paper in half, connecting the top right corner to the top left corner. Crease the edge to mark the fold.
    4. Fold the paper in half again, connecting the top right corner to the top left corner. Crease the edge to mark the fold.
    5. Unfold the paper to reveal that your paper has been folded into eighths.
    6. Fold the paper in half, connecting the top right corner to the top left corner. Use scissors to cut across the middle fold to the creased center where the top to bottom and left to right folds meet.
    7. Unfold the paper to lay flat. Refold the paper in half, connecting the top right corner to the bottom right corner. Hold each paper end then push the ends together to open up the cut in the middle of the paper. Continue to push the ends together to form the paper into the letter x with four-page segments.
    8. Fold the top two-page segments in the letter x down to the bottom two-page segments. Fold together to create a book cover and pages.

Part Two: Accordion Book (section of video: 0:50 – 6:09)

What You’ll Need

    • Sheet of paper
    • Scissors
    • Glue

What You’ll Do

    1. Cut the sheet of paper in half-length wise.
    2. Flip the paper to face horizontally. Fold the paper in half, connecting the top right corner to the top left corner. Crease the edge to mark the fold.
    3. Fold the top paper flap back to the center crease. Crease the edge to mark the fold.
    4. Flip the cardstock over and repeat step three. Your paper will resemble the letter w.
    5. Repeat steps two – three on the second sheet of paper.
    6. Glue the two folded sheets of paper together to create an accordion book.

Part Three: Waterfall Book (section of video: 6:10 – 13:20)

What You’ll Need

    • One 4 ¼ inch x 12 inch piece of cardstock
    • One 1 inch x 12 inch strip of cardstock
    • Five 4 ¼ inch x 4 ¼ inch cardstock squares
    • Glue stick
    • Pencil
    • Ruler

What You’ll Do

    1. On the 4 ¼ x 12 inch piece of cardstock, use a ruler and pencil to find the 10 cm mark from the left edge of the cardstock. Fold the edge of the paper to the 10 cm mark.
    2. Starting at the 10 cm fold, mark the paper every 1 cm until you reach 5 cm towards the edge of the paper. Extend each mark to create a line across the paper. Fold each line to create five 1 cm sections and one 5 cm section.
    3. Glue the center of the 1 x 12 inch strip so that it lines up to the paper edge. Flip the 4 ¼ x 12 inch cardstock over and fold on the 10 cm crease to create a page flap.
    4. Fold the two ends of the 1×12 inch strip under the 4 ¼ x 12 inch cardstock and glue together. Do not glue the strip to the 4 ¼ x 12 inch cardstock.
    5. Next, we’ll begin gluing the 4 ¼ x 4 ¼ inch cardstock squares to the 4 ¼ x 12 inch cardstock.
    6. Starting at the bottom 1 cm mark, glue a 4 ¼ x 4 ¼ inch square to the 1 cm line closest to the 5 cm section. Continue to glue 4 ¼ x 4 ¼ inch squares until five squares are overlapped. Crease all pages to allow for flipping.
    7. How does it work? Slide the strip on the back of the book to extend and flip the pages.

Part Four: Prompt

What tales of adventures will you tell in your finished book?