Thursday, January 14

birthday wishes....artful thursdays #2 tiny book tutorial


welcome to artful thursday no. 2. i have a new artful thursday button designed by rachelle and a new list of regular artful thursdays blogs for you to check out on the left. stop by and see what Hope, Elise, Michele, Lilia, Tammy,and Jennifer made today.


i have had the papers to make one of these little birthday books collected and stacked on my desk for an entire year now. today is the day, especially since my baby sister kris and i are both celebrating our birthdays today! she was born on my 10th birthday. when i got home from school for my party that day no one was home. my nice (but scary) next door neighbor came over and said i could sit in her front room until someone came home for me. mrs. lewis' front room was not for kids. i sat there without swinging my legs against her orange floral couch for maybe hours. it was definitely a tragedy. but now i have this amazing sister. she is a true kindred spirit and a cunning planner just like myself. it was worth it to miss out on one little birthday so i could share so many other birthdays with her.

i thought it would be fun to have these little birthday books all ready to mail out to friends and family on their special day this year. (ok, look surprised if you happen to get one of these this year and you are reading my blog)

get started by collecting 8 tiny scraps of paper 2 by 3 inches from your stash. i used vintage papers from old ledgers and thrift store notebooks and journals.

the set up for this project is the only tricky part. if you are sloppy with your measuring and cutting your little book won't fold up and look right. the pages will overlap in the folds and drive you crazy.

1. fold a piece of white printing paper in half for your template. measure off 1/4 inch along both long sides of the paper and along one end. these are the red lines. this will give you a little wiggle room for printing.

bring the middle fold up to the top red line and crease the paper. this will divide the paper in half for the pages of your book.


2. the next step is to fold the paper in half lengthwise and crease. you now have 4 rectangular sections shown divided by the black lines.


3. now fold in half each of the four rectangle spaces by bringing each red side line to the center and fold and crease your paper. these folds are the green lines. do they look green?


well now you have your 8 sections ready to fill in with paper. cut and glue in each page so the edges are nice and straight. this is my birthday book with the 8 pages and cover decorated.


i numbered the pages to show you which way each page should be facing. the cute red labels are from lilia and are in her shop. when you are designing your book pages 1 and 2 are facing pages, as are 3 and 4, and 5 and 6.




after decorating all 8 pages your book looks a bit like this:


take it to the copy center and color copy your book, ask for '2 up', this means each full page will have two books printed on it.

cut out around each book and fold along the lines. this site shows how to cut the center slit and fold your book up. I like to use a glue stick to hold the pages together and add a few touches of glass glitter to add some sparkle.

voila! i have a ready to go stack of little birthday surprises to mail. i left some space on the back cover to write a little note.



hey, this is going to be my first swap of the year. make a tiny book, copy and fold up 24 copies, mail them to me and i will send you 24 tiny books back.
and check it out mine is already done.... i'll figure out the swap details and post them next week. or if you just want a copy and don't want to swap, send $2 for printing and postage to my paypal @ juliecollings2003@hotmail.com and i will mail you a tiny copy of birthday wishes. don't forget to include your snail mail address.

happy artful thursday, julie

31 comments:

Cassondra W. said...

Happy Birthday pretty lady!!! So happy to see you back! I would love to join your "little book" swap. Can I do that if I am blogless? :>) I love the little book I got from Marina, holds all the cell phone numbers I can never memorize! Hope you and the "fam" are doing great!

Anonymous said...

Great blog you got here. I'd like to read a bit more concerning this topic. Thanx for sharing this information.
Joan Stepsen
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April said...

Love the book idea!

Robin Thomas said...

Happy birthday. I am looking forward to these Thursday posts. Thanks for doing them. Enjoy your heart and keep kisses!

Wanda said...

Happy Birthday, Julie! Thank you for more inspiration in the coming year...I think everyone will start loving Thursdays now. :)

Unknown said...

Happy Birthday~ I have always loved this little book fold. I use to teach it to my 2nd & 3rd graders. It makes a handy little book for shopping & to~do lists, what have you. The collage & copy idea is new to me & I love it! Thanks for sharing

Elise said...

Fantastic little book! And a super idea to send them out to each other. Please count me in for the swap. Looking forward to more Artful Thursdays!
Love,
Elise

Ella said...

Happy Birthday to you and your sister,how fun!!!

Love the sweet little book tutorial...will have to try this one!

Thanks for this, it is a fun feature!

Valarie said...

What a great idea...I used to make abc books for my kinders this way. Yours is beautiful and I would love to be in the swap! Belated Happy Birthday! Thursdays are my day off so I am excited to start my day with my coffee and your blog!

tamdoll said...

Brilliant!!!! I'm going to come back to this idea when I work on the paper in my stash. You really have an amazing collection of papers.

I love it!

Sherri B. said...

I just bought your book "Pretty Little Felts", and my heart is vibrating. You've inspired me to get creative with my hands again (instead of just with my words). Thank you!! Your blog is beautiful, too.

gretchen said...

what is the time frame for this swap? i am "blogless" also, but would love to participate! such a sweet little book you have created, julie - love it!

Jennifer said...

I love the book. I just adore your vintage style. I posted my project, (a day late), my blog is: 3reeddotters.blogspot.com

Suz said...

This is too cute. I don't quite get it but, I will just ask for "2 up" and see what happens.

I love your book and am so glad you are blogging more often again. You are on my daily check list.

kristin said...

yet another inspiring post...i love all your unique ideas. i can't wait to give your little book a try...a swap sounds like a fun idea.

happy (belated) birthday!! i love your tenth birthday story...how wonderful you and your sister share such a special bond. and you hit all the milestone years on the same day!!

moline said...

Julie, this is amazing! Thank you so much for posting!
Yvonne/moline

m i c h e l l e said...

Dear Sweet and the Ever Inspiring Crafty Girl Julie:

Wishing you a very happy birthday and if there's room, I would love to join this sweet little swap! SO up my alley!

Big hugs to you and hope life is all good for you :-)

xo,
Michelle

Nicole Austin said...

this is so cute and looks so easy to make, too! thank you for the artful thursdays, i'm inspired to pick through my stuff and make something! :)

nicole

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cathyb said...

Love this swap idea - I want to play - please add me to your list Julie - also sent you an email on this

cathyb said...

Julie - one question - what size is the finished book - not sure I did the folds correctly but if you tell me the finished size I'll see if I got it right

Robin said...

this is so adorable! I can't quite understand how you did this....I keep re reading it and DUH I can't make it work! I will keep trying because I LOVE it!

Robin said...

ok 30 seconds later, and one "Crayola" youtube kids video (tee-hee!) I figured it out! I can't wait to create something!

cathyb said...

Julie,
I've got mine donw - I love doing this. I just stiill have to make my photocopies - okay now that I stood in front of the copy machine I get the 2 up - I will be sending it to you no later than Wednesday the 27th - hope it gets to you in time!! I love this

katie said...

This is too beautiful for words! I love it - Thank you for sharing it - I sent you an email asking how I can send you $2 and i am in UK - do you want a bit more?

miss christine said...

adorable and so perfect for valentine's day. i was just looking for something different and exciting and this is IT!! thank you for the wonderful post! love your blog so much! i subscribing today :)

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Shawnee said...

I used your wonderful tutorial to make "class syllabus books" for my DD's 11th birthday party - Harry Potter themed. It was PERFECT! Thanks so much!!

Tautchia said...

Lovely idea!!! Can't wait to try it. However, I cannot get to the page to see how to cut the center, etc. it says 404 not found. Maybe I can find something online somewhere to figure it out.
Love your tutorials!

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