Crafting Corner: Book Folding Art inspired by Jay Kristoff's Nevernight Chronicles

I've been folding books again so look away now if you're squeamish! To be fair, the books I fold are still totally readable, no permanent damage has been done, you'd just have to unfold the pages which might take a while LOL.

Anyway, as a HUGE fan of Jay Kristoff's Nevernight Chronicles I wanted to make a book fold for the series (I actually made this one a few months ago now but I never got around to posting about it). This design is inspired by the UK cover for Nevernight and I think it turned out a pretty good representation!

I wish it wasn't quite so hard to get good pictures of book folding art, it's nearly impossible to show the entire design in good light in a single photo but trust me they look fantastic when you see them in the flesh!

And here it is with my copies of Nevernight and Godsgrave. Who else loves this series as much as I do? I can't wait for the third book to come out later this year!

Crafting Corner: Book Folding Art inspired by Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson Series (2nd Design)

You may remember I've already done a book fold inspired by Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson series of a wolf howling at the moon to represent the werewolves of the series and Adam in particular but I wanted to make a present for a friend who is also a huge fan of the series and I didn't want to use a design that she's seen before. I also thought that since Mercy is the main character of the series it's only fair that she gets a book fold to represent her.

For anyone unfamiliar with the series Mercy is a coyote shifter and she has a tattoo of a coyote paw print so that seemed like the obvious choice for a pattern and I absolutely love the way it turned out.

I love them even more when I see the two designs next to each other though! The paw print has been given away now but I'm definitely going to make another one for my own bookcase.

What do you think? Any other Mercy Thompson series fans out there? Any suggestions for what I should make next? I would really LOVE to make a book fold for Ilona Andrews' Kate Daniels series, the obvious choice would be a lion to represent Curran but I can't seem to find a really good lion silhouette thats suitable for making a pattern with. I need something that has fairly simple bold lines and is easily recognisable without having too much detail but so far I'm coming up blank.

Crafting Corner: Book Folding Art inspired by Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson Series

I absolutely love Patricia Briggs' writing, her Mercy Thompson series (and the Alpha & Omega books set in the same world) is one of my favourite urban fantasy series and I tend to reread it most years to get ready for the latest release. Since I have a section of my bookshelves dedicated to this series I thought it would be fun to make a book fold to add.

I decided I wanted to do a wolf howling at the moon (yes I get that Mercy is a Coyote but the majority of characters in the series are werewolves and the first book in the series is Moon Called!).

I found this image online and decided to use it as inspiration for my book fold:

It's a little harder to see the details on a book fold but I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out:

What do you think? I really like it but I think I might have to try and come up with a design with a Coyote paw print to match Mercy's tattoo next LOL.

Crafting Corner: Book Folding Art inspired by Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows Duology

I absolutely love Six of Crows, in fact I'm a huge fan of all of Leigh Bardugo's books, so it made sense to combine my love of her writing with my love of Book Folding and create something to display on my overflowing Leigh Bardugo book shelf.

The obvious idea was to recreate the official Dregs tattoo which is described in the book as "a crow trying to drink from a near empty goblet". I found a picture online of the temporary tattoo created as a preorder promotion for the series (see below left), it's a gorgeous tattoo but the image is far too complex to turn into a book fold so I had to come up with my own, more simple, version of the design (below right).

I know it's not quite the same but you can't put too much detail into a book fold or it won't work, you need a fairly straightforward silhouette to work from and I'm thrilled with the finished results. This is the first book fold I've made using a book with coloured edges to the page and the black really helps the design pop.

As much as I love the finished book fold it's actually been the hardest one to get a photo of but I think that gives you a good idea.

I think it's the perfect addition to my Leigh Bardugo bookshelf!

Crafting Corner Tutorial: How to make a bookish Christmas Wreath

After last year's success making a bookish Christmas Tree I decided I wanted to carry on the tradition and come up with a new book related Christmas craft to try out this year. After some google searching I decided to make my first ever Christmas Wreath. There are loads of different wreath designs out there but I fell in love with one I found on the blog What Katy Did and Kid so decided to follow Katy's tutorial.

So let's have a quick look at my finished wreath and then I'll give you step-by-step instructions on how to make your own!

I'm so thrilled with how this wreath turned out!

Now let's have a look at what you'll need to make your own:

• Polystyrene wreath ring - I bought a pack of 5 quite cheaply from Amazon here but you can probably find something similar in your local craft shop. The size is up to you but I used a 30cm one.
• An old paperback book - sorry fellow bookworms but the book will be destroyed in the process of making this so pick an old one and preferably one that's already falling apart LOL.
• Glue Gun & spare glue sticks - I used about 2.5 sticks to make my wreath, you could probably get away with less but this was my first time using a glue gun so I was a bit overzealous
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Ribbon or other items to decorate - You really can add whatever you like when it's finished, I used a red ribbon but I might try making another one with pine cones or Christmas tree baubles later

Once you've gathered your supplies it's time to get started

1. Take a page from your book
2. Fold it in half from top to bottom
3. Then fold it in half again so you end up with a long thin strip that's made up of four layers
4. Draw a leaf shape on the top page (you could create a template but I ended up just cutting the shapes out freehand, I think it looks nicer if the leaves aren't all a uniform shape).
5. Cut out the leaf shape (cutting through the whole folded piece of paper)
6. You'll end up getting 4 leaves from each piece of paper
7. Fold each leaf in half so they'll give a more 3D shape when you stick them to your wreath

You'll need to repeat steps 1-7 a few times until you have enough leaves to start sticking them to the wreath. I started off by making 40 leaves (using 10 pages from my book) but in the end it took me 120 leaves (30 pages) to finish the wreath. It's up to you if you want to make all the leaves to start or just cut out more as you go along but I found it much easier to have a bunch ready before I got the glue gun heated up.

At this point it's just a case of starting to stick your leaves down, if you're anything like me you'll probably end up getting glue everywhere so make sure you put something down to protect whatever surface you're working on!

I started by placing a row of dots across my wreath and sticking 6 leaves in place. From there you just slowly add more leaves as you work your way around the wreath making sure all the leaves point in the same direction. The leaves don't have to be touching but try to make sure that you don't leave any holes that you can see the polystyrene through. The idea is to layer the leaves so that they overlap slightly and don't leave any gaps in the finished design.

You can use the end of your pencil to help you push the leaves into place and that will definitely make things easier when you reach the end of your wreath and are trying to push leaves in underneath your original starting point to close the circle.

It takes time for the wreath to start to come together but it's worth the effort when you see the finished product! As you can see I decorated mine with a red bow made from ribbon which I just glued in place using the glue gun but your decorating options are unlimited so let your imagination run wild.

I also glued a smaller length of ribbon to the back to make a loop so the wreath can be hung from a door or picture hook.

I'll update this post when I try out different designs but in the meantime if you make a wreath of your own I'd love to see it so please leave me a link in the comments if you blog about it!

As I only used about 30 pages of my book to make this I have plenty left to create more wreaths or try another bookish craft. If you want to try making the Christmas tree I made last year you can find my instructions here. You'll need around 200 pages still stuck together to create a tree and you'll end up with something that looks a lot like this:

So what do you think of my Christmas Wreath? Have you made anything similar? If you have any other bookish crafting ideas I'd love to see them, I'm always looking for new craft projects to try!

Update 9th December:

So it seems like I've become a little addicted to making Christmas Wreaths because I've made two more since I first posted this!

This wreath was made in exactly the same way as the previous one except I cut out holly shaped leaves instead of oval ones and I used Christmas tree baubles to add berries. The shape of the leaves did mean it took more to cover the wreath, I lost count in the end but I think I made around 180 leaves (so used roughly 45 pages from a book).

I wasn't planning on making any more after the holly wreath but then I had a bit of a lightbulb moment and knew I just had to make a Rudolph version. I just couldn't stop thinking about it until it was done and I'm rather happy with the results. I used the original style leaves for this one (just because it took less leaves to create) and then I drew the eyes and antlers on an old Amazon delivery box. The red nose is a Christmas parcel topper I found in Paperchase and the mini Santa hat is one I bought for my cats from a pet shop a few years ago. All the decorations are glued in place apart from the Santa hat which I attached using dressmaking pins so that I can remove it to reuse later if I need to. So here is the finished result:

What do you think? Which is your favourite of the three wreaths? If you make one and come up with your own ideas for decorations I'd love to see them so please leave me a link in the comments!

Crafting Corner: Book Folding Art - Buddha

I've been meaning to share these pictures for about a month now so if you follow me on instagram you'll already have seen my latest book folding project which I made as a birthday present for my Mum. She is obsessed with all things Buddha so it was the obvious choice to make when she asked me to design a book fold for her.

Getting Started

In Progress

Finished Design

I'm really pleased with how it turned out and I love the way the patterned pages from inside the book frame the book fold. My mum was thrilled with her birthday present too, she's just got to decide on a permanent home for it - she keeps sending me pictures of it in different places around the house LOL.

What do you think? I have so many other book fold designs I want to make, I've even made the patterns for most of them but I need to find the time to sit down and actually fold them.

Crafting Corner: Book Folding Art inspired by Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games Trilogy

It's been a while since I posted a book folding project so it was about time for a new one, I actually made this ages ago but it was a gift for a friend's birthday so I couldn't share the picture until I'd given it to her.

I wasn't too sure how well the Mockingjay symbol would translate into a Book Fold but it worked out brilliantly with even the detailing from the edge of the wings showing. In fact, I like it so much that I'm going to have to make another one for my own bookcase!

The best thing is that Kirsty loved her birthday present & it looks fab on her shelves too:

What do you think of this design? Are there any other book fandom symbols you'd like to see me try making a book fold for? I have a few other ideas in the works but I'm always up for trying something new :o)

Crafting Corner: Book Folding Art inspired by JK Rowling's Harry Potter Series

I know I've written a few posts about Book Folding recently but I'm a little obsessed with it at the moment so I can't help sharing :o)

Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE Harry Potter, I've been obsessed with that series for years, the books have been read multiple times, the movies have been watched over and over and of course I can't get enough of the merchandise. One day I'm going to get another bookish tattoo and it'll definitely be Harry Potter related so it only made sense that I combined my new book folding hobby with HP.

I thought about just creating the Deathly Hallows symbol (the triangle and circle design with a line through it that represents the invisibility cloak, the resurrection stone and the elder wand) but since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is such a huge book (just over 600 pages) I figured I had enough space to write a whole word. Since ALWAYS has become such a popular quote from the Deathly Hallows (and it sums up my feelings about the whole series so well!) that was the logical word to choose, especially when I found this image using the Deathly Hallows symbol as the letter A making it part of the word.

In case you're not familiar with the quote it's taken from a conversation between Professor Dumbledore and Professor Snape, they're talking about Snape's feelings for Harry's mum Lily:

Dumbledore watched her fly away, and as her silvery glow faded he turned back to Snape, and his eyes were full of tears.

"After all this time?"

"Always," said Snape.

So here is my attempt at recreating that design using the book folding technique. This is only my 3rd attempt at book folding and I can't even tell you how thrilled I am with the results. It's quite a large piece though (it's about three times as wide as the wolf I created for the Red Rising trilogy) so it's been really difficult to get a good picture.

After all this time?

Always!

What do you think? It's actually much easier to read when you can see it in the flesh so to speak & I love it! I can't wait to reorganise my bookshelves and create a bit of a Harry Potter related display with all my books and some of my favourite merchandise :o)

Crafting Corner: Book Folding Art inspired by Lara Adrian's Midnight Breed Series

It was only a couple of days ago that I posted about my first attempt at Book Folding (read about my Red Rising inspired design here) but now that I've started I seem to have become a little obsessed with it so I thought I'd give you an update of my second piece which I finished yesterday:

I've been a huge fan of Lara Adrian's Midnight Breed series for 7 or 8 years now, it was the first adult paranormal romance series that I started reading and I love it so much that it even inspired my first tattoo. So it only seemed logical that when I was thinking of ideas for Book Folding designs the Breedmate Mark was one of the first things that popped into my head.

I thought this would be a fairly simple design to create but it turns out that just as much work was involved for both this and my Red Rising wolf. I think the results are worth it though and now I just need to reorganise my shelves so I can display them properly!

Book Folding Art based on the Breedmate Mark from Lara Adrian's Midnight Breed Series
(the image in the corner shows my tattoo of the same design)

I'm not going to go through all the steps involved in book folding again (you can read about it in my previous post here) but I'm really pleased with the results and I already have loads of ideas about designs I'd like to have a go at making. In fact, I already finished book 3 today (a Harry Potter theme!) but I've been having trouble getting a good picture since it's a lot bigger than my first 2 so I'm going to make you wait a while before I share it with you.

Crafting Corner: Book Folding Art inspired by Pierce Brown's Red Rising Trilogy

I'm a bit of a random crafter, I love trying different things and I tend to jump from one completely random activity to the next (something you've probably already noticed if you've seen any of my other Crafting Corner posts!) so you really never know what I'm going to discover next and hopefully I'll get to introduce you guys to something fun along the way :o)

Anyway, Book Folding is something I've been wanting to try for a long time now. I managed something very quick and easy when I created my Book Tree at Christmas (read all about that here) but I've been wanting to try one of the more complicated designs for months. I was planning on buying a pattern to try (you can find lots to choose from if you search for Book Folding on Etsy), especially for my first attempt but the other day I just got this idea into my head and I couldn't shift it.

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a HUGE fan of Pierce Brown's Red Rising trilogy and I was absolutely thrilled to get the chance to meet him when he was over for his UK tour to celebrate the release of Morning Star. I got my hardbacks for the entire trilogy signed and they're now in pride of place on my favourites shelf but I still had a paperback copy of Red Rising sitting around and I figured it would be the perfect book to use for my first book folding project. As soon as I decided to create something related to this series I knew what image I wanted to use:

The House Mars Crest from the Red Rising trilogy

I've actually been thinking of getting this image as a tattoo so it seemed like the obvious place to start. To be honest if I'd had any clue how complicated this design would be to fold I'd probably never have started but I'm thrilled with the results so I'm glad I gave it a go :o) I'm not even going to talk about creating the pattern here, I'll just tell you it took me the best part of a day and there was a lot of swearing involved - it definitely wasn't an easy task LOL. Once you have the pattern it's time to get started on actually making your folded book art though and that's the fun part!

First let's look at the things you'll need:

What you need to get started

Obviously most importantly is a book, it doesn't have to be a new book (as long as the pages aren't loose and likely to fall out) and a hardback is probably better because it gives you a more solid frame for your image but I'm using a paperback because it's a book I had spare. The main thing to bear in mind is that the book needs to have enough pages for your design (if you buy a pattern it should tell you how many pages you need and of course creating your own design you can work it to the book you want to use like I did) and is also the right height (some images require a taller book than others). You'll also need your pattern, a pencil, ruler and a sharp knife (not pictured).

The first thing you'll need to do is score the top and bottom of the book using a sharp knife about 1.5 inches from the edge of the binding. You'll be folding every page to these lines so you need to leave enough of an indent to make it easy to see where the mark is. You could mark this line with a pencil if you prefer but I found scoring made the folding process a lot easier. Don't forget to do both the top and the bottom of the book, you can choose to make the mark at a different point but you want the top and bottom marked at the same place.

Scoring the edges

Now it's time to start marking your pages, I think some of the patterns you can buy skip this step and instead give you a template to fold to but I've not tried that way so I'm talking about what I did here. I had a list of measurements for each page, the space between the two marks will be the front part of the design and you'll be folding away the space on the left and right of those marks to get a 3D effect but we'll get to that in a minute. I found it easier to go through the entire book and mark all of the pages before starting to fold the design. It takes a long time to do but it's the kind of mindless task you can do when watching TV or listening to an audio book so it's not all bad.

Marking the pages

Once you've completed the marks it's time to start folding, this is also quite a big task (it took me around 4-5 hours to mark and fold the pages for this design!) and it takes a LONG time before you can actually see your design start to take shape. For quite a while I was convinced that my attempt was going to be a complete fail but you just have to stick with it and trust that the pattern is correct and it'll be worth it in the long run!

I started at the back of the book and worked my way forwards but there's no right or wrong way to do it so go with whatever works best for you. As you can see from the picture above you're folding from the first pencil mark on each page to the scoring mark on the top of the book (that mark about 1.5 inches from the top) which will always be the back edge of the design. Then you're folding from the second pencil mark to the scoring mark at the bottom of the book. The angles of your folds will be different for each page but the edges are ALWAYS those top and bottom scored marks.

The folding process may take a long time but it's fun to gradually see your image come to life and it's incredibly satisfying to make those last few folds, especially when you end up with a piece of art like this:

Finally Finished!

Close up of the design

My finished piece along with the rest of the trilogy

So, this may have ended up being a lot more work than I expected but I'm absolutely thrilled with the results! Even if you're not familiar with the House Mars Crest I think the wolf looks great and it's going to have pride of place on my shelves.

What do you think? Have you ever tried book folding before? If you have please link me to your pictures because I'd love to see them! I've already got a couple of ideas about what book folding projects I'm going to do next (I'm working on an Harry Potter idea and a design for the Midnight Breed series) but if there are any other book related things you'd like to see let me know and I'll see what I can do.

I've actually had a couple of people ask about whether I'd consider selling either finished projects or the patterns on Etsy and it's something I'm going to look into but I'd love to know if you'd be interested in making a purchase so I can decide whether it's worth doing.

Update February 2018:

Last week I got the chance to meet Pierce Brown when he was in London for the Iron Gold release tour. I couldn't resist making another of my Howler book folds as a gift for him & I think he quite liked it :o)