Accordion Fold Book with Pockets

Hi Everyone!

A big thank you to Chris Klein for the great demonstration of the Accordion Book with Pockets on Saturday.  It was very easy and fun to make, with a lot of possibilities for creative expression.

For those who were not able to join us, I'm posting the instructions with photos, below.  We created two books.

3" x 4" Accordion Fold Book with Pockets (The pockets fit a standard ATC card.)

Paper - 5 1/2" x 22"
Cover - 4" x 6 1/2"
Ribbon - 18" (optional if you want tie close)

1.  Score the paper horizontally 1 3/4" from the bottom edge.  Make sure this is creased well, it will become the pockets.

2.  Flip the paper over, so the fold is away from you, and "hamburger" fold the paper in half.  (A "hamburger" fold looks like a hamburger bun.  It is side to side fold.  The other is a "hot dog" fold, which looks like a hot dog bun, and is top to bottom.)

3. Open the folded paper and make a another fold by taking the edge of one side to the center fold.  Open again and bring that fold to the center.  Essentially you are folding the paper in half, then folding one half in half and folding each of those halves in half.  It will look something like this:

4.  You will need to do the same thing on the other side.  So that when the entire paper is folded it will look like this:

5.  Glue or tape the edges of the first and last pockets.  

For the cover:

You can just glue the cover to the first and last pages, to have a soft bound book.  Chris recommended using Yes Paste:

If you would like to have a ribbon tied book, you will need to first make slits in the cover.

Hopefully, you can see mine.  There is one in the middle and one near the edge.  Where you put the slits will determine how the ribbon will tie your book closed.

After you have your slits, insert your ribbon and then you'll be ready to glue.

Chris did give a helpful suggestion of using pieces of wax paper when putting the glue on to help prevent the glue from going on the other pages:

Here is my finished book:

Our second book was folded the same way.  We did cut a decorative border along the edge the pockets.    This was done after step 1, before folding the pages.

For our second book we did not include the ribbon, so it would open up and fan out.  

 Another idea was to add color to the edge of the pockets and the cover.

Or to add ribbons to the covers to create a closed accordion.

Chris will be teaching another book at our next meeting August 10th.  I will be giving supplies and examples of the book in next weeks blog.

Thanks again Chris, they were a great book forms to learn!


Quote of the Week:  "Learning never exhausts the mind." - Leonardo da Vinci