Hedi Kyle's Blizzard Books or Crown Binding

Hello Everyone,

Sorry this took so long to write.  I had to pick my children up from camp last week and I was only able to make it to the last half hour of our meeting.  So with the quick help of Carolyn, I learned how to fold the book and then made a better sample at home for the blog and my own collection.

A big THANK YOU once again to Chris, who demonstrated and instructed everyone on how to make these books.

Book Version 1

Materials needed:
   Bone folder
   Page paper - 9 1/4" x 22"  (should be a light weight paper, double sided wrapping paper works well)
   Cover paper - 3 3/4" x 11"  (medium weight)
   *optional - 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" cards (ATCs work well)

This book is created simply by folding, so no measuring is required.  You do need to make sure you are folding straight.  And the weight of the paper does matter.  You want to use a paper that's thin, flexible and can hold a fold.  (Similar to origami paper)


Start the book, by folding the page paper in half.  Then fold each half in half.  And then each of those halves in half.  You will end up with something like this:

From there, you gather the folds up, like an accordion book.  Then fold the corners to the center:

It is each mountain fold that you will fold to the center.  After you do one side, repeat on the other.
You will end up with your page paper looking like this:

Make sure your reverse fold all your folds to make the next step easier.

Now unfold the entire page.   Starting with one side push the folds inward, as follows:

From there, you will fold each of those points down as far as where the diagonal meets the center fold:

Repeat for all points, then do the exact same thing on the other side.  You will end up with a structure that looks like this:

For the cover, it will tuck in the first and last slots.  For mine, I pre-folded card stock, leaving about 1/2" for the binding:

And here's a photo of how the cover fits in:

And here's my finished book:

You'll notice the page paper is showing a bit at the top and bottom.  That is because the paper I used (rice paper)  was a bit thick and I had to trim the cover a bit to get it to slide into the pocket.  You will need to play with it a bit depending on what paper you use.


Book Version 2

Materials needed:
   Bone folder
   Binding paper - 7 1/2" x 8"  (text weight paper)
   Page paper - 4 separate pieces, each 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" (text weight paper)
   Cover - 2 separate pieces, each 5 1/2" x 4 1/4"  (card stock)

The binding paper is folded in the exact same way that the page paper was folded in Version 1.  The difference is that it is smaller and requires a little more nimbleness.  What you will end up with should look like this:

Fold each of the page papers in half and then insert them into the point folds of your binding.

My picture was a bit dark, huh.  Anyways, once all four are inserted it looks like this:

I used four different papers for each of my pages.

Then glue one cover page to the front and back of your book.  Here's my finished book:

I will bring my books to our next meeting, if you would like to take a closer look.


Our next meeting is scheduled September 14th.  Keep the dates open for October 12th, November 9th and our "Trade a Book" day on December 7th.

Also, there is a lot of information to share this week, so I will be writing a few posts this week.  
Stay tuned  :)

Quote of the Week:  "He that can have patience can have what he will." - Benjamin Franklin