March Meeting Book Demo

For our meeting last March, I demonstrated how to make a kind of reverse painting technique and then turn that painting into a simple one-page folded book.  It's a very simple but complete book.

In the meeting we did a sun book:

But for my blog demo I thought I would make a star book using the same technique that we did for the sun book.

The Painting:

You start with just an ordinary piece of printer/copier paper.  (The paper should be light weight.)  

On the paper you will want to trace randomly about 5 to 7 medium circles.

For our sun book we left the circles white, but for this star book I decided to color in the circles a yellow.

Then I mixed a light blue acrylic paint with glazing medium, at about a 1part paint/2 parts medium ratio.  (Because every paint is different, you will want to test a sample on a scrap piece of paper before adding it to the actual work.  The paint should be translucent.  The color should be vibrant but you should be able to see through it.)

Paint around the circles.

You'll notice that you can see your brushstrokes.  That's part of the beauty of this technique.

The paint needs to dry before moving to the next step.

Next, I  traced randomly about 9 to 12 smaller circles, going inside and outside the yellow circles.  

I then took a darker blue acrylic paint and added to the glazing medium.  (Once again, you will want to check on a scrap piece of paper to make sure the mixture isn't too transparent or opaque.)

Then I painted around the smaller cirlces, ignoring what I had previously painted.  

You will have to wait again for the paint to dry before moving to the next step.

Next, using a template I made of a star shape, I traced several stars randomly around in pencil first and then went over it with silver marker.

As you can see the paper is rolling up on the ends slightly.  That's ok.  It will straighten out once it's weighted down after folding it into a book.

Wait for the paper to fully dry before folding it into the book form.

Making the Book:

For anyone who isn't familiar with making a simple one-page folded book, here are the instructions:

The hardest part about making this book is to make sure you fold everything evenly.  If your paper or folding is uneven, your book will be uneven.


Adding Your Text:

For me this makes the book complete, and treat it like poetry. 

I wrote 6 words about stars, printed them out on the computer and cut them out individually.

Then I glued them, one to each page of the inside of the book, leaving the first outer page for the title and the last outer page blank.

You will want to think about where you place each word and the overall design of the page.

For our sun books, some people wrote directly on the page.

After your book is complete and dry, make sure to put it under weights for about a week or so,  so that it flattens out.

Just a reminder our next meeting is on April 12th.  Dina will be demonstrating two book forms.  She will provide all the materials for the books, you will only need to bring the basics, ruler, pencil, Exact-o knife, glue, etc.

Also, please do not forget the Spring page is due for our group book.  The page should be 8 1/2" x 11", hamburger folded and you should make about 15 copies or so to share.

Quote of the Week:  "But I know somehow, that only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars." _ Martin Luther King Jr.