Monday, October 19, 2009

twig books

We love books around here. Our love of books borders on craziness sometimes. We buy them, borrow them, lend them, check them out of the library and we make them too. Here's a quick and easy way to make a book. You'll need: some heavy card stock for the front and back cover, paper for your inside pages, a hole punch, a rubber band and a twig. Cut all the paper to the size you want your book to be when completed. Ours is 8 1/2 by 5 1/2. Punch holes in one of the short sides of all of your pages. Make sure your holes line up when you stack your papers together. We scored our top cover page just so it would bend easily when the book was being worked on. Now, insert a rubber band from the bottom of the book up through one of the sets of holes. Slip your twig in the rubber band (this keeps it from slipping out while you bring the other end of the rubber band up). Now, thread the other end of the rubber band up through the second hole and loop it over the other end of the twig. Ta da! You have a bound book. Make sure your rubber band isn't too tight or your book pages will bend....if it's too loose, the twig won't stay in. Now the fun begins...decorate your cover and have fun filling up your book. John Samuel's book is titled: Celebrate Autumn. Everyday he's writing some sentences about what he enjoys most about this season and then he's illustrating them. Here's where it gets fun....You can make these books for yourself or your kids can make them for presenting a school project or keeping a journal. Use a pencil for the binding instead of a twig and make a book to keep your lists in. Or, use a chopstick for an Asian themed book...or a short ruler for a book about measurement...try a miniature flag for a book about flags....see how fun this can be? Enjoy! If you're as crazy about books as we are, a great resource for making your own books is: The Ultimate Lap book Handbook. I don't own it...but I've borrowed it!

23 comments:

At Home Mommy Knits said...

What a fantastic book making tutorial!! I am going to run out today and get supplies so my kids can make some, they will love it. Thanks.

Tracy said...

These twig and pencil bound books are fantastic, Lisa! I've used a slender dowel-like bit before, but love the twig idea even more. :o) What a super project. It's been a while since I've done a book like this. A few years back I had a semi-craze doing Japanese bookbinding. Hubby & I are the same about books--we have them all over the house, we're always at the library borrowing...addicted, yes, bit it's good kind of addiction ;o) Happy Days to you all there ((HUGS))

amanda said...

This is such a cute idea! Fantastic tutorial too!

Kristyn Knits said...

looks like fun! I think my little guy would love to copy John Samuel's idea! he's loving the illustrating part of his school assignments. thanks for sharing!!

Heather said...

This is amazing! Thank you so much for sharing. I think that we have found a new project for the week

Tonya Gunn said...

This is wonderful! Thank you Lisa. We will be doing this tomorrow. And like your family, we love books as well - they are all throughout our house.
Warm wishes.

Green Acres in the City said...

That is so cute, what a fantastic idea! That one is going on the list!

Unknown said...

Thank you so much for this idea! I am sure we will be making these in the near future!

Stephanie said...

What a great idea, I love the rubber band binding idea. I'm sure there are hundreds of items that could be used in place of the twig, and now you have my wheels turning. Your cover is very pretty too!

~ The Jolly Bee ~ said...

This is an adorable idea....My daughter has literally hundreds of little notebooks, journals and handmade stories occupying shelves in her closet. I wish I had thought to do something like this when she was little....It would have made her writings all that more personal.

larisaa said...

This is such a wonderful project! i love the rubber band idea. my kids love writing stories and comics and with this technique they can make a separate book for each adventure! thank you so much Lisa - you truly know how to make learning fun!

Sigrun said...

What a wonderful variety of ideas. I wish I had had your blog for reference when I was teaching school! I will file this idea, since my youngest is getting married, and, hopefully there will be some new youngsters in the family in a couple of years.

a friend to knit with said...

WOW!
i want to make one of these with libby!
thank you, lisa!!!

Designs on 47th Street said...

Very fun tutorial on making a book! How young can a child be to make this with just a little help? I love this idea and something new I could soon do with my grandchildren.

Thanks for the ideas and info!

Donna

Suzie Sews At DOTTY RED said...

I will so be doing this with my kids this holiday. thank you

mark said...

what a great idea, and even better tutorial. JS's book looks so cool! i am thinking of a plastic measuring scoop to use for a book that documents all the unique coffee places that i find along our travels. i'll name it "places i've bean"

Liz said...

Very cute. My little ones would love this. They have to take a little photo album into school next week and this would be perfect. Thanks!!

Hannah said...

Great project!! This is definitely going at the top of our to-do's!!

Ruth said...

What a great and fun idea. We love books here, too. I always have a running list of requests at our local library.

Ruth

Unknown said...

Hey! Just wanted to let you know we made some twig books yesterday! Blogged about it here

http://www.hipmountainmamablog.com/2009/10/twig-books.html#

Thanks again for the great tutorial!

Journeying Five said...

such a great idea! i love how you can change it up simply by changing what you bind the book with!

gardenmama said...

what a beautiful idea!
i enjoyed your tutorial and am excited to try making a few with my family, thank you! : )

pink and green mama MaryLea said...

So fun! I love making books and my girls would love these : )