How to Make a Folded Book (Part One)

hi it's Julia hood the manager of school and family learning at Renault House Museum of American Art today we're going to start a two-part series for our pop-up studio on very simple folded books that you can make at home today is going to be a pretty quick video where I'm going to show you how to use a piece of plain computer paper to make a small book this size so a piece of computer paper will make a book this size if you can find a larger paper you can make a larger book and if you want to use a magazine page or something pretty you can make a book that has a background to it and then perhaps paste in text that you that you type in and we have a template to help you with that if you'd like I'll show you what you need to complete this project and how to do it

for this book you need a rectangular piece of paper I'm using eight-and-a-half by 11 inch computer paper if you wanted to cut a magazine page or other decorative paper into a rectangle you can make book pages that have a decorative background you will need a pair of scissors the white tool here is called a bone folder and it's what bookmakers use to help make sharp folds if you're interested you can buy these at most craft stores in the paper arts section however if you want sharp creases you can easily use a ruler or old credit card in place of a bone folder and just run the edge along your folds

start by folding your paper in half lengthwise or what can be called a hot-dog fold unfold it and then fold your paper width wise or a hamburger fold now take the edge of the paper the top part and fold it so that the left edge meets the fold on the right that's the middle of the paper flip it over and repeat taking the edge to meet the fold then smooth your folds now open up the last two folds you made you should be able to see all the folds in the paper cut along the first half of the middle fold stopping as soon as you reach the fold line perpendicular to it you'll be cutting from the very center of the paper towards the shortest to sides of what was the original paper this cut allows you to spread the paper apart where you've cut it and then turn it into an X shape then collapse the X down crease and fold your book in half to finalize it you have six interior pages and two outside covers you can also unfold your page entirely if you want to put more of the book or maybe a large drawing on the inside if you make an excellent avant to see follow the same process but make sure that the side of the paper you want to be your background is facing down when you begin to fold

you can write and draw directly onto the pages of your new book or you can type print and cut up text and paste it in place see the PDF instructions below for written directions with diagrams additional suggestions for what you might want to do with your completed books and a printable template to use for typing pages of text that will fit into a book made from an eight-and-a-half by 11 inch piece of paper you can find these by following the links below