DIRECTIONS TO MAKE THE STAR BOOK

 

 

Supplies

 

Card Stock in 4 coordinating colors

Cut seven 51/2x11 pieces from color one

Cut seven 3x11 pieces from color two

Cut seven 51/2x8 pieces from color three

Cut seven 51/2x7 from color four

Mat Board or thin good quality card board

Exotic papers, handmade papers, or fabric of your choice

Tags, fibers, yarn and ribbon

Shrinky Dinks

Awl

Needle

DMC Thread

Glue Stick and hot glue gun

 

Instructions

 

To create the different layers of the book, cut and fold the card stock as follows:

For layers one, cut seven pieces of color one into 5 1/2 x 11 pieces.

Fold these pieces to form signatures measuring 51/2 x 51/2.

For layer two, cut seven pieces of color 2 into 3 x 11 pieces.

Fold these in half to 3 x 51/2, and fold again to 11/2 x 51/2.

For layer three, cut seven pieces of color 3 into 51/2 x 8 pieces.

Stamp a design of your choice along the top (now is also the time to do any embossing or adding of glitter glue); fold in half to 51/2 x 4.

For layer four, cut seven pieces of color 4 into 51/2 x 7 pieces.

Stamp your designs, add pictures and any embellishments you want to put on them.

Fold into 51/2x31/2 signatures and embellish with tags and pockets and shrink dinks, charms, beads whatever cooks your cookie.

 

Stitching the Book

• Nestle layer two inside of layer ones to create a double signature.

• Using an awl, punch four evenly spaced holes through the fold of layers one and two.

• Sew the double signatures together as you would for a basic codex cover. (Cover to Cover by shereen La Plantz is a good reference for the basic codex and a basic star book.) When you glue the cover to your layers, glue your ends between the cover and layers – that way your ends will not show.

 

Basic Sewing

1. Hold the layers so that the spine is facing you.

2. From the outside bottom hole, go in to the center, up and out the next hole, back to the center and out the top hole.  Leave a tail at the bottom so you can tie it off later  (remember you can always trim the thread later but you can't add any). 

3.  Take the next signature; go in the top hole, out the second hole and into the second hole on the first signature, out the third hole on the first signature and in the third hole on the second signature, and out the fourth hole of the second signature.  Tie the first signature to the second signature at the bottom holes.  Later, I put the needle back in the tail of the original signature and hid the thread inside the pages.  Continue adding signatures in this manner until all seven have been sewn together.

4.  Glue the sets of color one that touch each other together at the front edges--leave the skinny spacers free--the front and back sheets will not be glued because they will form the end papers and attach to the covers.  Insert wax paper between the pages.  Clamp them and let them sit for a while.  Use a glue stick or clear Tombow Mono Aqua to glue the pages together.

 

Attaching the Covers

5.  Cut mat board for the front and back covers, 5 3/4x5 3/4.  Cut exotic paper, handmade paper or paper/fabric of choice and adhere using glue stick or other adhesive and cover your mat board, bringing about an inch to the back of the mat board, gluing and mitering the corners 

6.  If you wish, add some ribbon so that you can tie your covers open for display.  Cut the ribbon long, tape it on to the mat board, going in the wrong direction.  Fold the ribbon back over the tape so that it falls on to the outside of the book and then tape it down again.

7.  Using clear glue or bookbinders glue (or even the trusty glue gun), attach the front loose page (color 1) sheet to the front cover--ribbon should be coming out of the front, not the spine.  The open ends of the second layer should be facing up, the folded ends, down.

8.  Put wax paper in the front and back cover and clamp it together carefully so things don't slide; let the covers and signatures rest and bind for a while.

9.  Use a glue stick along the outside edges of the third layer.  Be careful that you glue no more than 3/4" deep along the 5 1/2" length.  Insert this layer into your book and adhere each of the signatures to the pages of color 1.  Insert wax paper between the pages, clamp and allow the layers to set up.

10.  I embellished my fourth stamped layer with a variety of stuff, tag art, Shrinky dinks, glitter glue, paper embroidery, (use your imagination) before inserting the final layer in the same manner as layer three.  Use wax paper between the layers and clamp off the pages and allow them to set up for a while.