An Old Favourite By Helen Pigott

Good Morning!

Today I am revisiting an old favourite, a 5 point star book.

There are lots of photos for you to look at

 (this is a little hard to photograph properly as you will see!)

My cover is very simple, a piece of scrap card covered with calico
which has been painted & stencilled. When the covers are pulled
back to face each other, the book becomes a star.

What I did:

So, firstly I selected 3 contrasting colours of card approx 300 gsm.

Then I cut 5 pieces of each colour in the following sizes:

5" x 12" ,  5" x 10" ,  5" x 8".

These were then scored in half at 6", 5" & 4".

and folded.

I glued the 3 pieces of card together as above.

I used a thin line of wet glue. Double sided tape is too thick and

prevents the pages fitting together properly.

 These points need to be lined up as exactly as possible.

Once dry, I had 5 pages as below 

(you can also make a 7 point star book)

Once these were thoroughly dry, I glue the 5 folded pages 

together as below.

 When these were dry I used double sided tape to stick on the front and 

back covers. The ribbon  needs to be taped underneath the covers 

making the covers 'trap' the ribbon.

I then pulled the front and back covers towards each other to 

form a star and secured with a bow.

In the book my inside pages contain a poem or story with an

image that relates to the piece of writing.

Usually when making books or cards, I know exactly how I 

want my image to look, however, every now and then I get 

stumped & take a series of photos trying out different layouts.

Normally I wouldn't cut out my stamped images before

colouring in, however, with so many this time I cut these

out first as I didn't fancy colouring in the extra ones just

to play with.

Here are the layouts I tried.

I finally settled with the layout below.

I made a variety of background styles, below I used

Infusions from PaperArtsy.

I used The Sage, Lemoncello & Royal Blood

Infusions.

Onto this I added a fabulous 'Shroom' By Melina Dahl.

For the pages above and below I used Distress Oxide

ink pads to create a soft look. With the tree page I 

used a stencil and a stamp by Donna Gray.

For the picture below I used a stencil by Tracy Scott 

and another stamp from Donna Gray.

I used Walnut Stain, Faded Jeans, Peeled Paint, Vintage

Photo, Ripe Persimmon, Picked Raspberry, Tea Dye,

Abandoned Coral, Forest Moss and Crushed Olive  

  Distress Oxide Ink Pads.

I found some off cuts of coloured card and used Donna's

Hand Carved Butterfly & Dragonfly stamps for the above page

I printed out my poems and stories and glued them
into place with the matching image.

What I used:
That's Crafty! Multi Surface Paint
That's Crafty! Texture Paste
That's Crafty! Clear Stamp Set - Hand Carved Nature
That's Crafty! Clear Stamp Set - Doodled Shrooms
That's Crafty! Clear Stamp Set - Shroom Town
That's Crafty! Mini Stencil - Tree - MS001
That's Crafty! Mini Stencil - Honeycomb - MS002
That's Crafty! Mini Stencil - Leaves - MS009
That's Crafty! 8" x 8" Stencil - Lots of Bears - TC8042 Magda Polakow
That's Crafty! Calico
Crafters Companion Spectrum Noir ColourBlend Pencils
Tim Holtz Distress Oxides Ink Pads
PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Acrylic Paint
PaperArtsy Infusions
PaperArtsy Smoothy White Stamping Card
PaperArtsy Stencil - Tracy Scott PS111
DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylic Paint - Metallic Gold
Dina Wakely Media Heavy Body Acrylic - Lemon - 1oz
Ranger Archival Ink Pad - Sepia
Ranger Black Cardstock
13 Arts Chipboard - Aqua Flora
White Journal Pen

These books are so versatile, the are great for creating a story or putting photographs in. They make lovely gifts for children to fill for Grandparents too.
I hope I have inspired you to have a go with a book of your own.