That book folding lark!

So many of you will have seen the beautiful book art that seems to be everywhere. I'm a book lover. I've read all my life so the thought of tampering with a book in such a way horrified me to start. But then I realised I could actually preserve unwanted books this way. That a book could now be treasured instead of scrapped/charity-shopped. 

So I bought myself the Book Art software which means I can create my own designs (you can buy patterns but having my own will save money in long run). The software does need an image that is already silhouetted/black like this -

I created this in my CraftArtist Pro 2 software and saved as a JPG. This can then be uploaded to the bookart programme. You do need to enter the specific details for your book. It's height and how many sheets (not pages). I see how many marked pages there are and divide that by 2. Then I add the unnumbered pages to get my total. The software then works out how many pages your design needs (it tells you if your book isn't big enough as well) and gives you the measurements for each page.

 I always measure down from the top of the book.

 You fold the pages to your marks. I makes sure each fold is crisp and I stick it down as I go.

This is what it looks like as you go. It makes little sense to start but the more you do the more the design comes to live. 

Here's a couple I've already made - 

 A simple heart design I made for my friend's wedding anniversary.

 A Butterfly for my friend's birthday.

So I'm learning as I go and enjoying the process. I find it very therapuetic!

Take care Zo x