Faux Book Tutorial

To write a tutorial including every instruction, every material,  every tool used and tips for achieving best results would take me forever. Especially as there are two versions of this book.
 So I have decided not to include instructions for decorating. 
Which gives you free reign on how to decorate your faux box card.

For the Economy version of this book.....

You will need 
Materials

Three A4 sheets of cream card 
I find photocopy card is best as it is thinner.

Two  A4 sheets of  sturdy card
One sheet of acetate
 Glue.

For the full Version of this book
You will need 
5 sheets of cream  card
3 sheets of sturdy card, unless you do the top frame the same colour as the pages.

Further instructions for
the full version are in the tips at the bottom of this post.

 Decorations.

charms,  feathers, lace and sticky back crystals.and a large flower or something to                                                                      act as the focal point.






Tools
Stamps and of your choice.
A score board with 1/2" markings
A Bone folder.













Cut two squares 7 x 7  inches. Using a score board score lines down both squares every 1/2 inch to the end of the card.

Cut two rectangles size 5 X 7 inches  place the these pieces of card on the score board  so the short 5" side is flush with the top of the score board.Score every 1/2 inch to the end of the card.

Begin folding the card in a concertina  fashion. Use a bone folder to crease in the folds you need folds and they should all stack up neatly. This is  an important step... if you don't have a bone folder a small rule will do the same job.

All four pieces need to be folded in  this way. 

                Take your time over this step as any mistakes will show big time.

Lay the two shorter  pieces at top and bottom of your work space and bring in the two  longer side piece as in photo. 

Make sure that you have the concertina'd pieces all the same way up.

 By that I mean the last strip on the inside of each piece should be pointing up. 

This won't work out properly if they are all pointing in different directions. 

                       

 On the last section of the bottom panel, add a small amount of glue to the corners.

Bring in the side panels and overlap the corners of the sides and end piece making sure this joint is completely square.

 Repeat this on all four corners,  keeping the corners square.

 Begin interlocking the corners, by folding one fold of the top down then fold in one fold on the right side , then the one fold in from the bottom and finally one fold in from the left. Repeat this pattern until you have folded in all the folds.

 DO NOT apply glue to these folds.

 When you reach the top  apply a small dot of glue to secure the top folds  just as you did at the start to stop it coming apart.

OH Dear!!!  My corners could have been better here .

At this point I strongly recommend you measure the overall size of the frame as you now need to cut a sheet of card exactly the same size and shape as the frame. If your frame is slightly out you'll need to compensate for that.

To make this stand out better I chose to make the surround frame a different colour, so you can see it better.

On my original card it was the same colour as the pages with some additional inking.

 Cut a panel to go in the back of the frame and decorate anyway you want.
Just be sure to leave half an inch clearance on all the edges as you will be applying glue to these edges to mount the frame onto.

When you are happy with the back panel mount the page from onto your panel Checking  it's squarely mounted

Preparing  the cover.

 This may seem like a cock-eyed way of measuring up for the  book cover,
but it works for me and I don't waste half as much card getting it wrong now.

  A4  card stock in  colour of your choice put it on the score board in landscape position. Then score at   5  1/2 inches. 

Turn the card around 90 degrees and score again at  5  1/2 inches.  

This will create  a narrow  panel  in the centre of the card just over an inch wide that will act as the spine of the book.

 Cut a sheet of good quality acetate,  slightly smaller (about 1/4 ") than the outside edge of the page/ frame.

Apply double sided tape to the edges of the acetate and position very carefully over the page/ frame. 

Do take care to get this straight and square FIRST time.

 Once the acetate is on  it will look pretty untidy so this is where the top frame come in. Add double sided tape to the back of the top frame and very carefully position over the  page frame.

Decorate the cover  to compliment the inside and s don't forget the spine.

TIPS

For a fuller, deeper book cut the two side panels to 7 inches by the length of the A4 Paper and the top and bottom panels to 5 inches by the length of the 
A4 paper. you will need to do a lot more scoring and folding and  you will need 5 sheets of  cream card  and you will need  two sheets of card for the cover which will need to be joined together at the spine of the book. 

You'll need to  measure the size of your  page frame add 1/2 inch  to both measures. then add another 1 1/2 inches for the spine. Then cut your card to this final measurement. Repeat this for the back cover of the book. 

You will have two spine panels, apply adhesive to one of the spines then overlap the spines pressing them together firmly . 

The join s will be almost invisible  and this double spine will be much stronger than the economy version.

 I have to say  the results are worth it.


To make it look more vintage sponge small amounts of  ink on the edges and folds of the pages.

To make  the flower I cut 6 flowers from quite a thick lining fabric  4 large flowers and 2 smaller ones. and held them over a burning candle until the edges of the fabric started to melt and shrivel  up  at little. then I stacked them up in a pile and stitched through all the layers and added a sparkly 
button to the centre .

The background
I did lots of over stamping, sponging and heat embossing for a vintage feel background.

A video would have been quicker but unfortunately I am having big problems up loading videos on to my blog. I spent all day yesterday trying to get one video on there. So I am stuck with doing tutorials this way until I can get help with uploading.

C.A.S.E by all means... but 

 Credit the Creator!!!