Posted in: darrelrussell.com edit
07 Jan 2009
It's for my daughter's World History project and she wants to know how to bind together a book creatively to catch a 5th grader's attention. Or 3rd graders. Also what would be a artistic way to create a children's book?When I was in sixth grade we made books. We took the 'book' we had written and 'sewed' it together with yard. I think we punched holes in the side that would be bound and then threaded it with yarn.
Then we put cardboard on both sides and then we covered it with fabric. I seem to remember lots of rubber cement to get everything to stay together. It was a lot of fun, and it held up really well.
You could use contact paper instead of fabric, or you could cover a binder with cloth. In my elementary education classes a lot of people did this to their portfolios and then decorated the cloth with bows or buttons. Some of them even put quilting/padding under the fabric, and they turned out really cute.
Hope this helps! It sounds like a neat thing that your daughter is doing.Punch holes through cover and paper and use Coloured rings to hold it together..I've used curtain rings(silver ones)...You can also glue a picture frame onto front cover and put picture that goes with story..The sky's the limit!punch holes in it, put shoestring through, and tie the shoestring to buttons, big colorful buttons.you should hella put ribbon on it cause its awesome.use a non pocketed folder and let her get "crafty" and decorate it like with stamps or stationery type stuff. you know like scrap booking .. it all depends on what the book is about. it would be silly to put a pic of a train on the front if the story was about an elephant. she could also decoupage different pics from magazines or buy stickers from walmart.Long shelf paper can be folded in half the long-way and then folded accordion style. Project pages are affixed to each accordian page. The top end of the accordian has cardboard glued that is decorated with shelf paper, wallpaper, fabric, heavy wrapping paper, etc. The bottom end has a long ribbon glued between the shelf paper and a bottom cover. The ribbon has equal lengths extending out from the book. When dry, the accordian book is not only a book, but is secured by the ribbon that can be bowed at the top, or latched if a buckle is used at each end of the ribbon.
For a children's book, you can maybe get some good ideas by checking out how pop-ups are constructed. Consider use of textures through the children's book, or a book that creates some movement with a tab or flap, or has sound.use a hole punch to make 3 holes along the spine, and bind with anything, if your going for a historical look, use leather ties, or some old fabric tied in knots, or you could use ribbon, string, pipe cleaners, yawrn, shoe laces...im sure you get the idea.