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Tiny Book Treats

printing on new linen paper to find a best match for colors – and making mini books!

Today’s post is a little post-Halloween treat: a tutorial on making miniature books, for the dollhouse or just for fun. They don’t require any special materials, and they can be made with just a little scrap paper and printer ink!

Recently, I got a new kind of paper. It’s a really nice heavy-weight linen texture, perfect for my plan to make greeting cards. It’s lovely stuff – but my printers standard settings all resulted in dark, drab-looking results. This isn’t surprising. Every piece of hardware and each piece of software in the digital editing process uses different color profiles (slightly different ways or capacities for dealing with color). Complicating things further, each different brand of paper accepts different kinds of ink a little differently. Altogether, it’s simply impossible to have the result match anything near what you actually see without a little experimentation.

I spent the afternoon a couple of days ago tweaking color settings in Photoshop, printing the results, and comparing them to what’s on my screen. Since I hate wasting paper, and I hate wasting ink even more, I used the opportunity to indulge in a little craft projects. Instead of a real art piece, today I have a little tutorial!

no special materials required!

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

  • Images of book covers printed on cardstock paper (approximately 7/8″ tall)*
  • plain white paper
  • scissors or craft knife
  • fine point stylus tool for paper scoring (or a toothpick)
  • glue stick
  • pencil
  • ruler

* Search for antique book covers on Pinterest, Google Images, or elsewhere to resize yourself. You can also find complete PDF files of 1:12 scale (dollhouse sized) books to download for sale on Etsy.

1) Carefully cut the book covers out of the printed card stock.
2) Cut a long strip the white paper that’s about 1/16″ narrower than the cover is tall.
3) On the wrong side of the cover, mark with pencil the place where the covers bend inward away from the spine. Run the stylus or toothpick along the cover in each place to create a crease.

4) Lightly mark on the strip of paper how wide you want your text block (or filler pages) to be – slightly less wide than the front or back cover so that the pages fit nicely in the book. Fold the entire strip carefully, accordion-style, using your mark as a guide for how wide to make the pages.
5) Apply a line of glue down the middle of each side of the paper strip using your glue stick. It doesn’t matter if you don’t cover the pages all the way, as long as you have some glue down the center of each page. Next, simply fold it back up!

6) Press the filler pages flat together into a block. Apply glue to each side of the finished block, center it within the cardstock cover, and press together. You can use your fingers to slightly round the spine of the book, giving it some realistic detail!
Use to fill a dollhouse library, make cheap and easy gifts, or attach to magnets, jewelry, etc for cute accessories!

That’s all for now. See you soon with some actual art. Until next time, please enjoy a little craft break!