pocket accordion book

Welcome back for another Tutorial Tuesday! The Pocket Accordion Book Tutorial builds off of the Accordion Book Tutorial I posted last week, but you can make this even if you didn’t make the accordion book. [Or you can skip the tutorial and head straight for my etsy shop... just kidding! You can do this! Go get your supplies.]

Supplies:

paper or bookcloth for the outside cover
paper for the inside
davey board (mat board or any other kind of board)
pva glue (elmer’s glue will work)
paintbrush
ruler
xacto knife
self healing mat
bone folder or old credit card
scissors

PART A: Decide on the dimensions of your accordion book and prepare the inside paper.

This tutorial is for a 4″ by 4″ book (same as last time). So the covers will be 4″ by 4″ (same as last time). Your inside paper (mine is white this time) needs to be 7″ by 24″. You can piece the paper together if you need to.

1: Using your ruler and bone folder (or credit card) score the inside paper lengthwise at the 4″ mark. Fold.

2: Lay the paper flat again. Make a second score mark 1.5″ along side the fold you made at the 4″ mark. Fold.

3: Flatten out your paper and make a score mark every 4″ parallel to the short side (this is the same thing you did last time only your paper is 7″ instead of 4″). Fold accordion style. Flatten back out.

4: Now fold your pockets. Fold up the paper along the long fold you made in step 1. Then fold up the fold you made in step 2. Last, fold the whole thing up accordion style like you did in step 3.

5: To secure the pockets’ edges, I hand stitched them with waxed linen thread. You can sew them, glue them or use double sided tape. If you choose to sew them, first poke holes along the edge (this will make the sewing easier).

6: Then go for it with your needle and thread. Do the same thing to the opposite end.

PART B: Make the front and back covers.

This part is identical to Step 3 from the Accordion Book Tutorial. I copied and pasted those directions here. (That’s why the paper is different)

Start with the front cover. Squeeze out some glue onto the davey board. Spread it out evenly with your paintbrush. Flip it over and center it on the wrong side of the paper for your cover. Smooth out any air bubbles.

Cut off the corners of the paper at an angle, making sure to leave about 3mm between the point of the board and the edge of the paper.

Next, spread glue on one of the sides of paper. Fold over and press.

Using your bone folder, smush down the extra paper against the board. (I’m doing all these steps on top of scratch paper to protect my desk from getting glue all over.) Do the same thing to the opposite side.

Then glue down the 2 remaining sides. Prepare the back cover in exactly the same way.

PART C: Glue the inside paper to the front and back covers.

This part is identical to Step 4 from the Accordion Book Tutorial. I copied and pasted those directions here.

Spread glue on the wrong side of the front cover. Line up the inside paper with the cover and press. Smooth out air bubbles.

Then spread glue on the back cover. With the front cover face down on your desk, fold up all the inside paper so that it’s flat. Attach the back cover to the last page of the inside paper. Press down and smooth out air bubbles. Admire what a good job you did! You made a book!

PART D: Press and personalize.

Get your pocket accordion book under something heavy and leave it there overnight (I used a stack of old textbooks from my college days). Now for the fun part – personalize it! I made little positive affirmation cards to stick in my little pocket book (can you ever have too many positive affirmations laying around?!). In the next day or so the book will most likely show up near my husband’s sink before he wakes up in the morning so he can start the day off with awesome-ness.

Do you have a friend or child or neighbor who could use a little positive reinforcement? Well, good thing, because here is the positive affirmations pdf! So get to work and brighten someone’s day.

As always, you can buy this pocket accordion book from my etsy shop for less than a Hallmark card.

Happy Tuesday!

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