Folded Book Art - Single Heart

5 Materials

1 Hour

Easy

We probably ALL have books laying around that we don't want anymore. Now you can turn those books into custom works of art for any occasion or holiday.

All you need for this project is a book (hard cover is best), a ruler that is marked in Centimeters and a pencil. There are a lot of FREE patterns on the internet (visit my blog post for additional links). For THIS particular single heart fold, I used this pattern found HERE. I recommend starting with this Instructables tutorial as it gives you a clear, simple place to start.

You will begin with your book facing the way you see in the picture above.

Open your book so the page numbers are up in the top, left as shown by the arrow. The very first thing I did was count how many pages were going to be FOLDED. Then I found the CENTER of the actual book. Divide the number of pages to be folded by TWO. Starting at the center of your book, count that number of pages back toward the FRONT of the book. That's where you will start marking and folding. Follow the pattern and begin marking your pages.

My ruler had to be used upside down because of the way it's made - it worked fine for me. Following the pattern you choose, begin by marking at the top of the page using a pencil. Mark all of the pages and then you are ready to begin folding.

Some folds will be at a 90 degree angle like this one.

Some will NOT be straight 90 degree folds like this one on the left. If you cannot make a 90 degree fold, then you know it has to be folded this way. Start at your mark and just make a straight fold as shown.

The simple heart pattern at Instructables is best to start with because every fold is a 90 degree fold.

Here is a side view of the beginning pages of the heart.

You can use a clothespin or binder clip to hold the pages you've folded if you like.

Once you are finished, this is what you will have! Cool, right?

I added a piece of decorative paper on the front and back, inside covers as well as a piece of ribbon to tie in front of the heart.

And there you have it! A basically free decoration! Check out the other patterns available - you can make these for gifts for all kinds of events. The nice thing too is that it folds closed/flat making it easy to store or mail. Warning: These are ADDICTING!

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3 questions

Catherine Martin on Jan 18, 2018

It looks like each page was folded slightly larger than the one before or slightly smaller than the one before. You don’t mention that. Am I right?

1
Alison on Jan 21, 2018

What measurements do you use ? And what do you increase or decrease the next folded page please ?

1
Aimee Elliott on Feb 05, 2019

You said you used decorative paper on the outside. Did you cover the back and front with the same paper? how do you handle around the spine of the book? Also, I'm planning on using fabric. Any reason not too?
Thank you.

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Vicky Corey on Jan 21, 2018

What a great idea! I wish I had your creative mind!! I treasure books and this is another way to repurpose without hurting the book. Thank you for sharing!

5 Reply
Deb on May 19, 2020

I look for a book related to the subject that I choose to make into the design. I am currently going to make a vase of flowers. So I went to OLLIE's ( store that has everything, really good books, current, but greatly priced) You can also get great priced books at the library book sales. My new book PRACTICAL GARDENING is a beautiful hard cover and is 642 pages. originally $35 I paid $4. Beautiful gift.

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Folded Book Art - Single Heart

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