All Hallows Read -- a newish tradition of giving away books at Halloween instead of candy -- is a great idea, but buying books to give everyone can be kind of expensive. So why not make your own? The official All Hallows Read website has a download-and-print book of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" you can use, but you can also make books with your own content. Here's one way.
Author's note: I adapted this from an article -- also by me -- originally published in Handmade News and no longer available online. Another version also appeared in a book printed by an artist trading card site that was not widely available.
Materials and Tools
To make your book, you only need a few things, most of which you probably have already.
- One sheet of paper for each book you plan to make. Thinner paper works best, especially if you plan to collage the pages. Regular printer paper is great, especially if you're going to design your book on your computer and print it out.
- Whatever materials you want to use to create your content. Adding a lot of things like collage elements and stickers might make your book harder to keep flat, so keep that in mind.
- A sharp craft knife or x-acto knife and a straightedge or ruler (a good pair of scissors will do, but aren’t ideal).
Folding the Book
Fold your paper in half lengthwise, then fold each half into the middle fold. You’ll end up with three folds dividing the paper into four.
Unfold the paper and fold it widthwise. Now you should have eight divisions in the paper.
Refer to diagram 1 to see where the creases should be. Re-fold and unfold each fold the opposite way so you have a good crease.
Cutting the Book
Now you need to make a single cut parallel to the long edge of the paper, along the middle fold. It starts at the first fold, cuts across the other middle fold, and ends at the last fold.
Refer to the diagram, where I have marked the cut in red. If you’re using scissors, it might be easier to cut if you fold the paper along the middle fold and cut two thicknesses at once, from the folded edge to the other fold.
This is the trickiest part of this project: the final folding. The easiest way to do it is to fold the paper widthwise, so you have a long doubled sheet with the cut along the fold, then hold one end in each hand with the cut at the top, and gently push your hands together. The middle folds should pop outwards, making a diamond shape with the cut edges. See the diagram if you’re having trouble.
Keep pushing the ends together until you have an X shape.
Take hold of the leg of the X sticking towards you with your left hand, and fold it around so it lies against the leg of the X to the left. Now you should have an upside-down T shape. Keep folding in a clockwise direction until you have an L shape, then fold all the way around until you have a flat folded sheet of paper. Smooth down the folds well so they stay in place.
Now that you’ve got your booklet folded, you may notice that you only end up writing on one side of the sheet. The other side is folded away. You can use the folds of the booklet as pockets if you like, or you can glue or tape them shut and forget about them. You can attach a separate cover, too—sewing or stapling through the middle fold is a simple way to do it—or you can use the first and last pages of the booklet itself as covers.
It’s really simple to set up this kind of book to print from a digital file using Photoshop, InDesign, or another photo-editing or page layout program on your computer. Simply select the size of your paper when creating a new document, and create guides that divide your document as shown in the diagram on page 3. Then print the sheets before folding and cutting.
If you're making books to give away for All Hallows Read, how about a classic story (or part of a story) or poem? Some of the fairytales of the Brothers Grimm are pretty scary, too, and many of them are short enough to fit in a little book like this.