New Skillshare Class

I have a new class about bookmaking on Skillshare.com. Use the discount code below to enroll and you will also receive full access to the site and all the classes for only $.99 for 3 months. My class includes 12 short videos that walk you through the steps to make and decorate a small book. You can include your own message and artwork. Great for a small gift or special greeting.

I've been thinking for awhile about offering an online video class about bookmaking. Skillshare.com has a program for new teachers so I enrolled and designed my own class. Of course along the way, I had to learn new things about my iPhone, about editing on Quicktime, about creating slideshows with voiceover, and now about marketing. A steep learning curve for a month's time. But I had fun.

I now have my first video class up on Skillshare.com, and hopefully more classes to come.  Skillshare is a site with hundreds of video classes including ones about computer skills, cooking, arts and crafts, DIY, photography and running a small business.

Here is the discount code:  http://skl.sh/2gWL06Z

Here are a few samples of some books that I made.

 My new class

  Valentines greeting

 Birthday wishes

There's also a Bonus lesson about how to make a little pouch to match your book.

 Book pouch

Museum Book Instructions

Someone recently asked me to share instructions for making the Museum Book. Click here to download my new instruction sheet. The book has 4 "galleries", each telling part of the story. The floor of each gallery folds up. A ribbon-tie can be added under each cover so the book can be tied closed, or open. I also added pop-up figures on the sides.

You can also see a photo of me learning how to use a Guatemalan back strap loom, like the one in my book.

Travel Books

Tomorrow morning (Sat) I'll be driving out to Chelmsford MA public library to teach a children's bookmaking workshop. We'll be making a 4x4" rubber-band book and decorating them like world citizen passports or travel journals. We'll also make a diamond pouch to hold our books. Then we'll write and illustrate stories about a trip we took, real or imaginary.

Here are some traveling books that I have made...

Sweet Journey--an artists book with see-thru windows, wheels that turn,

a magnet-closure in the bumper, 

and a glove compartment that opens to reveal a mini-book.

Memories about childhood trips to Canada to visit my grandparents.

Car book open 

 Spread with my dad napping in the back of our station wagon while mom drives

Dashboard, with mini-accordion book hidden in the glove compartment (set into back cover)

Fold-out suitcase book with 4 pockets for mini-books, letters etc.

A "museum book" with 4 galleries and pop-ups 

that tell a story about weaving in Guatemala.

Mama is making tortillas for breakfast

museum book folds up

Simple car book -- cut and folded from one sheet of paper.

spread from an illustrated story book about my trip to Guatemala

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Below are drawings from my travel journals to Guatemala...

fountain in restaurant

church

woman weaving on back-strap loom

study of textile art

map of Panajachel, town where I stayed