Saturday, September 09, 2006

Exploding books

No, this is not to combat the bats, but is a fun type of book I learnt to make last week. The first photo shows the exploding book closed, on the right. The one on the left is a book made out of a CD cut in half (caution: CDs need to be heated with boiling water first before cutting to prevent pieces flying up into your eyes).



This is the exploding book opened up. You can make them out of contact sheets of photos printed out onto normal photocopy paper, or write things on them, decorate them (wish I could draw!), whatever you can dream up. They can be made in any size. I was always attracted to pop up books, even as an adult, and exploding books are a very basic kind of pop up book. Fun!

This is the CD book opened. It would be good for cards, or for decorating, writing poems in, etc.

13 comments:

Meow (aka Connie) said...

These books look like great fun.
Thanks for sharing.
Have a wonderful week.
Take care, Meow

Susie said...

Very clever. I love the pop up effect too..

Kerri said...

Very innovative and fun! I'm glad you're enjoying those book-making classes :)
These would be fun presents for kids.
It's very chilly here this morning...50ºF/10ºC. Hope your weather is warming up nicely.
Our days lately have been sunny and warm with chilly nights and mornings. Really can't complain about the weather!

John Cowart said...

I hope no one from airport security reads your blog or they'll stop us from taking books on planes too!

Jeanette said...

Hi Val
Nice little fun books your making will make good stocking fillers for kids at Xmas time.Keep the craft work going. Take care .

Annette said...

Origami meets the bookbinder! I am gleaning all kinds of information here, Val. Almost as much fun as a lunchtime game of chinese checkers...

Annette

Carole Burant said...

Wow those are so awesome!! I too remember loving the pop up books:-) I hope you had a great time in the country...would you believe I've never had steak and kidney pie??? I know, I'm soooo deprived! lol Hugs

Sandy Hatcher-Wallace said...

I have always been fascinated with popup books too. In fact I always fall for those popup birthday cards.

You seem to be doing very well with your book making classes.

I was a little surprised not to see batwing books, but then I must remember that they are on the endangered species list.

Have fun on your getaway and see you when you return.

Ampersand Duck said...

When you say 'heated with hot water', I presume you mean *not* boiling water? And are you talking about the 'metal' cds? I've cut those clear plastic ones without shattering them, but I've never cut the normal cds. How long do you soak them for?

Val said...

Thanks for all your lovely comments!

In response to Ampersand Duck's question about preparing the CDs to be cut, just boiled hot water was poured over the CDs in the sink, but some instructions say to put them in very hot water for 2 minutes.

Not sure about plastic versus 'metal' CDs. I thought all were plastic. Certainly some behaved differently as we were preparing them, and one was totally unusable, it couldn't be cut cleanly.

Gazza said...

Hi Val, love the books

Stuart said...

So this is what retired librarians do! Love the books Val.

TJ said...

I didn't know that about the CD's...I tried to break one once and it couldn't be done or at least I gave up...loved your exploding books!!
:-D