accordion-style folder

Hello everybody!

You might know that I love reusing and repurposing things, so when we received a beautiful hardcover Gucci catalog one day, I knew I wanted to make something out of it.

I carefully pulled out all of the pages away from the glue that bonded them to the spine and snipped some strings to free them.

I decided that what I wanted to make with it was an accordion-style folder.

I had never made one, so it took some experimenting (and lots of mistakes) to come up with a good technique to share with you guys!

So let's get started. First you'll have to get something similar to the cover of my catalog. You could also take a large, heavy sheet of paper and fold it in half, or connect two pieces of cardboard with a strip of fabric.

You will also need:

• a sheet of paper (this should be strong enough that it won't rip easily but thin enough to fold)
• scissors
• glue or rubber cement (I used the latter)
• a ruler or measuring tape
• pencil

1// Measure how far you will want your folder to open (the width between the two edges) and cut out a rectangle of paper that is about 3cm wider than that. You should make it long enough that you will be able to trim it later.

2// Now line your rectangle up with the folder, placing it about one centimeter below the opening of the folder, then use your pencil to mark the point where you will trim the paper (about half a centimeter above the spine).

3// Open up your folder to the width that it will be once you're done, and place your paper in front of it as shown. Then, go down to the very bottom and mark .5cm from each edge, like so:

4// Now cut from the corners or the rectangle to the marks you just made.

5// Trace this triangle onto your colored paper so that you can make a second of the same shape and size.

steps 6-9 apply to both triangles

6// Fold the triangle in half. Then fold up both edges halfway. Fold up the edges halfway once more. It's like making a paper airplane!

7// When you open them up, the triangles should look like this (flip it to the side that has 3 "mountains":

8// Apply glue to the outer edges (the outer edges of the 1st and 3rd mountains).

9// Now take one of your triangles and hold it so that the side with 2 mountains is facing you. This is extremely important! You will glue it in this way.

10// Glue one side of one triangle in, then one side of the other triangle. Then glue in the remaining sides. This is easier than doing it one at a time because otherwise, when you're doing the second one, you won't be able to fully open the folder.  

I then decorated my folder with circles and labeled it "inspiration" because I plan on using it to collect magazine articles and pictures that I like.

I hope you guys enjoyed this post! Thank you so much for reading!