Hats Off to the Graduates!

Attic Gal Rachelle Says:

For years I have been making these mortar board accordion books for my friends who are graduating. I had been making accordion books for a while when my sister Natalee, came up with the idea to make it look like a Graduation Cap.

It opens like this...

And folds out flat. It can be used as a photo album, or used to gather signatures from everyone in the graduating class, or to have guests sign at a graduation party.

You will need some illustration board, or heavy cardboard, black fabric, a black button, a tassel, and an ouchless hair elastic to hold the book together.

You need 2 6in squares of illustration board or cardstock. Cut the fabric in 8 inch squares. Glue up the cardboard really good and center it on the fabric, glue side down. Smooth out the fabric, and pull it over the edges and glue down, so that the front is smoothly covered with fabric. The back side with the raw edges will be covered eventually.

You will need 3 pieces of 11 inch square cardstock. Fold one in half, and get a good crease with a bone folder.

Unfold it, then fold it in half the other way.

Unfold the paper. It should look like this with the mountain folds up.

Now, fold the paper in half diagonally like this.

Unfold and push the center up. It should look like this.

Now do the same with the other 2 squares of cardstock.

It may take a little experimenting to figure out the folds. Be patient.

Lay out you three papers in a row. They should be alternating so that the first one has the center pointing down, the second one has the center pointing up, and the third has the center pointing down again.
Overlap an uncreased square from the first and second pages and glue them together. Do the same with the second and third pages.

It should look like this. Notice how the creases alternate up and down? Then carefully fold the whole book together and glue the front and back covers on.

If you were making something besides a grad cap, you could cover it in decorative paper and would glue a long ribbon between the back cover and the pages when you glue the cover on that you could use to wrap around the book and tie it together.

I didn't want a ribbon for the Grad Cap, though, so my sister came up with the idea of a black ouchless hair elastic to just hold it together. Simple.

See how it works. The front and back covers are not connected to each other so the book can open fully.

Then glue on the button and tassel.

You can customize the cap and tassel colors for the school colors if you like.

I wrapped it simply. Fun Huh?

Congratulations Graduates!