Book Making-Accordian folded pages and gesso book covers

I mixed gesso with some acrylic paint. I put a spoonful of the stuff on each rectangle of chipboard. The students then used plastic utensils to make designs and textures in the gesso.

We let those dry and came back to them a week later. The students painted over the top with acrylic paint so it would have a more vibrant color. After they dried again we sprayed them with Turtle Wax (an experiment, I don't know how well it will actually last). While they were drying we glued paper together and folded them accordian style to glue into the books. We turned the book covers over and hot glued a ribbon across the backs of both covers. Then we used Tacky glue to glue the pages onto the covers.

These books can be flipped through like a standard book, or you can open the covers all the way until they are facing back to back. This makes a nice way to display the pictures that are glued inside.