A small book with big animals -- making an accordion fold collage book

Lately I've been on a book binge. Using a couple of fabulous how-to books, I've been learning how to construct all kinds of folded, sewn, and traditionally bound handmade books.

For this simple folded T-cut fold book, I first painted an 11" x 14" sheet of Bristol paper. I spread orange, red, yellow and brick-red acrylic paint using an old credit card. I liked the prehistoric look of the unblended colors.Then I used a stencil to make white blobs. I didn't like those so well. 

I folded the paper into rectangular pages measuring 3" x 4 1/2" and decorated each page/spread individually. On some pages, I added strips of security envelopes that I'd previously painted using spray acrylics. They looked like pointy stalagmites. The book really came together when I found an old elementary textbook about animals. All the illustrations and text come from there.

I call the little book Animals Are Everywhere. Here's how the pages unfold in order.

Here's how the book unfolds.

I like this one so much, I think I'll make a few more! (This one comes from my very favorite book-making guide, Alisa Golden's Making Handmade Books.)