Explosion mini-book

By following these steps, you'll have a cool accordion folding (explosion) mini book that you can use to display photos - or whatever you'd like! 

1. First start with 2 12x12 sheets of paper and your Simply Scored tool. (Fig 1)  Fit one sheet into the corner of the tool.

2. Score a straight line at the 6" mark from top to bottom of the sheet, effectively scoring it in half. 

3. Rotate the sheet 90 degrees and then flip it upside down (so that the mountain from the previous score is face up).

Fig 1 

4. Score another straight line at the 6" mark from top to bottom of the sheet.  You should now see the sheet divided into 4  6" squares. 

5. Put the Diagonal Plate onto the tool and put your paper back onto the Simply Scored with the same orientation you just used. 

6. Score right from the top left corner all the way to the bottom right corner (Fig 2).  You will now have two squares in opposite corners and 2 triangles in each of the other corners. 

7. Repeat steps 1-6 for the second sheet.

Fig 2

 8. Fold your creases - remember to fold 'mountains in' and 'valleys out' (Fig 3).  Use a bone folder if you want to get crisp folds.

Fig 3

9. Fold the sheet so that triangle sides come in together and meet in the centre.  You will have the squares being on the top and the bottom. (Fig 4).  If you followed the mountains/valleys when you scored and folded, the paper should naturally fold together to have a 6" compact square. 

Fig 4

10. Repeat with the second sheet. 

11. Put some sticky strip or other strong adhesive onto one of the full squares (Fig 5).  You don't want to use a liquid adhesive that will buckle, and snail isn't quite strong enough! I like to use Sticky Strip.

Fig 5

12. Open the papers up and layer the square with the adhesive onto one of the solid squares from the second sheet.  It doesn't matter if the adhesive is on the sheet facing up or down; just make sure that the mountains from the triangles are facing the same direction (Fig 6). 

Fig 6

13. Once the sheets are stuck together, you can fold it back to make a compact square and decorate - you can add a ribbon closure, and any embellishments you want! In my sample, I added a third sheet to allow for more photos to be added (Fig 7).  

Fig 7

I don't have a finished project to display quite yet - it's a birthday surprise!  Have fun making your own!