Holiday DIY: Three Dimensional Winter Scene in a Book

I mentioned this project a little while ago when I announced that one of my cards, and this exact DIY are in Discover Paper's 2012 Holiday Guide, but I wanted to share it with you here on the blog -- maybe you just haven't had the time to look through the Holiday Guide yet...you really should.

In the meantime, here's how I made my winter scene in an old book.

I Used:

Martha Stewart White Gold Glitter

Martha Stewart Florentine Gold Glitter

Martha Stewart Glue Writing Pen

Fiskars Acid-Free Photo Stickers

Elmer's Clear School Glue

24 Gage Wire

Old German version of Heidi

Scraps of scrap-booking paper

Exact o-Knife

Scissors

 

1. Prepare to hollow out the first 70ish pages of the book -- so about half way through, depending on the size of the book. Measure one inch from each side of the very first page and then dig in with your Exact-o-Knife until you reach the page where you wish to stop. Use the scissors to even out the pages, and trim any sides that are unequal. The first page acts as the frame, and you don't want any other pages sticking out from behind it.

2. Add glitter dots, with the glue pen and White Gold Glitter, to a piece of vellum that you will be attaching with the photo squares to one of the last few pages that you carved out of the book. This is to make it look like the snow is lightly falling.

3. To add the snow hills that are behind the tree, tear pieces of white paper -- this is to get a more light and fluffy effect, not the rigid look you would get from pieces of paper that are cut with scissors. These pieces can be attached to pages near the front of the book, but don't add them all to the same page. Add the pieces of snow every few pages or so to give it a more layered look.

4. Measured the length of the paper that you will need for the big pine tree, and trace out the shape with a pencil. Cut the tree out and add the Florentine Gold Glitter to the edges with the glue pen, and then attached it a couple of pages back from the first piece of snow so that it looks like it had a pile of snow in front of it.

5. Draw and cut out the three smaller trees that are in the background and attach them to the very top of a scrap piece of paper -- cut into the paper a little bit around the trees so that the scrap paper cannot be seen once the three trees are stuck in the book. Attach them several pages behind the last piece of snow to make it look like they are off in the distance.

6. Cut and shape -- with a wave and a little curl -- the two pieces of 24 Gage wire that you are going to use for hanging the stars in the sky -- you could easily use thread or fishing line, as well.

7. Free-hand cut out two little stars and attach them to the wire with a small dot of clear school glue. Once they are dry, flip them over -- so the star is now facing you -- and attach them to a scrap piece of paper that you have cut into a square -- again, use a small dot of clear school glue. When that is dry, use the square of scrap paper to attach the stars to two different pages that are close to the back, near the piece of vellum paper -- so you continue to have the layered look.

8. Once you have all of the scene put together, close the book and glue all of the pages together with the clear school glue. Put a weight on top of the book to make sure the pressure is even on all sides of the book, and spread the glue around the edges of the book with your finger. Make sure you get as much glue on the edges as you can without it dripping all over the place. Also, make sure that you don't glue the front cover down. Let it dry, and voila! A book with a 3D winter scene.

I hope you've had a fantastic week! Happy weekend!