Explosion Book Tutorial ~ It's a blast!

I've been thinking about how to execute this explosion book tutorial for a while now, and this afternoon I got down to it. It looks a little crazy, but it's actually very easy and when you give it as a gift the result is always "Wow!" I promise.

The book is constructed of three equal squares, folded in quarters and then once diagonally. A 12x12" piece of cardstock makes a nice 6" finished size. {For the purpose of this tutorial I used an 8x8" square so I could photograph it more easily.}

After you have folded each of the three squares, you fold the diagonal folds inward like this: {I'm sure there's a proper origami term for this type of fold...but I'm at a loss...}

So here are my three squares, folded and ready to assemble. Easy so far, right?

Ok, this was tricky to photograph on my own. And wouldn't you know it? A nice cloud cover for today's otherwise sunny Arizona skies...

I use a glue stick to assemble the pieces. The center square gets flipped over so that the diagonal fold parts go backward. The first and third squares have the diagonal parts going inward. I hope you can you tell by this photo:

You just overlap the squares to attach all three folded pieces together in a row...

Then you scrunch it down to create the book:

Now it's time to embellish your book. Here's a helpful tip: cut your patterned paper (or photos) slightly smaller than the base area. You want the book to be able to fold back together easily, so avoid gluing anything close to the creases.

See how I've left a little space around the edges?

Now you can add photos or phrases and let your imagination go wild.

Attach your cover piece to the front:

And a ribbon to the back:

Tie it up and give it away. :o) Maybe?

And as if that wasn't enough photo overload, I'm going to close with a few pictures of explosion books from my past. These were made a few years ago and the photos aren't the best, but it will give you an idea for different ways to play with this mini-book pattern.

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Here's a book I made for my sister documenting her black Friday shopping trip with Carrie and our niece, Britny:

An explosion book I made for my niece Britny for Christmas a few years back:

And a Christmas explosion book I made for our friends documenting our Christmas tree hunt excursion:

I do hope you'll give this design a try!
And do let me know how you like it.
:o)
♥

PS: I really hope this tutorial makes sense. If you have any questions please let me know and I'll do my best to clarify.

PSS: Paper used in my tutorial example is "3 bugs in a rug" - Bee Mine. :o)