Altered Book Technique: Woven Pockets

AB Woven Pocket Spread: The Roses of Thy Lips

This very simple altered book construction, bi-fold pockets, can be enhanced by weaving colorful ribbons through holes punched in the edges the pages. Glue your pages in four sections: three pages together, then two pages together, then another two pages together, then a final three pages. The two sets of three pages each form your canvas, or base. Color these pages, or glue a beautiful paper to them (keep in mind that you will only be seeing a top portion of these pages). Then take one set of the two pages glued together and fold back a portion of the top of these pages as shown above (you can see the diagonal line formed by the crease). Do this on the other side. Now, before you fix them to the bottom pages, take a hole punch and punch along the bottom of both sets of pages, and then along the sides (up to the crease) on the other set. Decorate the bottom sections any way you want. Then take a ribbon, or raffia, or twine, and weave each top page together with its bottom mate. Now you have pockets -- fill them! My spread is decorated with scrapbook paper, Lumiere paints, and a mermaid gift tag by Kerri Judd for E.G. & Co. The quote beneath the tag reads:

Love guards the roses of thy lips
And flies about them like a bee;
If I approach he forward skips,
And if I kiss he stingeth me.
-- Thomas Lodge