Gung Hay Fat Choy: Making Books for Chinese New Year

Celebrate Chinese New Year with five creative bookmaking projects. Reproducible patterns and clear directions make these books quick and easy.

Zodiac Slat Book
Based on the earliest book form in China, the Zodiac Slat Book has reproducible patterns with pictures of the animals, characteristics, and dates.

New Year Journal
A quick and easy journal bound with a chopstick and an elastic. The front cover has the Chinese word for luck.

Dragon Counting Book
Count from one to twelve with Chinese numbers. Includes dragon head and tail patterns for the front and back covers and Chinese numbers for the pages.

Book of Good Luck Symbols
Bring luck for the coming year with this book of symbols. Ribbon and beads make this accordion book special.

Lucky Red Envelope Book
Make an accordion pocket book to hold four red envelopes. Includes characters to spell out Gung Hay Fat Choy and patterns of old Chinese coins to decorate.

Click on the image for more information

Snowflake Book

http://www.makingbooks.com/accordion.shtml

We are experiencing a thaw at the moment but so far this has been a winter of snow. This month's project is an accordion book with snowflakes. I first made a book with snowflakes made from the metal bases of tea light candles (this recycle, reuse, repurpose thing has really got me thinking). I made a second one with paper snowflakes which is more appropriate for children. The links lead you to information about how snowflakes are formed as well as some fun online and by hand activities.

For the top book, I used the side panel of a large cereal box for the accordion. Because it was sturdy, I didn't make covers. I made a snowflake from a tea light base for each page. I attached the snowflakes to squares cut from a leftover gift box by poking holes in the squares with a push pin and using thin wire to hold the snowflakes in place. I used tape that held various parts of a new printer in place to attach the mounted snowflakes to the accordion.

For the second book, I used the front panel of a cereal box and made the snowflakes out of paper. For a longer book, you can follow the directions for attaching sections in the directions for the Index Card Accordion.

Links
Make a paper snowflake
http://www.highhopes.com/snowflakes.html

Directions for making a paper snowflake

A Pop-up Snowflake from Robert Sabuda
http://robertsabuda.com/popmake/popmake_snowflake-step1.asp

You can make two snowflakes for a four page accordion book.

Online guide to snowflakes, snow crystals, and other ice phenomena
http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/
A comprehensive site from Kenneth G. Libbrecht who has created several books of photographs of snow crystals. Lots of beautiful images to view as well as clear scientific information.

Make a virtual snowflake
http://snowflakes.lookandfeel.com/
Make your own snowflake online. It took me a minute to understand how the scissors worked but once I did, it was fun.

Snowflake Bentley
http://snowflakebentley.com/index.htm
Vermont farmer Wilson Bentley made the first photographs of snowflakes in 1885. This website is maintained by the Jericho Historical Society which has an exhibit of his photographs.
He is the subject of a wonderful book by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and Mary Azarian.


Robert's Snow: For Cancer's Cure
http://www.gracelin.com/content.php?page=book_snowflake&display=behind_the_story

Grace Lin wrote Robert's Snow to cheer up husband Robert after he was diagnosed with cancer and could not enjoy the winter weather. After Robert's subsequent relapse, Grace turned to her illustrator friends and asked them to contribute their collective talents to the fight. The response was tremendous--the artwork created was so amazing that the 2004 snowflakes were immortalized in the book, Robert's Snowflakes. There is an annual fundraiser for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute every year in December.

Adapted from the January 2008 issue of Making Books Monthly
Free subscriptions available at makingbooks.com.