Fold your own Tiny Tales of the Beedle Bard

What you need:

• One sheet of 8.5" x 11" paper (I used Astroparche in Natural, but regular printer paper works just fine.)


• Color Printer


• Paper cutter or scissors


• Something to make a crease (I used my handy dandy orange peeler, but the smooth edge of a butter knife will work.)

How to:

1) First, you need to print the artwork. I've posted high resolution images on my flickr account here. Download the large size for the cover and the pages. They should look like this.

They were created for 8.5" x 11" paper and need to be printed on the front and back of one sheet of paper. When you print, the large outer squares must line up on each side of the paper. Look through the paper at a bright light and make sure the square on the side with the pages fits just inside the square on the side with the cover. And print the top of each page is at the top of the page. Any size square will work, though too small will make folding a bit difficult. (Think the Mythbusters folding the huge sheet of paper with a pavement roller.)

2) After printing, watch this video, it's a little over 7 minutes. It will show you how to both cut and fold your book.

OK, I know that I went kinda fast, and that it could have been zoomed in quite a bit more, and that Kitty is a bit distracting, though cute, you must admit quite cute.

If you are completely lost, try this.

• Print out a few sheets of origami paper here. My favorite is the green Matsu-mon (pine trees symbolize constancy, very soothing.)

• Cut your paper into 8 inch squares.

• Now watch this How to Make an Origami Book video by Mark Robert's. It is much better than mine, goes much slower, and is kitty free. Lovely music too.

• Fold a blank book or two just to get the hang of it. Don't despair if you don't get it perfect the first time. I didn't.

(Just a note on the accordion fold. If you watch my video and Mark Robert's, you will notice I added a step after the diagonal creases, but before I opened up the sheet and folded the top edge over to started the accordion fold. That next step was actually a mistake that made the accordion fold much easier. It's not a mistake, it's an improvement!)

Now try to fold your Tiny Tales again. Bit easier? Yes! Fantastic! Make one for all your friends!

No. Don't give up. Leave me a question in the comments and I'll help.

I hope you enjoyed folding your Tiny Tales. It was so much fun to design. And now that you have the template, you can design your own books, simple as pie. Or pi. Your choice.

Hum, I wonder what we can come up with? Tiny Beginners guide to Transfiguration. Mini Monster Book Of Monsters. Wee Wanderings with Werewolves. Oh, the possibilities are endless!