My final project for my Intro to Graphic Design class was to create a 'ZINE,' that is a 'How-To' booklet of sorts. I chose to create an instructional booklet on 'How to Create a Scrapbook Quilt Block.' My inspiration came from a project I did a few years back when I created a full-size bed quilt for my mother containing over 200 various family photos. I enjoyed the project so much that I felt it would be a good topic to discuss in my 'Zine' project.
While my children were babies at home, I watched a LOT of HGTV and the craft shows there. One in particular featured a lady named Ami Simms who has designed and written a book called 'Creating Scrapbook Quilts.' She is one talented lady! A VERY talented seamstress turned artist (or perhaps the other way around) to say the least. A great influence to those of us interested in scrapbook quilting. She has her own website that features several creative quilting projects, but my favorites are the scrapbook quilts. Please take a look at her work here: AmiSimms.com and her book 'Creating Scrapbook Quilts' is where I learned how to create my own scrapbook quilt projects. Here is a link to some of Ami's own quilt projects which have been a great inspiration to me: Ami's Quilts as well as her follower's photo quilt projects.
Also, there is a wonderful product on the market for quilters/artist to easily incorporate their own photos and works of art into their projects. It's called 'Inkjet Printable Fabric' and all you have to do is scan in your photos (or other artwork) and then print it out onto this printable fabric (it's like muslin fabric with a paper backing to work with your printer easily). Then you just soak it in cold water and iron it to set the ink before sewing it into your project! It's really very easy and LOTS of FUN!
Here are some photos of my final ZINE project which I turned in today. The final size of my booklet is 5-1/2" x 5-1/2" sq. I chose this particular size as it was easy to work with in creating my quilt block book cover (and yes, that is an actual quilt block and NOT just a Photoshop image printed onto paper). Also, the project assignment instructions suggested it would be more convenient to create our booklets in a small size to allow for easier re-producing and handling. The project was to re-produce copies easily, that is the reason for the second cover version. The same booklet, just with a different fabric block look. Once the fabric quilt block cover was complete, I mounted it with spray adhesive onto a 5-1/2" x 5-1/2" piece of mat board for stability (as well as the back cover, which is just a solid piece of fabric sewn to the front cover). I then printed out each page to insert, cutting to size and then carefully scoring in the center of each page to make folding easier, as the pages are printed on card stock paper. I then printed the front/back inside covers on a similar card stock paper. I used spray adhesive once again to mount the front/back inside card stock covers to the inside of the fabric covers before inserting the pages themselves. To bind the pages together, I used a simple saddle stitch method using binders thread. There are other more sophisticated methods of binding a book together, but since I had so few pages to my book, this was the most logical method to use, I thought.
It was a very FUN project and easy to do, just time consuming if you've never created one before. If you're interested in making your own, please let me know. I'd be happy to try and explain it in greater detail for you and send better instructions! I hope you will enjoy and please be sure to let me know what you think!
Front Cover
(version #1 & #2)
Pgs 4&5
Pg 8&Back Cover
As the 2011 spring semester comes to a close, so do all my Intro to Graphic Design projects. I've enjoyed each and every one of them immensely. I look forward now to the upcoming summer courses I will be taking: Digital Studio, Intro to Adobe Creative Suite and History of Graphic Design. I also look forward to more challenging courses in the fall such as Publication Design and Package Design. Always a challenge in this field and I look forward to it all. Thank you for keeping up with me this semester. I will post my Typography class projects soon, too and continue to try and show as much work as I can of upcoming class projects as well, so please continue to check back as often as you can.
Thank you
--Kim
