The countdown to the holidays begins—celebrate the season (and astonish your friends!) by creating your own limited editions. With an assortment of paper and pictures and a couple of tools, you can make an instant book—or a dozen instant books, since they’re one-sided and, thanks to copy machines, easy to duplicate. This version, with its Advent calendar–like windows, lends itself to all sorts of surprises. Feature pictures of your favorite dogs, dog-park friends or whatever strikes your fancy—these little books can be personalized any way you like. Once you let your imagination off-leash, there’s no telling what you’ll come up with. Illustrator Laura Carmelita Belmont and I designed the pattern you see here.

For the basic folding pattern, please see the November/December 2008 issue of Bark, pp. 64-65, or How to Make Books.

More projects and patterns can be found in How to Make Books by Esther K. Smith. Copyright © 2007. Published by Potter Craft, a division of Random House, Inc.