Make this cool accordion book out of a round Laughing Cow cheese box! Inspired by the work of book artist Esther K. Smith at Purgatory Pie Press, this book looks complicated but is incredibly simple to make. All you need is one box, some scrap paper, a glue stick, scissors, and this PDF printed on regular paper.

The actual making takes just a few minutes. You can spend a lot or a little time decorating the outside and the six pages. And if you have blank book anxiety, just know that this book is so genius-looking to begin with literally anything you put inside it will look brilliant. Six pages! You can totally do this.

• Make a real book-artist book in minutes

• Uses one round Laughing Cow box

• Only 6 pages to fill - looks great no matter what you put in it

• Also perfect as a special greeting

Fun variations follow. By the way, can you guess how this project got its name? (Answer is at the end of the post!)

Steps At a Glance:

Ready? Here’s how:

1

You’ll need:

• one round Laughing Cow box

• scissors

• pencil

• glue stick or double-sided tape

• scrap paper for the covers

• a piece of tape

• this PDF printed on regular paper

2

Trace the box onto the scrap paper. Cut the two circles out a little smaller than the traced shapes. These will be your front and back covers.

Decorate your covers and pages any way you want, with markers, colored pencils, rubber stamps, or stickers. Will your book have a title?

You can see some ideas at the bottom of the post.

3

Cut out the two strips of pages.

Attach the front and back covers to the box with glue stick or double-sided tape.

4

Connect the two strips of pages: butt the flat ends together and join with tape.

5

Fold them up accordion-style, starting like this.

6

Set the front cover to the left of your folded stack of pages. Set the other cover to the right. Have your artwork pointing at 12 o’clock.

Now flip your covers pancake-style, keeping your artwork pointing at 12 o’clock. Just lift, flip, and set back down.

Apply glue stick or double-sided tape to the outer part of each cover. It’s colored purple here so you can see where it goes.

Lift the top page of your stack and bring it to the left, down into the front cover. Press to stick.

Take the bottom page of your stack and set it into the other cover; press to stick.

That’s it! Your completely awesome BOOOOOOK is finished! Besides looking great, isn’t it fun to open and close?

Ideas

The books below I filled with drawings, travel souvenirs (on map paper), butterfly stickers, Christmas money (that cover is a recycled card), a Happy Birthday message, and some random bits of cut-out magazine pictures. How-to’s below.

I hope you have fun making your own BOOOOOOK!

Questions

Can my BOOOOOOK have more than six pages?

Yes! You can have any EVEN number of pages that will fit inside the box.

Can I take out my pages and put new ones in?

Yes! Peel off the parts of the old ones that will come up easily, then stick the new set in. You can stick on new cover art too, right over the old.

Can I decorate the back of the pages?

You sure can. Keep these tips in mind:

• Use things that won’t bleed through to the other side of the paper.

• It’s easier to decorate the back after you cut out the strips.

• The backs of the first and last page will be glued down, so leave those blank.

And try this:

Use different paper for the pages

You can make your pages out of any paper that can go through an inkjet printer. Even patterned papers! I put this map paper into the printer face-down so the PDF got printed on the plain back side, and it was easier to see where to cut.

Recycle your greeting cards

Old cards make great covers with almost zero work. Just trace your box onto the card and cut out. You can also add your own decoration on top of the printed design.

Money holder

Cut two parallel slits into one page, or all of them, to hold folded bills, theater tickets, or other small surprises.

Did you guess it?

It’s “Book” with six round pages inside! I pronounce it boo - oo - ook.