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Cost: $ $ $ $ $

Difficulty: • • • • •

Time: 10 mins

Combines potato printing, sponging through a stencil and printing with a pencil.
Personalize your special books with this ‘bird on a nest’ design. The book cover, made from brown wrapping paper, combines several types of mark-makers – including potato printing and sponging through a stencil – and may inspire you to think of other items to use for printing.

Posted by Joy Jolliffe • Published 14th March 2011

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sum1uuesed2no favorited Brown Paper Bird Book Cover 07 Apr 21:38
Lauren J. favorited Brown Paper Bird Book Cover 05 Feb 23:46
Lia fangirl of scotland! added Brown Paper Bird Book Cover to fun to try 22 Dec 23:52
Lia fangirl of scotland! favorited Brown Paper Bird Book Cover 22 Dec 23:52

Step 1
Measure the front and back of your chosen book and add 3cm (11⁄4in) on all four sides for turnings. My book measures 30 x 44cm (113⁄4 x 171⁄3in) if the front and back are combined. My piece of paper is 36 x 50cm (141⁄4 x 191⁄2in). Cut your piece of brown paper. Using the template, craft knife and cutting mat, cut the bird stencil. To ensure the birds are well placed, pencil a line from top to bottom through the centre of your paper.

Also mark a 3cm (11⁄4in) border around all four sides. With the matt side uppermost, fix your paper to the printing surface using masking tape. Prepare your tray, black ink and sponge. Stencil the bird images onto the front cover. If your stencil is still in good condition, press it between two sheets of kitchen paper to clean and then use the reverse side to print the back cover. If the stencil is too soggy, cut another one for the back. Let the ink dry before printing the next colour.
Step 2
The red wings are printed with a potato. You need to cut one for the front cover and another, in reverse, for the back cover, using a cutting board and a craft knife. Prepare your tray, red ink and felt. Using the cut potato, print the front wings. Using the reverse-cut potato shape, print the back wings.
Step 3
Dab the unsharpened end of a pencil onto the felt pad and print the bird’s eye using the brown ink.
Step 4
The nest is also a potato print – the same image is printed twice. Referring to the nest design on page 112, cut out thin rectangular shapes in the potato (see p.14). Next prepare your tray, brown ink and felt. Using the cut potato, print the nest image twice beneath
each bird.
Step 5
Cover your book. Fold the brown paper along the central pencil line top to bottom. Open out again. Lay your book centrally onto the unprinted side of your paper. Fold over the 3cm (11⁄4in) borders along the pencil lines on the side edges of the front and back. In order to fold over the top and bottom turnings, cut the brown paper on the centre line, 3cm (11⁄4in) at the top and 3cm (11⁄4in) at the bottom. Fold over the top and bottom edges. Use clear sticky tape or glue to fix the four corners, trimming first if necessary.