Slide Mount Accordion Book Cover
A year or two ago I remember seeing Quinn McDonald‘s awesome 35mm Slide Accordion Journal on her blog, as well as this mention about her slide mount journal being featured in the premiere issue of the Cloth Paper Scissors’ art journaling mag Pages. Great idea! Making my own has been on my creative to-do list ever since and I finally spent some time creating one. The process was lots of fun! It’s also a great way to re-purpose any old, unused, and unwanted slide mounts into a miniature book!
Supplies to get started: Plastic slide covers & tape
Supplies I used to get started were some empty plastic slide mounts, paper tape (as well as masking tape), and a variety of miniature images, collages, and words to glue inside each mount. Using some of my Lost and Found idea-o-logy paper stash came in handy for the background because each page is doubled sided and could be seen on the front and back in the mount’s center.
Attaching slides together with tape: Front and back
Using some paper tape on one side and masking tape on the other (just to experiment), I attached each individual mount together. The tape created a sturdy, flexible binding between each slide for the book’s accordion style. I then used a variety of my favorite alcohol inks to add color to each slide. The plastic, smooth texture of the mount’s surface made working with the alcohol inks super easy and left a nice look that dried really quick. With some sandpaper and a sharp metal tool, I distressed some areas of the book after applying the alcohol ink. I also accented the mount edges and in between each page with a gold paint pen.
Inside & Out: Slide Mount Accordion Book Finished
I think I’ve made my first Creative Pay It Forward gift to send to someone on my list in 2013! Yay! Thank you to Quinn for the inspiration to try this out. I look forward to making a few more!
January 20, 2013 at 9:17 am
awesome! I love it. You did a fantastic job
January 20, 2013 at 10:00 am
Just beautiful! Now where did I put all those old slides?
January 20, 2013 at 1:09 pm
Thanks so much for your great photos and taking an idea and running with it–your work is not only beautifully done, but the photographs make me want to go back to it again. Plastic slide mounts are better than cardboard ones, for the exact reason you discovered–alcohol inks are wonderful with them. I discovered that tape dries out over time (well, I live in Phoenix) so you may want to try strips of Tyvek and glue–Tyvek takes color beautifully.
January 20, 2013 at 4:04 pm
These are really quite lovely Gretchen!
January 20, 2013 at 4:15 pm
Reblogged this on and commented:
I’m not feeling very talkative. Making prayer flags like crazy AND ATCs since Gretchen, Hannah and Beth got me started. In the meantime check this out!
January 20, 2013 at 7:40 pm
Thanks all!
Thanks Quinn for the tip about the tape- I didn’t even think about that, but could see that being an issue- I will keep experimenting- so many possibilities and options for such a tiny book! Thanks again for the creative spark to try this idea out….