When a Bookworm is Having a Baby...

...and drops a few un-subtle hints that she might like something like this for decorations at the shower...

a crafty sister gets busy dutifully making some folded book sculpture hangy-things.

Because she loves her little bookworm sister, and is happy that there will soon be another girl to help balance the scales (current tally: 6 boys/2 girls... all ages 6 and under, I might add).

Folded books are all over the internet these days, found on people's mantels and being sold in etsy shops.

Never one to leave a new idea un-tried, but fully anticipated being bored to tears by the time I hit page 10, this crafty sister set to work.

Following a combination of instructions found here and here, I folded page after page.

Its a surprisingly therapeutic and addictive craft.

For those inquiring minds out there... both books were found at our local thrift shop. Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls and Twilight. Because she likes classics and Pacific Northwest vampires.

And then, because this sister couldn't leave well enough alone, a few more books were sacrificed in order to make the Mama and her future bookworm happy.

A festive combination of pages from The Hobbit, printed with the letters of Baby Girl's name,

pages from a vintage storybook and scrapbook papers cut and layered, a sweet circle bunting purchased here (that's where I draw the line... cutting out circles),

then sewn together with a zig-zag stitch on my machine.

Now, when that baby has been born and stolen away to another state to live, she will look up at the lovely decorations in her nursery and know in her heart that her Auntie Beth loves her best.

Then she will look at her parents with an accusing eye and beg them to move back home where they belong.

Extreme Papercutting

Brian Dettmer's art is breath-taking, is it not?