The nursery scrap-books made of linen or paper cambric are, perhaps, familiar to most of our readers; but for the benefit of those who may not yet have seen these durable little books, we will give the following directions for making one: Cut from a piece of strong linen, colored paper cambric, or white muslin, four squares twenty-four inches long by twelve inches wide. Button-hole stitch the edges all around with some bright-colored worsted, then place the squares neatly together and stitch them directly through the centre with strong thread (Fig. 313). Fold them over, stitch again, as in Fig. 314, and your book is finished and ready for the pictures.
It is in the preparation of these pictures that you will find the novelty of the plan we propose. Instead of pasting in those cards which have become too familiar to awaken much interest, let the young book-makers design and form their own pictures by cutting special figures, or parts of figures, from different cards, and then pasting them together so as to form new combinations.
[Illustration: Fig. 313.—Scrap-book Opened and Stitched through the Centre.]
[Illustration: Fig. 314.—Scrap-book Folded and again Stitched.]
Any subject which pleases the fancy can be illustrated in this way, and you will soon be deeply interested in the work and delighted at the strange and striking pictorial characters that can be produced by ingenious combinations.
Stories and little poems may be very nicely and aptly illustrated; but the “Mother Goose Melodies” are, perhaps, the most suitable subjects with which to interest younger children, as they will be easily recognized by the little folk. Take, for instance, the “Three Wise Men of Gotham,” who went to sea in a bowl. Will not Fig. 315 serve very well as an illustration of the subject? Yet these figures are cut from advertising cards, and no two from the same card. Fig. 316 shows the materials, Fig. 315 the result of combining them.
[Illustration: Fig. 315.—“Three Wise Men of Gotham.”]
Again, the little man dancing so gayly (Fig. 317) is turned into “Little Jack Horner” eating his Christmas pie (Fig. 318), by merely cutting off his legs and substituting a dress-skirt and pair of feet clipped from another card. The Christmas pie in his lap is from still another card.