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Strategies

12-26-03

I made a set of these cards for my sister-in-law for Christmas. My husband's family is so big, we pick a name out of a hat and just get a nice gift for that one person each year. The sister-in-law that I picked is a composer, and I knew that I wanted to give her these cards right away. When I started working on them, I didn't realize that they were for sale on Brian Eno's website. I think I would have made them myself anyway. I made them a little smaller than the standard size, the words looked lost on a bigger card, and I got this shimmery white cardstock to print them on. I made a small chapbook out of text from Gregory Taylor's website. I made a pouch for them too, and I'll add a pattern for it at a later date.

I can't print from my laptop, so I had to make PDFs of everything and post them to the web to print from one of my mother-in-law's computers. Since they're already on the web, I thought I'd make them available.

Cards
I made small cards, 1.5in by 2.5in. When you print these out, be sure to select no page scaling in Acrobat Reader's print window. If it scales them, even the little bit to fit the page, the proportions will be off and they'll be a nightmare to cut. It took me a long, frustrating time to figure this out. Make the first cut down the center, lengthwise, and then trim 7/8in off of each side of the length. Then, cut 1.5 inches from the top of each strip continually, until all of the cards are cut. If you are using a paper cutter, the last card is a little tricky. I printed them at home and then took them to Kinkos to use their excellent paper cutters. (Kinko's is surreal on Christmas Eve.) I did all of the lengthwise cuts myself, and then paid a dollar a cut for them to do the rest on their cutting machine. They didn't come out absolutely perfectly even, because that last card is even hard on their monster cutter. I put them in a pouch anyway and noone will know but me. The last sheet only has one strategy on it, but there's supposed to be some blanks, so you can cut some from that page. These are the first edition ones, from 1975.
PDF of cards

Book
The book is on four pieces of regular paper that print front to back to make two pieces total. Print the first page, and then the second page on the back of it, so that the top of the text is in the same direction on both pages. Then print the third page, with the forth page on the back of that. I had to practice with some scrap paper to get this right. Again, make sure that you've selected for the page not to scale in the print window. Cut them in half across the width of the paper. I haven't put page numbers on them, so it will be a small puzzle to put them together properly. When you have the order right, fold them in half to make a book. The book cover is a separate file so that you can print it on heavier paper if you like. I bound it by puching holes along the crease and tying it together with ribbon to match the poch that I made, but there are lots of ways to bind a little book and you can do it however you like. I had Kinko's trim the end of the book after I folded it to make it a little crisper.
PDF of book interior
PDF of cover

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