Paper Back Apple

Do you remember the paperback book Christmas Trees everybody used to make? You folded down one corner of every page of the book, spray painted the edge and there you have it a Christmas tree. Do three to four and you have a forest. This is pretty much the same way. I took a paperback book with a 1" spine and cut it in half so the spine is 1/2". Then I cut the front and back cover off. I drew an apple shape onto the top page and cut the book all the way through using an exacto knife. I soaked a small sponge in water and then dabbed it onto my red ink pad so the book pages would soak up the ink. It was a little too red for me so I used the same technique and dabbed on some brown here and there. I fanned the pages and taped the back two pages together and hot glued a twig into the top and added a ribbon. The hardest part of this project is getting the pages to fan out. Some of the pages on the back started to fall off so I had to be careful. I should have hot glued the spine before taping the pages together, but maybe it would have been too stiff, I don't know. I think this would make a great teachers gift or a good "A" object.