Upcycling: 1 book, 3 projects!

By Lacey

There is something really beautiful about an old book.  Seeing the spine all torn up, knowing that somebody really loved it & the fact that should you not actually care to read said book...  you can turn the pages into some pretty sweet things!  It's all about recycling, kids!

I picked up this old crusty well loved book at my local Goodwill for one dollar.  Sorry, Marguerite Steen, I'm sure your story is lovely, but I  have other plans for this bad boy!

Turn it into canvas!

Supplies: craft paint, book pages, paint brush

This is pretty explanatory, so I'm not going to belittle you here :)

If you want a larger canvas to work on, find the center of the book where it is bound together and gently tear from there.  There will be wholes where the threading was, but that's just fine.  Imperfection can be beautiful!

Paint whatever your heart desires!  It doesn't have to be anything ground breaking.  I painted lyrics from a favorite song and my boyfriend painted the awesome Indian man.  You could simply paint a few lines of color and I bet it would make a lovely statement.  We spent a perfect afternoon on the porch with snacks and drinks while painting these!

 Make a paper chain!

Supplies: book pages, glue gun, scissors

Who doesn't love an old fashioned paper chain?  This lady right here does, for sure.

To make sure my links were all the same width, I folded a few of the pages together and trimmed away all of the blank edges except for the side that was bound in the spine.  I decided I wanted mine to be a little more understated than the average paper chain, so I went with smaller strips of paper(three lines of text wide).  You could go larger if you wanted!  With the pages still sandwiched together, I cut until i was half way through the blank space near the spine & then chopped all the blank space left on that one side off.  Now you have your perfectly even strips!  Clearly, the next step is to start looping those bad boys together.  I used hot glue because I like instant gratification, but craft glue would work just fine!

 How great would this be for a book loving couples wedding, a graduation party or just draped along your book shelf?

Turn it into gift wrap!

Supplies: book pages, glue gun, scissors

Now, clearly you could wrap something small up in an actual book page, but i'm going to show you how to make a quick gift bow with it!

Pull two pages from the center spine.  Chop off the bottom blank space and then make another cut about 15-20 lines up the page.  

Toss the blank space and set aside the larger top portion.  Take that 15-20 line portion and bring the blank edges together and glue.  Now fold that in half and trim the sides to make your bow shape.  Unfold and chop a strip off of the larger top portion you set aside a minute ago, wrap it around the center of your bow and glue.  Now fluff it up a bit & voila!  Instant gift bow!

This project will take you less time to accomplish than reading the tutorial did!

That old book never looked so good!

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