Thrifty Thursday: Old Books Get New Lives

You've seen us make them into Kindle Covers

Shaddow Boxes

And Secret Compartment Boxes

Today I'll show you what I did with "The Story of a Bad Boy." I found the title so funny, and I've been wanting Eric to make a scrapbook so that our kids will have his perspective on some things, rather than just my own. But, how do you get a man to make a scrapbook????

Well, in my experience, you don't. You make it for him and hope he'll add to it! So, without further ado, here is what I made for Eric. Call it a DIY Smash Book, a Man Book or a Pocket Book, either way, it turned out really fun!

I first cut out the insides. Is it a sin to cut up an old book? If the book is not a first edition or valuable in some other special way, then I don't think so. They are simply too abundant! You can find old books discarded for pennies, sometimes even free, at libraries. They run 50¢-$1.00 at my local thrift store. But the book I am using today I bought at a yard sale just for the title. It was fairly priced at a buck!

 Then, use one of the inside pages as a template, to create your pages. I wanted mine to be pockets, so I doubled the page width and added a quarter inch gluing strip to the sides.

Then, I made pages that would be easy for Eric to fill in. Think about what you would like to remember of the person you are making your album for.



If you know Eric, you know he is the antithesis of a bad boy. That is what makes this so funny!!!

If you like the looks of this project, here are some other ideas:
Gardening Book: Use the pockets to organize your seeds.
Card Organizer
Interior Design Guide: Use the pockets to hold swatches, magazine clippings, paint chips, etc.
Business Reciept Keeper: Make a category for all your expenses.
Wedding or Party Planner

Check in tomorrow for a fabric sneak peek and giveaway. We'll show you more ideas for old books before we get to next week's Thrifty Thursday. Have a great day everyone!

UPDATE: Brenda asked if I would give more details on making the individual pages. Well, here you go! I hope this helps... they are the only photos I got of the process.

First, since all books come in there own size, you need to cut one of the pages from the book to use as a guide. Measure its height and width, then follow this diagram.

As always, if you don't have a scoring board, just use a ruler and the BACKSIDE of a craft knife.

Take your cut and scored paper, cut the tiny bit of horizontal fold that extends past the 1/4" score lines on both sides.

Then fold your paper as shown below. A bone folder comes in really hand here!

Use a strong adhesive runner to apply glue to both tabs on the right had side. Then, fold your page in half sandwiching the glue between the tabs. For added design interest, I used a circle punch to cut the half-circle tabs and punch outs. You could make tabs in lots of ways though, or not at all.