Old Book Bundles

I love old books.  The smell, the feel and the look.  I love old book bundles.

The home decor catalogs that arrive in my mailbox show old book bundles on their luxurious shelves.

I have moved more times than I want to remember boxes of old books collected from yard sales and thrift shops.  I used the covers for a project that I don’t believe I could continue blogging without!  You can read about my farmhouse file box to see if one would help you.

I realize many are passionate about books and would never remove a cover or use a page for a project.

So this is for you!

First make a cup of tea.

Then dump it into a glass rectangular cake pan.  Drop in a piece of paper or card stock.

I used both.

Remove the paper or card stock and carefully winkle.  The tea will stain and the dampness roughs up the fibers of the paper.

You can winkle and then drop into the tea if you wish.

I draped the wet paper and card stock on a folding drying rack to dry…

…and crisp!

Gather up your favorite paperback book.  Go ahead, get your favorite one even the one you want to pass down to your grandchildren.

Also grab scissors or anything to cut paper.  I used a scrapbook paper cutter.

Wrap the paper around the paperback and with a pencil mark where you want to cut to make it fit the front cover, back binding, and back cover.  Cut the paper.  Also cut the height to fit.

Wrap the tea stained rough paper around your book.  No glue or tape needed.

Because….

The twine your wrap around the books will hold everything in place.

You can write your own title, tape ribbon, or glue brown paper along the binding of the paper without damaging the book.

Now for my old book disclaimer.

My old book disclaimer! I had reservations about using old books for crafts. We have 3 boxes of books gathered over the years that were bought at yard sales and thrift shops stored in the garage. Most were not in good shape when I bought them. Many were green and blue for decorating a bookcase. The more tattered and torn the better. We’ve moved the books several times, but for the last 7 years they sit in storage. I had to get rid of some due to mold…yuck. But now that I’ve found some creative ways to reused them, I feel we can love them all over again in their new life.

Have you ever made something that inspired you from a home store or catalog?

Now if I could just figure out how to make one of those fancy stand mixers for the kitchen! 🙂

You can see this in our Thanksgiving Simple Abundance post.