Do you have a hard time getting rid of books or throwing them away once damaged?
While I’d like to consider myself detached (40 BAGS IN 40 DAYS has helped a lot with that!), books hold a sentimental place in my heart. Many of the books I’ve bought were from garage sales, and many of them were books I enjoyed as a kid.
I love The Very Hungry Caterpillar, my kids love it, and we’ve spent many a bedtime reading it. We have two copies, one of which was very tattered looking. As I flipped through the pages for one last time before tossing it, I realized that the colorful artwork would look great as artwork in our colorful kids’ room.
The dotted illustration only covers the bottom half of the page, so I would need to edit it a bit for the artwork to fill in my frame.
Materials Needed:
an old damaged book,
an X-ACTO knife, tape or glue stick, and
a picture frame
Cost?
Free!
1. Hold page up to mat to get an idea of what will show.
2. Use an x-acto knife to cut page out of book and to size; you’ll have one big piece that fills most of the mat and a smaller piece.
3. Cut the smaller extra piece into two, cut around circles.
4. Place the pieces together, like a puzzle, to continue the design. Adhere with tape or glue.
The frames are IKEA RIBBA (only 2.99 – mats included!), which I spray painted Rustoleum’s Spring Green.
Also in the front and back of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, there’s a page (full pages – so no cutting) with colorful shapes and holes cut out, almost like the reverse of the dot pages. Reminds me of swiss cheese!
Before I added this artwork, the frames held pages from an old Little Golden Book. I love the artwork in children’s books and love repurposing them into artwork! The best part about this project?
It took less than five minutes from start to finish!
I’ll be sharing my craft today on
head to The Country Chic Cottage & Moore Craft Time to link up any projects that take 15 minutes or less!
This is my 3 year old daughters favorite book! LOOVE the art.
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My kids love it, and I never get sick of reading it. Thank you! :)
These are adorable. What a great idea!
thanks, Meredith! Just looking at them makes me happy!
This is amazing! My daughter loves this book, she has be read it over and OVER. I’ll have to keep this in mind when we move. Thanks for sharing!
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Thanks, Maria! I wish I could coat a whole room in those dots, they’re so happy. Thanks for commenting! :)
They are BEAUTIFUL!!!! : ) What a great idea! So fun & colorful! : )
thanks, Lori! :)
They look great! I’m so glad you posted this, we have some books that are “on their way out” that I’m so glad I can reuse rather than toss! I hate the thought of throwing a book away, maybe that’s why we have so many books. :)
I think that’s why we have so many too. I have a pile for Goodwill and garage sales too, it’s like the Circle of Life for books, haha!
Love it! I am not detached from things! So sad, but true. It is hard for me throw things out, but I do it all of the time. Books, especially books I have read with my children are keepers. Love the way you upcycled a book. The art is gorgeous. What’s that? Oh, that is the sound of a PIN!
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It’s bad. I’m getting better, but it’s so hard to be detached! I don’t get why baby clothes are so hard either…
thanks for the pin, mah lady! ;)
That’s awesome! I was thinking “there’s no way this only took 15 minutes…” when I looked at the picture over on CCC, but this is awesome! Do you have any suggestions for a hardcover book cover? I’ve got a “Green Eggs and Ham” that’s missing its innards….
Thank you! :) Hmmm, maybe cut the front from the rest and hot glue it to a canvas or picture frame for easy hanging?
I’m glad you asked! I ripped out the inside of an ABC book for another project (again, damaged and a politically incorrect illustration – I is for Indian, ahem!?), and have been saving it for the last two years! I will have to do something with this…
This is such an amazing idea – I love it!! It looks great!
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thank you, Sarah! It was fun :)