Do you have a hard time getting rid of books once they're 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 which I spray painted a spring green.

(Note: since this project has been posted, they changed the material of the frames. I don't recommend painting them any more, it might not adhere!)

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!