DIY Book Box {Tutorial}

Secret book boxes. These are the stuff of old whodunits, with cursed and precious jewels hiding in the library of mysterious mansions. The only word to describe it is cool.

I've tried my hand three times in the past at making book boxes in the past. At first, I simply used an x-acto knife to cut out hundreds of individual pages. I did a tutorial for it and everything, but it is a very time consuming process and your hands get really tired.

Last year I attacked a book with power tools, and learned what not to do! Don't worry, though. I just helped a friend make her own book box and now I can (finally) show you how to make a nice book box using a drill, two screws, a scrollsaw, and some glue!

The project takes around half an hour to complete, but you'll want to let it dry overnight.

Begin by taking a destroyable book. What is a destroyable book? Something like a Reader's Digest Abriged book, which has a beautiful cover but it generally rubbish inside.

Do NOT destroy good books. You'll make bibliophiles like me die a little inside. ;)

Fold back the cover and a few pages from the front and back of the book.

This next step is very important-- if you forgo it, you'll ruin the book box. Sandwich the book between two pieces of wood and screw two screws through it.

Make sure everything is very snug.

Next, trace the edges of the book on the wood and draw the design you'd like to cut out. We chose a rectangle with rounded corners. Be sure to leave at least a half-inch border around the design.

It's difficult to twist a scrollsaw to make sharp edges, and even the curves we worked with were sideloading the blade. If you would like to make a straight rectangle, I'd recommend drilling holes at each corner. This gives the blade enough room to wiggle so that you can cut ninety-degree corners.

Drill a hole all the way through the book, push the blade through it, and set up your scrollsaw:

Then, DESTROY THAT BOOK!

When you are finished, you'll have a nice block of paper left. These book guts are lots of fun. You can use the paper for origami, artwork, and even costumes!

Next, do a victory dance because IT WORKED! :D

The book will feel very smooth where you cut it. You are done hollowing it out at this point, but it doesn't work all that well as a box because the pages can be opened.

Paint the insides of the box with glue. This will make your box sturdy but let it look like a very normal book from the outside.

(This is different from the technique that I did with my previous book boxes, when I glued the outsides of the pages shut. If you are sure to sandwhich the book between the pieces of wood, you won't need the extra stability that gluing the outside of the book shut gives.)

Glue a piece of decorative paper or fabric on the first non-cut page at the back of the book.

Now, set a nice heavy dictionary on top of the book and let it dry flat and even.

This would make a really cool afternoon project! It takes around half and hour and only requires a basic knowledge of how to use a drill and scrollsaw. My book box is the perfect place to hide candy from little siblings, and my little sister keeps her favorite pieces of jewelry inside of hers. I've seen some neat pictures of people putting engagement rings inside of book boxes or hiding ipods and other valuables in  hollowed textbooks inside backpacks.

Book Party {Guest Post}

Hi! I'm Rosemary and today I'm doing a little guest post about a party I planned for my little sister. Since some books were destroyed in the process, I thought it would be ideal for a guest post on Shaylynn's blog!

My little sister was having trouble choosing a theme for her 12th birthday party and I suggested she choose one of her favorite things–books! She loved the idea and we had a ton of fun planning it together. AND, her friends loved it too! So here are some ideas and things that we did, and hopefully you can use them to throw your own book themed bash! :)


(Forgive the lack of nice photos! They're all taken on different cameras by different people. I wasn't really planning on doing anything with them so they're not the nicest!)

Invitations:

Here is where the book destruction begins! These invitations are very simple, but perfect for the theme. All you need is an old book, paper, a card, and some kind of adhesive. I didn't take any photos before we gave them out so these photos are of a quick recreation.


1. Get out your old paperbacks! I knew the moment we decided on the theme that old book pages would be the star of the party. I got out some of my 10¢ paperbacks (sometimes it pays to be a book hoarder) and got snipping.

2. Take a card or fold some pretty cardstock into a card (great way to follow a color theme). Write whatever you'd like on the front, as long as it resembles a title (feel free to print things from the computer or stamp them for a more professional look).

3. Cut out some rectangles from the old book to be the "pages." Adhere on to each side of the book.

4. Cut out a smaller rectangle, write your invitation info on it, and adhere to the center of the "page" (I like it to be slightly framed by the words). You have an invitation that looks like the book!

Decor:

Three words: DESTROY MORE BOOKS.The first thing we knew we needed was a bunting (we're Pinterest addicts, what can I say). We experimented with different shapes and decided we liked hearts the best. The rest was very simple. For the bunting we made a small cut on the each side of the heart and then threaded yarn through them all. Like I said, very simple, but you will probably spend a long time cutting out hearts! We made a bunting for the entrance and the dining room, and some little streamers to hang from the chandelier.  You could carry the decor father than we did and set up old pretty books around the room or make some kind of centerpiece!

Refreshments:

We needed a couple book themed ones, of course! Some of our ideas were colored Goldfish (for One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish), "Ambrosia squares" (from Percy Jackson), and of course the Harry Potter series is never ending supply of treats to try to recreate! We were also lucky enough to find a package of Turkish Delight at TJ Maxx! No need to mention what book that is from! :)
I attempted to make a cake that looked like a book, but I was not satisfied with my efforts. If you're good with fondant, I think little fondant books on top of cupcakes would be adorable!

Games:

The first game we planned was to have people guess what book characters everyone else was. I wish I could show you a photo of all the girls in their amazing costumes! We had Harry Potter characters, Hunger Games characters, and even someone from Les Miserables! (I was Mary Lennox from The Secret Garden.) If your characters are too obscure, feel free to skip this game!

I wanted to do a classic "pin the blank on the blank" game so I made this one kind of sneakily to surprise my little sister. Pin the Title on Bella's Book! I actually drew my sister, but you can feel free to draw a generic person, a character, a stick figure, or even use a photo! Just have them holding a book! I then cut out some rectangles with the titles of Bella's favorite books on them. You probably already know how to play: the player is blindfolded, handed a "tail" with a piece of tape attached to it, spun a little bit, and then tried to "pin" the title onto the front of the book. I was thought it was fun waiting to see what Bella would be reading! :)

"The Line game" is one we learned in an acting group and play at almost every gathering. You and a partner have to act out a dramatic scene (you're sinking on the Titanic, you're trapped in a haunted house, etc.) but you both have a little piece of paper with a random line on it that you must read and incorporate into the scene at some point. It can be hilarious! To make this part of the book theme we used lines from our favorite books ("For Narnia! And for Aslan!" "There's a goat in the shower!").
It takes awhile to think of enough quotes to play for a long time, so start making the list a couple days before. The cut them all into separate slips, fold them, and put them in a box. Have everyone pair up (or split into groups of threes). When a pair is ready to play, give them their lines and their scenario (those can also be thought up ahead of time and can be from books!). Watch the story that unfolds!

This we made up specifically for the party! Everyone gets to design a book cover, and then the other player choose whose they like best by "buying" the book with play money!

You'll need drawing utensils (markers, crayons, pencils), small sheets of paper (we used normal 9x11 printer paper cut in half), play money for everyone (just steal it from Monopoly), a timer, and a list of goofy titles (Pippy and the Mountain Goat Choir, The Unexpected Cow, etc. It's good to think of these ahead of time!).

Make sure to tell all the players that it's about creativity, not how well you can draw. Encourage them to interpret the title anyway they want!

Each person gets a piece of paper and then everyone is told the title. Everyone has 5 minutes  to draw a cover. When the timer goes off they each show their cover. Then the players walk around with their play money and "buy" the cover (or covers if you don't want to be too competitive) they like best! The player with the most money at the end of the round and/or game wins! You can play this as many times as you want/have titles for!

Another thing that would be fun (and you can use up more old book pages on!) is "newspaper blackout poetry." You take a page and black out all but the words you want to keep, making a really interesting piece of art (you can look here for some examples: http://newspaperblackout.com/).

Treat bags:

According to my little sister, treat bags are the best part of every party. She has very high standards for them, so it's a big deal that she was happy with these!

We decorated each bag with quotes about reading and wrote the guest's name on a piece of book-page. Inside the treat bag is:

A packet of bookworms

We bought a big bag of sour gummy worms and split them into small ziploc snack bags. Then we took a piece of paper, folded it over the top, stapled it, and labeled it Bookworms! It's cuter AND cheaper than buying a pack of separately packaged gummy worms.

Harry Potter lollipops

We were lucky enough to come across a bag of fizzy lollipops and immediately thought "Acid pops!" They're mentioned briefly in Harry Potter, but it was enough for us! We copied the Honeydukes colors and stapled labels onto the stick. You could also print out the Honeydukes logo from the computer and use that!

Wonka candies

Available at almost any store and book related by their very nature!

Little notebooks

We bought a pack of mini composition notebooks and then decorated them with pretty scrapbooking papers and little book page hearts!

Each treat bag also contained two books! We got a bunch of gently used books at a used book store and matched them up to who we thought would like them best.

If you want to add more, there are lots of ways to recreate book themed candy! :)

I'll end with some quick tips for using old book pages:

1. If you don't have any old paperbacks don't fret, they're easy to find. Simply go to your nearest used bookstore or thrift store and find the paperbacks and/or clearance section. You should be able to get a couple paperback classics for under a dollar. If you must you can use a dictionary.
2. It doesn't matter much what the book is about or what the page says, seeing as no one will be able to read very much of it. It can be fun to use a book everyone will recognize (Pride & Prejudice or Narnia for example). Or you can make the words almost completely decorative by using something more obscure (I used Pride & Prejudice for the invites and Villette for the decorations).
3. Keep an eye out for awkwardness. As long as your book is family friendly you shouldn't have to worry too much, but keep an eye out for awkward formations of words and stuff. It doesn't matter so much for the bunting, but for the little notebooks you definitely want to be aware of what the hearts say. . . . Fine! If you really need an example I'll give you one. I was showing my mom the little notebooks and she laughed and pointed out that one of the hearts said "she scratched" and the line below said "her seat." See, nothing scarring or anything, just awkward. I put new hearts over top that one and was more careful to read what sentences they formed. :)

Hope this little post inspired you to throw your own book-themed party! :)

Power Tool Book Box-- It's a Start, At Least

This one is a little bit of a crafting fail-- but like all failures, I've learned from it. Someday I intend to use what I learned from this experiment and make a proper book box, but for now, here are my "lab notes," per se, if anyone else wants to put them to use.

Last month, I wanted to make a last-minute present for a friend (as in, I saw her at church that morning, remembered with a blush that it was her birthday, and wanted to make something for her that day). I also wanted to use POWER TOOLS, OH YEAH!

(Power tools are cool.)
(Please tell me you pictured the Doctor saying that.)

I wanted to make her a book box. However, as I explained in the ordinary-book-box-tutorial, you use up two x-acto blades, kill your fingers, spend at least two hours cutting, and wind up with very ragged edges on the inside of the book. This is when I had an epiphany. POWER TOOLS, OH YEAH!

My dad is absolutely brilliant about letting us kids fiddle around with whatever we want to do with his garage full of tools, so as soon as we got home from church, I knocked several books of the shelf looking for a destroyable book (never desecrate a perfectly good book! please!), grabbed the screwdriver bag, and rushed across the cold yard into the garage, still wearing my church clothes. (By the way, doing this in church clothes is a bad idea.)

Note: the top few pages were cut out with an x-acto knife. Ignore that.

I began with a book box I'd started on earlier-- the outer pages were already glued together. See the old tutorial for that.

 First, I folded the book covers and a few pages back and drilled a hole in each corner of the book so that the scrollsaw blade could have some maneuvering space. 

This caused some unfortunate separation of the pages. However, once the hollow is cut out of the book, you can also cut out this pileup of torn paper and the book will lie flat again.

I removed the blade from the scroll saw, threaded it through one of the drilled holes, and tried for five excruciating minutes to wrangle the book and blade into place. It finally worked.

Scrollsaws work by vibrating a blade up and down. Guess what the resident genius forgot to consider? Oh, yeah. The book pages might vibrate so much that 1) you can't hold onto the book, and 2) the scrollsaw turns into some sort of goblin that tries to shake its prey to death. Poor book.

Not just a poor book-- poor me. I snapped the blade in half while trying to make the scroll-saw-goblin behave. This is the point where I called my dad in tears, worried that he will be extremely upset that I just broke his power tool.

Did I mention my dad is brilliant about us using his power tools? He told me where he kept spare blades, and I went back to work. A different plan of attack was in order, however.

Laying a piece of scrap wood ontop did nothing.

A short AHA! moment later, the resident genius came up with a plan. Screw scrap wood tightly to the top and bottom. (In hindsight, two screws would have worked even better. And this ought to be your FIRST STEP. Got it? It will save you mucho trouble.)

That did the trick. The resident genius rubbed her hands together in glee, re-drilled the holes, and started cutting. 

*cough* You know, it might have been more genius-ier if I had traced the size and shape of the hole onto the scrap wood. I wouldn't be doing guesswork, and I might actually have wound up with straight lines and sharp corners.

I kept on a'cuttin'. You'll wind up with a giant stack of papers like this. 

Did any of you notice that the book pages on my sister's artsy skirt had holes in the middle? I used these drilled-through pages to make her book skirt. :)

Tip: straight lines and sharp corners seem to be a near impossibility with books and scroll saws. A more organic, curvy design might turn out better.

Wear work clothes if you attempt this project. You shall be a mess.

Use an exacto knife to cut the hole out of the pages from the font of the book (the pages that were pulled back with the cover).

Ta-da! A book box!

It didn't turn out like I wanted-- but it was done in well under half the time of my old book boxes. However, I like where this is going. I can't wait to go out and try this project again-- but before I do, I might think things through a bit more. :)

(P.S. I seem to be having all sorts of technical issues. The links under my header got messed up, and I my best attempts to fix it didn't completely fix it, and now a few of the images in various posts are strange sizes and discolored (thanks, E, for letting me know). No idea what is going on but I'll get everything fine-and-dandy as soon as I can!)

Bookish Adventures {part three}

This is the third part of the photoshoot I did with my little sister wearing a book page skirt.

{Part One}
{Part Two}

I'm also experimenting with some different editing styles (some very drastic due to weird lighting and white balance), but some of the photos are left unedited. Which is your favorite?