Bundle of Books

In order to fullfill my craft need, I've really been trying to do crafts that are, how we say, CHEAP! So, a couple Saturdays ago while doing errands in Rexburg I went to the DI...love it there! I don't know about you but I'd been seeing old books everywhere I went. Most of them were the ones where you can open them and store things in it that were made to look old and distressed. I even came close to buying a couple myself but didn't want to pay $10-$25 each. For a hollow book....really? I don't think so. But then I came across a book idea at Brown Paper Packages that I loved! And luckily remembered this project while I was at the DI. So I went to work finding books that had that older, yellow-ish, aged look to them and chose 3 that were varying sizes. Total cost for this project: $2.00!!! Everything except for the books I already had on hand. Can you say score?! So I turned on the radio to listen to General Conference and went to work on these guys:

Step 1: Rip the covers off the books. The binding had a lot of the glue left on it and I tried to sand some of it off but it wasn't really working but then I decided it didn't really matter since that side would be facing the back.

Step 2: Take your Distress Ink and start rubbing all the corners and edges. I had this antique linen color on hand so I just used that but personally I think I like the darker color better so I might change that later. I got this ink pad at Porter's awhile ago and I think it was around $3-$4 but I honestly don't remember.

Step 3: I took several small chunks of the pages (anywhere from 3-6 pages per chunk) and rubbed the ink pad all along the 3 sides of those pages.

Step 4: To finish I took the ink pad and rubbed it around the corners at more of an angle towards the front to get some vintage look on the front then gently rubbed it all over the cover.

Step 5: After doing all three books I tied them together with some Jute Twine and a thinner, darker twine.

Close up shot of more of the antiquing I did on the books.

All finished and sitting on my entertainment center with my Jute Twine Eggs!


Cost: $2.00
Time: 30 minutes
Look: priceless...j/k...had to try : )