DIY Repurposed Book Flower!

15 Nov

Have some old books that are just sitting on the shelf? Or maybe those old books have been packed away and you are looking for some creative ways to repurpose those old books? Last week I shared how I made a few quick changes to the mantel to decorate things for Thanksgiving. Sitting on my mantel was this repurposed book flower that I made and I want to share how you can make one for your home decor.

This is a simple repurpose project to make as long as you have some old books on hand. You can go to any thrift store and purchase some old books and use for this project in case you don’t have any collecting dust. I would recommend checking the book to make sure it does not have any value like the first edition of rare books. If you are a book lover or a book purist, who thinks books should only be used for reading, you may want to close out the page right now because I am going to tear a book apart. “GASP”

I originally saw this idea on Pinterest and decided this was a great accent piece for the mantel. I wanted to give my flower a few accents, so I started by spray painting the ends of the book. You can use any color that you would like, I used black to give it a more rustic look to match the yellowed pages. Some books are so aged, that you may not need to paint the edges. The other option you could do would be to use stain to darken the edges. The possibilities are endless on how you could darken the edges.

I decided to cut my book in half so the flower would not be too long for my mantel and I can use one half for the top of the flower and the other half for the bottom. Cutting the book in half allows me to make more petals by gluing the halves together. I started by marking the book on the outside pages with a straight line down the center and I began to cut the pages by hand with scissors. I cut the pages in half and I cut four to five pages at a time. I used a hacksaw to cut the binding of the book. You could try to use a hacksaw for the entire book, but I felt that it would tear up the pages too much. You could also use an electric saw for the binding. I think if you kept the book clamped together you could easily use an electric saw without tearing up the pages.

Since I am ~~anal~~ detailed oriented, I counted my pages and divided equally so my pedals would be the same size. You could just eyeball it and that will work too. Once I had my pages divided, I fold the page ends into the center of the book and glued them into place.

I placed a rubber band on the outside of the 2 separate sides of the book until the glue was completely dried.

Once the glue is dry, I glued the 2 parts of the book together and placed a button in the center to give my flower some character. I also wrapped a rubber band around the entire flower until the 2 halves dried completely.