Turn an old book into a box to hold a gift card or cash gift.
Total Time: 1 hour plus time for glue to set
Yield: 1 gift box book
Supplies:
- 1 old book with an interesting or decorative cover ($.25)
- 1 fl oz white paper glue ($.10)
- 1 X-acto knife ($1.00)
- plastic wrap or plastic bag
Steps:
- Wrap the cover and the first few pages of the book in plastic wrap as close to the books spine as possible. This is to prevent glue from sticking them together and to keep them clean. Wrap the back cover in plastic wrap to the spine as well.
- Mix a teaspoon of glue with a drop or two of water, mix.
- I used my finger to run the glue mixture along the entire 3 sides of the pages, then closed the book and placed it in a warm place (with weights on the book, literally!) to dry. This is to glue all the pages together.
- After drying, I sketched a rectangle shape on the third page of the book and used my X-acto knife to cut straight down into the pages. Be careful with your knife!
It will take multiple cuts to get through the entire book and my first book doesn't have neat straight edges down, so be patient with yourself. - Once you cut down to the back cover of the book, you will run the glue mixture on the cut edges of the inside of the book and close it up again, with weights to dry.
- Remove the plastic and insert your gift card, small item or cash for a nice way to display your gift! I happened to be giving a "book" gift card so this seemed really appropriate!
They can also use the book to hold things or even to hide a spare key or other valuables in their house, so it is a good gift by itself!
Happy Holidays everyone!
