Thursday, March 18, 2010

Vintage Embellished Books

I love books, I don't always love how they look. But I think books are perfect for decorating, either in a book shelf, on free floating shelves, on tables, under lamps, etc. and for reading of course.

They are just wonderful :)But, what do you do when you don't have pretty books and you want to display them somehow? Cover them up of course. You may remember these books that I recovered.

Well, here's another option. Decoupage them. Yep. Works beautifully. Here's what you need:

  • Books (of course)
  •  Decoupage medium
  • cutter 
  • coordinating paper
  •  any accessories you may want to add to them at the end.
Cut the paper to size of the book. Make sure the top is your priority for that is going to be the side that people see, you'll more than likely run out of paper because not all books are 6 inches on each side and 12 inches long.
On both top books I had to add an extra little strip of paper on the back, and on the big bottom one, I had to outline the book with a coordinating solid color then add the original paper I chose so it would fit.

FYI, If you want the distressed look, sand the paper on the edges before you decoupage the paper to the book, it works a lot better than trying to sand through the decoupage medium.

After you have the books covered and dried, embellish to your heart's desire. I used some drawer pulls and a little scrapbooking embellishments on mine.
Cover books with paper and embellish

cover old books with scrapbook paper and embellish!


Pretty huh? Totally better than the before. If you wish, you can also paint the book pages to match!