Stylish Projects from Vintage Books

Turn the page on old, damaged books' former lives by upcycling pages into simple yet stunning projects for your home.

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Sweet Sequels

Flower Materials

Perfect Petal

Finishing Touches

Lovely Lace

Party Favors

Let It Spin

Flower Materials

Garden Garland

Frame Up

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Sweet Sequels

No watering necessary with this book-page bouquet. For the beautiful, vibrant flowers in the bouquet, use a watercolor wash (mix watercolor paint with water) to paint cast-off pages from old novels.

Flower Materials

To make your own flower bouquet, all you need is an old novel, watercolor, glue, and florist's wire. Cut petal shapes from the paper and crinkle to make them more pliable, then straighten.

Perfect Petal

To make a petal, pinch the bottom of the cutout piece to create a curved shape. Glue petals together one by one. Let dry. Roll back the edges to open the bloom.

Finishing Touches

To finish off the flower, insert florist's wire into the bottom of the bloom for a stem. Secure with glue. Finally, gather your bouquet for a beautiful finished product, perfect for a dinner table centerpiece.

Lovely Lace

Create conversation at the dinner table with this beautifully aged runner. A discarded book with soft, worn pages works best. Lay the pages flat on the floor in the length and width you'd like your runner. On the back, carefully tape the pages together. Use a crafts decorative-edge punch to create a border that suits your style.

Party Favors

Impress party guests with playful book-page pinwheels atop decorated cupcakes. Bend a pin at a 90-degree angle with needle-nose pliers. Cut a 4-inch square from a ready-to-recycle book page. Make a diagonal cut from each corner halfway to the center of the square. Roll every other corner to the center.

Let It Spin

With the pin, poke a hole through all the layers at the center of the pinwheel. Add a drop of glue to the end of a hollow lollipop stick, and push the pin into the stick. Use a pinwheel to adorn any sweet treat.

Flower Materials

Take a page from the great outdoors with this pretty flower-theme paper garland. Accordion-fold an aged book page. Fold in half and trim the ends into a curve. Repeat with a second page. Using string, tie the two folded pages together at the center, and glue the ends to form a circle.

Garden Garland

A pearl sticker center adds a pretty touch. Create as many flowers as your garland requires. Thread a needle and string it through the tie on the back side of each flower. Add a dot of glue to keep the rosettes in place on the garland.

Frame Up

Repurpose a book with a beautiful cover, but damaged pages, into a frame for a favorite photo. Using a crafts knife, carefully cut a rectangle from the front of the book. To create a mat, cut a few inside pages into a rectangular hold that's a bit smaller than the cover hole. Secure the pages to the cover with glue. Then tape a photo in place. Be creative -- choose a fave photo that relates to the book title!

Stylish Projects from Vintage Books

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