Friday, December 17, 2010

Book Trees Tutorial

We've been making a few new holiday decorations to replace the ones we lost, and these are my new favorite—trees made from old books. Here's how to do it:


Start with a paperback book and tear off the cover as well as any paper on the binding. You can make your tree as tall or short as you want, but be sure to keep the bottom of it flat, by not cutting the bottom edge of the book. This way, your tree will stand up and be sturdy. Draw your tree with a marker.


With a craft knife, begin cutting away the pages along the marker line.


You don't need to bear down too hard, just cut away a few at a time, until you have gone through the thickness of the book.


You can color the edges of the tree or leave them white. If you want to add some color, hold the book closed tightly with your hand, and press an ink pad onto the book. Crayon or marker would work just as well. (Do not use paint, as the pages will stick together once the paint is dry)


Now, the fun part—fan all the pages out. This may take a few minutes, and you might have to work on a few places where the pages want to hold together. Use a paper clip to fasten the front and back pages together. (note: There is a chance the binding will crack (as you can see in the photo below, tree in the foreground). If it does, just handle the tree gingerly. Isn't likely to break off all the way)


These are so easy to make, why stop at trees? Snowmen, Santas, and so many other shapes could be made...

16 comments:

  1. These bring back lots of memories! When I was a child, we used to make them with Mickey Mouse comic books - only ours were shaped as palm trees! I'd totally forgotten about them. Your book trees look absolutely lovely.

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  2. Super cute! I'd probably have to make mine out of plain paper though; I can never cut up a book, even an old one!

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  3. This is awesome! I am so sorry the other ornaments skedaddled.

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  4. Ok....you get the magic maker award. This is so amazing. I'm going to goodwill tomorrow to pick up some discarded paperbacks and we'll be making a forest of booktrees. How fun. Thanks for sharing.

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  5. How cool are they - nice one! Hope you are well x

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  6. I had to fan myself to avoid getting the vapors over seeing (shudder) BOOKS used as craft materials. Now, I do realize that books can die natural deaths, and their bodies recycled in useful ways. But you can also make these trees with magazines and the zillions of catalogues that show up this time of year.

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  7. Those are fun! And so clever too. Thanks for the tutorial. Now, I'm book lover (and lover of all things printed) so I'm not sure I'll be brave enough to cut up a book, even cheap paperbacks but I'll try!
    Luciana

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  8. Oh sweet amy, these are adorable and soo pretty!! Very very lovely idea and such fun! Thanks so much for making this tutorial for us! Wishing you JOY and LOVE for a wonderful Christmas my sweet friend..thank you for all the blessings you have given me this year. Love to you!

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  9. Super cute. I love the look. Santa would be mighty tricky, no?
    xoxo
    Happy Holidays

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  10. What a great way to reuse old paperbacks! This will be on my list for next year. :-)

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  11. Oh yeah, that just went on my list for next year! No, you know I don't want to wait. These are going to be made and put on our nature table. I LOVE them Amy.

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  12. WOW!!! this would look cool even with a plain circle -- you could make lanterns and hang 'em from the ceiling! oh, dear... i think a new project is calling my name!

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