Hello, friends! I’m popping in to share a tried and true tutorial. This is something I’ve been doing for years. These book covers are both eco-friendly (reduce, reuse, recycle!) and adorable. I have been known to give recovered books to friends for presents. I gave one to Kaleb when we were dating–it’s probably how I wooed him!
Materials Needed:
-Books
-Brown paper grocery bag (I used Trader Joes’ bags) or a roll of kraft
paper
-Dip pen/white ink, white paint pen, or white gel pen
Step one: Open your book so that it lays flat. Trace around your book, allowing an extra 4 inches on each side for a fold-over flap, as pictured:
Step Two: Cut around your trace lines, and ensure that your cover is large enough to cover your book well. It is okay if there is a bit of extra paper on the top/bottom, we’ll take care of that in a bit!
Step Three: Heavily crease the folds so that the book cover stays securely in place.
Step Four: Trim the excess paper on the top and bottom of the book to get a nice even and straight line.
Step Five: Take the new book cover off the book and letter the title and author in white ink on both the front cover as well as the spine. For hand lettering tips, click here.
Put the book cover back on and voila!
Repeat as many times as you would like and enjoy seeing your pretty books on the shelf!
I personally would not do this to all of my books, because I love some of the cover art or my beautiful hard back books, but for my thrifted paper back books I don’t feel too bad covering up the tattered covers. That’s just personal taste! If you want to do this to your entire library, go crazy! It would look pretty classy!
Have a lovely little day!
-Lauren
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