DIY: Creative Vintage Book Cover Frames
See how to turn buried book covers into one-of-a-kind frames for family photos
Lauren Donaldson wanted to come up with a unique way to display a set of vintage black-and-white photos of her family. Inspired by her love of books, she made unique frames out of old books she found buried in a bin in the back of an antique store. Donaldson, of Lauren Elise Crafted, decided to breathe new life into the books by turning them into unique photo frames. See how she did it.
More DIY frames
More DIY frames
- First things first: cut out all of the pages of the book, leaving just the clothbound cover.
- With a pencil, outline where you want to place the picture on the inside cover. Run your X-acto knife over the outline, but don't cut all the way through so the cloth on the book cover won't get ruined.
- Chisel off the hard, chipboard part of the cover, leaving the fabric intact. Then create a new outline that's 3/8-inch inward from the first on the bookcloth and cut out that outline.
- Glue and fold over the 3/8-inch tabs of the book cloth into the cutout hole. Hold the folded over fabric with binder clips until it dries.
- Keep your photo secure by attaching it to a piece of card stock, and then use masking tape to attach it to the inside of the book so that the photo shows through the hole you've cut out. Donaldson suggests using masking tape instead of glue here, so you have the option of changing out the photo in the future.
- Attach your frames to the wall using tacky putty, Velcro tabs, or double-stick tape.
The result is a unique and special display for treasured vintage photos. Although Donaldson knows that it can be a bit controversial to go tearing up old books, it's not something that she usually does, and addresses this on her blog.
"They're no longer in 'book' form, but I value these covers even more as frames on my wall than I would as just books sitting on my shelves," she says. Donaldson is also careful to reuse all of the pages from the books in paper crafting projects — something she does quite often — so that no part of these books will go to waste.
Read more about this DIY at Donaldson's blog, Lauren Elise Crafted.
More DIYs:
Quick Vintage-Style Art
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"They're no longer in 'book' form, but I value these covers even more as frames on my wall than I would as just books sitting on my shelves," she says. Donaldson is also careful to reuse all of the pages from the books in paper crafting projects — something she does quite often — so that no part of these books will go to waste.
Read more about this DIY at Donaldson's blog, Lauren Elise Crafted.
More DIYs:
Quick Vintage-Style Art
Fluffy White Paper Lantern
How to Paint a Sisal Rug
1. Vintage books that you won't mind cutting up.
2. Photographs
3. Metal-edge ruler
4. X-acto knife
5. Firmer chisel or similar tool
6. Tacky glue and binder clips
7. Masking tape