Our First Craft! Coasters for Bibliophiles

Okay, so this first craft is pretty self serving: I needed some coasters. However I didn't just want any old silly coasters, I wanted cool ones. So I got the idea to decoupage these nifty ones out of some old books!

PICTURE COMING VERY VERY SOON

Instructions and more pictures after the jump

I've got the Books, Now what about the Tools?

So you've gone through all those old books, carefully weeded through the ones you want to keep and the ones you want to craft. Next step is to get your tools ready. I have compiled a list of all the different tools you will need to get started with most basic crafts.

Books for Crafting and Where to get Them

So you've got your X-acto blades and craft glue ready to start some awesome crafts? Oh wait, no books? That's ok, this post will give you some insight on the best sources for books you intend on using just for crafting purposes.

Onward with the Crafting!

Part of the joy of having a physical book is that the book has many lives. Its first life begins the first time it is picked up off of the shelf at a bookstore, where it is opened and read for the first time. It may later have other lives as it passes from hand to hand, garage sale to used bookstore. Each time a book is read it gains more character, from the notes in the margins to the coffee stain in the corner.

Eventually a book, especially a well loved and well read tome, will reach a point where it is no longer in a useful or readable condition. The content may be out of date, or the book itself may be worn and battered beyond the point of practical reading. In this case we are able to let books go out with an artistic bang, by up-cycling them into something beautiful. For the next several days we will be focusing on ways to give old and abused books a new form.

Wow, Real Book Art still Exists! Introducing the St. John's Bible

For the first time in over 500 years, a new version of the Bible has come out written completely by hand. Utilizing the skills of a team of scribes, St. John's University commissioned the work in 1998, and the book was completed in early May of this year.

 The book is to be bound in seven volumes, has 1,150 pages and the calligraphy was done using 130 year old ink applied with goose, turkey, and swan feathers.

Who says the old ways are dead?

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Back to Basics: How to open a book for the first time

I get it. We the people of the technology age, we know how to download a novel, sync it, link it, upload and download it all over again. So how could anyone possibly screw up something as simple as opening a book?

You'd be surprised.

If a book is well bound, the binding will be tight and rigid at first. Without properly limbering the book up a bit first, you risk damaging the structure of the binding and ultimately, the book itself.