1.10.2011

.Book Letters Tutorial.

Good Evening my blog readers :)

Today was a good day! The girls were wonderful and while they napped I successfully cleaned my bathroom and bedroom--It feels sooo sooo sooo magnificent having those spaces organized and smelling great! 


Adam is working late, as explained in my Hobbies post, so it is just me and pup tonight! Since the house (well part of it) is cleaned, I decided to spend my evening crafting. I finally got around to making a "Christmas" gift for my Father-in-law. Before you laugh at how late I am, we did just celebrate our Christmas with them this past weekend..so technically, I am only 2 days late :) Adam and I gave him other practical Christmas gifts but I wanted to make my Father-in-law a little something for his office since he spends most of his time there.  The inspiration behind this idea was found in his occupation, he is a Librarian. He loves books and anything to do with them--trust me when I say this, the man is BRILLIANT. I wanted to incorporate books into my gift and figured out the perfect little craft to make--Book Letters using his initials--
Randy Lee Miller.
Materials needed to create Book Letters:
      - Letters (purchased from Michaels)
      - Old Book
      - Hot Glue Gun
      - Hot Glue
      - Scissors


Making Your Book Letters


1. Like every good craft project, gather all of your materials and create 
     yourself a nice little work station.
2. Begin by tearing out pages of an old book. (I decided to use the whiter 
     pages instead of the yellow..I will keep that book in mind when I work on 
     antiquing a craft.)
3. After your pages are torn out of the book, use your scissors to cut strips 
     out of the paper. 
     Hint: Using your torn book pages, measure roughly
    by eye the width you will need to cover the width of 
    your letter in the particular spot you are working.
4. Roll your paper strips. You can either roll them tight or loose, depending on
    your preference. 
5. As you finish rolling your paper strip, grab your hot glue gun and put a small
     amount onto the remaining edge of your paper strip.
6. Continue rolling your strip in order to adhere the glue strip onto the paper.
     You will now have a cute little roll that is ready for the next step!
7. Hot Glue your paper roll onto your letter. After you have completed a few
     rolls, it will begin to look like this:
8. Continue until your letter(s) are covered entirely with paper rolls.
9. Enjoy your Book Letters and have fun deciding where to stick/hang/stand
     them :)
I am planning on putting these Book Letters on top of the door molding in my Father-in-law's office. I am very pleased with the final result and my favorite part is how they feel--the book pages rolled up are so sturdy, it feels heavy and just great..cannot explain it :)
First I had to have some fun with the letters around my living room. They can act as a book end!
Or use them simply as cute decor! I am tempted on keeping the "M" Book Letter but I guess I will just have to make another ;)

 To see more of these little darlings, click here.
Happy Crafting!

P.S. I had some computer difficulty so I apologize if the formatting is off a bit and also for the dark, grainy pictures..I know natural daylight is better but I did the craft tonight, oh well! It is getting rather late while typing this so again I ask you to simply ignore any grammatical errors you find ;) Thank you very much! Goodnight!

41 comments:

  1. i am placing my order for a "w"
    thanks! :) haha
    so great! i'm sure he loved them

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  2. you got it sis! :)

    (i just made these tonight so he will be getting them tomorrow!)

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  3. I saw something similar to this recently except they didn't roll the strips of paper like you did here--yours are sooooooo much better looking! I had contemplated making book ends the other day.... perhaps this is a sign ;)

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  4. Great idea and it looks great. Again, a lot of patience rolling each piece and they are all straight. What a nice gift.

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  5. Hi, Katie! This is my pick for Craft of the Week @All Thingz Related! If you like, you can grab a button here: http://allthingzrelated.blogspot.com/p/our-buttons.html

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  6. Super cute! Sharing on FB!
    www.cleverlyinspired.com

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  7. Oh wow! I just adore your thinking! These are freaking awesome! New stalker, uh hem, follower here :)

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  8. These are fabulous! I saw this spotlighted over at All Thingz Related.

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  9. found you on all things related - these are fantiastic!!!! I'm going to be doing a post on everyones version of Home Decor letters with a link back to the tutorial. I love to add these if you would be OK with that! Happy crafting!

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  10. Totally fabulous letters. Fab Fab.
    Must do. Gee Thanks!!! LOL

    xo Jeanne
    http://beeskneesbungalow.blogspot.com/

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  11. I LOVE these! Found you at all thingz related.

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  12. wow, found your blog from Rebekah's blog...totally awesome and I hope you don't mind if I post one of the pics with a link to your blog on my blog tomorrow...I shall be copying this ASAP-will credit you of course!!

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  13. These are great - I may need to give this a try - new follower!

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  14. Katie - I just read this post. As Jer is gone, Ian and I have been having a cozy Saturday just lazing around. I've been catching up on my blog reading. Anyway, these are FANTASTIC! I love them! You are so talented. :)

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  15. These are lovely! Just tweeted about them on twitter

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  16. So clever, unique and cute! Great job! :)

    Roeshel

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  17. I adore these so much! I linked to them on my Storage Geek Tumblr

    But I am hosting a crafty link party at my blogger blog Until Wednesday Calls and I would love it if you came by and linked these up!

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  18. This is such a creative idea.. love the detailed tutorial.. I would love to spotlight you as guest blogger on my blog..
    reach me at craftionary@gmail.com if you are interested.. :)
    Thanks
    Love
    Hani

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  19. Love this project!

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  20. This is so cool! I love how the bold the rolled paper makes the letters look!

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  21. What a clever project!! I love it! Including it in our roundup today! Decorating with monograms

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  22. love this! and you used my husband and my letters. L (me) R (him) and M (our last name) I have these letters hidden all over out house. I now what the next project will be :-)

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  23. Having just read little snippets of what text shows on your letters - I am now curious what book you used!

    These look great, by the way.

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  24. Awesome awesome awesome!!! I am going to make this for my daughter's teacher as a Welcome Back to School gift.

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  25. I really love how these turned out. They are really cool. I wanted to let you know that I featured them on my blog today, thanks for the inspiration. :)

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  26. That is so adorable - I must make it for a gift (or myself) very soon!

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  27. Absolutely LOVE this! I wonder if it would look tacky to highlight the rolls once it's complete...just to add some color?

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  28. Every member of my family (hubby and my 5 kids and me) have a different first initial. I've often thought of buying some big letters to hang on the wall in our dining or living room. Now I think I'll have to be giving them this treatment, when I do finally find them and buy them :)
    I used the same technique in college (15 years ago) to decorate a little cardboard picture frame (I made the frame too) with magazine pages. I still have that frame, even though it has marks in one corner from being teethed on by one of my kids :) I still remember how much I enjoyed rolling up those papers and gluing them to the frame. It may have been my first solo craft project, out from under Mom's protective eye. Thanks for the reminder of some good memories, as well as the tutorial.

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  29. I love this idea! And will be trying this soon! :)

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  30. how did you do the sides? with hot glue or mod podge? can you paint when you are done?

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  31. THESE ARE FLY AS A MUTHA-UCKA !! IM MAKING THESE AS SOON AS I GET UP TO MICHAELS

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  32. Cool! I'm doing this for my Grandmother's 85th birthday. This is something she doesn't have!!!

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  36. Wondering how you'd ensure that your rolls were exactly horizontal on letters without edges such as O or C. Don't want to get halfway through the project only to discover that the rolls are slightly (or more so!) wonky

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  37. What a wonderful and creative day! Your creativity absolutely shines through with the gift you put together for your Father-in-law. It's just so meaningful and personal, like it's just made with his love of books. I also love how you keep things organized and manage to make time for crafting! If I could pay someone to take my online exam today, I'd totally appreciate a little break to get some crafting done too, on such a hectic day.

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