Upcycled Vintage Thrift Store Books

Vintage books are plentiful at the thrift stores. I often find them in the free boxes at the shops. Some are damaged, outdated, in a foreign language, and not worth keeping as a book to read. I always look through the book sections for vintage books I can either add to the library in my old schoolhouse or that I can upcycle. I recently did just that with a couple thrifted books.

Both the vintage bird art on the wall and the book art "planter" were created with thrift store books.

To make the book planter, I used a free book. after finding the middle of the book, I cut five pages at a time, horizontally or perpendicular to the spine, cutting each five page section at different heights. I then rolled each five page section toward the middle and hot glued it to form a tube.

I added small pieces of floral foam to the tubes to keep them more rigid and to help hold the faux stems. I also traced the bottom shape of the tunes onto a piece of cardstock and cute it out and hot glued it to the bottom.

I added three types of thrifted faux greenery, using some hot glue as I placed it. This stands up beautifully and would be fun with seasonal flowers or dried flowers.

A 1970 Audubon Bird book is providing me with all kinds of lovely bird art that I am enjoying framing up. I painted a thrifted frame and mat to frame this particular page. 

I am a reader and I love books, but sometimes they have lost their usefulness as a book to read. When that is the case, I love upcycling them rather than letting them go to the landfill.