How to turn a book into a pencil case

This Blog post is from my old website before I switched to self-hosting. It was published on May 4, 2016

I love books and I think most of you do too.

What I love to do is turn old books into pencil cases. I have done that quite a few times now and because my old one is slowly falling apart I decided to make a new one. I figured if I do it I might as well tell you guys how you can make one too. I tried to take pictures along the process but I failed. I hope you still will be able to understand the steps.

Material

Old Book
Sticky foil
Cutter
Cardboard
Glue
Paintbrush
Ruler
Elastic band
Something heavy
Plastic Wrap

Step 1:

The first thing I do is to wrap the book in sticky foil. The foil protects it from water and other things such as dirt. You can also decorate your cover before you apply the foil to make the books more personal. I didn’t do it this time because I liked the cover of the book already

Step2:

I take the elastic band and measure how much I need of it by wrapping it around the book. Then I cut two lines in the back of the book. One on the top and one on the bottom. Through those cuts I put the ends of the elastic bands and apply them with glue. I also glue a couple of the last pages together.

Step 3:

To makes sure the paper doesn’t curl while the glue dries I add some pressure by putting something heavy on it.

Step 4:

I take the cutter and start to cut out all the pages. This might take a while depending on how much pages your book has. To make sure I cut straight lines I use the ruler.

Step 5:

After cutting out all the pages I glue some cardboard on the bottom of my hole.

Step 6:

I take the paint brush and apply the glue on the inside of the hole I just cut in the book. This way the pages hold together but it still feels like a book on the outside.

(I am sorry I totally forgot to take pictures of this step)

Step 7:

I add some pressure again to prevent the pages from curling. To make sure the glue doesn’t stick the cover to the pages I put some plastic wrap between those two. Once the glue is all dried you can put your pencils or whatever you want inside.