What To Do With a Bad Book - a Craft Tutorial

I'm a total book worm at heart. So when I come across a bad book (you know, bad story lines, too many cuss words, or whatever your reasoning for not liking a book), I usually just throw it away.  Well, I found a good use for those books with less than stellar reviews.  I make them into fun Christmas decorations instead.  

So, start this project with one bad book. Its time to put this book to better use!  Take the book and divide it into about 100 pages by slicing with an matte knife right down the spine of the book.

Gather together these supplies:

FYI:  I found the glass candle stick holder at my local dollar store.
You'll also need:

• tacky glue
• scrap of golden yellow paper
• 1 rounded toothpick

STEP 1:  fold pages from spine corner (top) to the bottom corner of the page.  I use a plastic bone folder to crease the pages.  Unfold.

STEP 2:  Fold the page from spine corner to the fold you just created.  Crease.  Add glue to the underneath side of that fold and press flat toward the fold line.

STEP 3:  Add glue to the top of the last fold and press toward the spine.  Make sure the original fold is not altered.

STEP 4:  Watch a good movie or listen to Christmas music as you fold the rest of the pages using these same steps because this will take a while.

STEP 5:  Fan out the pages so they form a paper tree.  Glue the first and last page together.

STEP 6:  Turn the candle stick holder upside down.  Add epoxy glue and spread the bottom of the pages over the center of the candle stick holder.

To add more height you can stack two candle stick holders into each other, just make sure you glue the holders together with epoxy glue.  

• To add a star on top of your book tree, download this free start pattern HERE.  
• Using this pattern, cut the star out of golden or yellow paper.  
• Add tacky glue to the star.  
• Lay onto the center of the star a rounded toothpick and press the other star on top of the toothpick and the star.
• Trim stars to match one another if needed.

I hope you enjoy your "bad book" now! It's probably much better this way (at least it's a lot cuter). Happy folding!  xoxo Grandma