Books Are For the Birds

Thank you, Karen, for featuring this project on the Graphics Fairy Brag Monday. You are a true inspiration.

Although I added a lot of photographs to this post, it will be a short tutorial.  I found these books at a yard sale.  They were a children's encyclopedia set and the pages were all scribbled on so this set was basically an altered art project waiting to begin.  With Mother's Day and Father's Day coming up, these would make great gifts.  Stay with me for a minute and I will tell you why.

All four of these images came from the Graphics Fairy.  I love bird prints and florals.  The above brownish paper with the script also came from the Graphics Fairy.

 Cut brown mailing paper to fit your book and flap it over the cover.  I sprayed the cover of the books with spray adhesive and affixed the brown paper to the cover of the book and then sprayed the flap that was hanging over to affix it to the inside cover.  Then I sprayed that page so it would keep the cover closed permanently.  Repeat process on back.  I purchased the mailing paper at Walmart on a roll.

Then I printed my script on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of copier paper and hand cut it to fit just the cover of the book.  I affixed it to the cover with the spray adhesive.  Then I picked out my bird graphics, hand cut the image (mine were 5 x 7) and then sprayed it with spray adhesive and affixed it to the text.  The best spray adhesive I have found is 3M  Super Tack 77.

 You can add a ribbon, or leave them plain or affix them together like I did my beautiful book covers that I posted a couple of weeks ago click here.

 Now why do I think these would make great Mother's Day gifts for mom or grandma?  Have your child write out a message in their own writing.  Then print a photo of the child and use this layering process.  I haven't tried Picmonkey yet, but I have seen some awesome editing examples done by other bloggers with the software.  You could print an actual photo on photo paper.  Notice I used a picture easel in one of these photographs.  Include the easel with the gift and there you have a project your child could do by his or herself to make a great personal gift for a loved one.  Even in kindergarten I remember using those no pointy edged scissors.  My favorite gifts from my children from when they were little kids are the ones they made themselves.  Those are the ones I still have to this day.

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great week.

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