the ReFab Diaries

Once upon a time, I went on a virtual quest for book-page jewelry ... or book-paper beads.  I found some great tutorials and gathered them together in a story (post) called Wearable Words that has, to date, been viewed over 25,000 times. Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks it's cool to wear knowledge... !!  So here's wearable words, Part II - mostly not jewelry.  Another 14 ideas for making sure your thoughts are on your shoes / head / arm / nails etc.  (warning: bad puns and corny wordplay ahead...)

One bubble mailer, scrap fabric and buttons.  From Creme de la Craft.  

Christmas 2005 was the holiday of the "book stuff".  I churned out book clocks (something I'll post about one day) and what I called "book-Its" by the dozen, both as gifts and to make a little extra cash.  Turns out those book-Its started to show a little wear towards the end of 2011 and a few friends have asked for another one... because it's their "go to" bookmark.  Since I'm making them anyway, here's a little how to.  They could not be simpler to make!  So here goes ... (Hit "Read More" for the full tutorial)

Here's a super simple book fold! I love this because it's way to work with magazines and journals, which are rarely good for folding.




Find the full tutorial here.

Etsy and Pinterest are awash with amazing "book art", "book folds" and "book sculpture".  If you can pick up a beautiful used artifact for $1 (25c!) that you can continue to appreciate in some meaningful way, do it. And when it comes to kids' books, what else are you going to do with the ones that have been chewed on, colored in, ripped or ridden like skateboards?



I discovered quite quickly that you need to start easy and practice. So, this really is the easiest "book fold" possible and it's reversible, i.e. you can unfold it and read it again. If you're looking for the popular grown-up tutorials on this blog, go here.





Old picture books can often look a little worse for the ware on the outside. So this is a great way to re-purpose something that is really colorful on the inside (and often sentimental in general) without ruining it.




This Sesame Street Treasury works really well because the inside covers are colorful - a work of art in themselves.  Get the tutorial after the jump!