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love can be distressful tutorial
love can be stressful AND distressful.
or you can love distressing - whether on furniture or jeans or home decor or even on books.
everything i craft will always have distressed edges, trailing threads, shabby corners or uneven lettering.
i follow the concept of wabi sabi (or wasabi wasabi, as my friend and cohort in hijinks calls it!) (because i am a bit spicy and zingee) (but i digress) which is imperfect beauty.
i thrill to the unmatched, the uneven, the unconventional.
and in this - the third career phase of my life - it's wonderful to feel free to be so mismatched!
these repurposed books fit my new world in an imperfectly beautiful way.
i love reading, i love books and i am happy to honor these little guys - who were headed to the chopper! - by gluing, chalk painting, lettering, stenciling, stamping and waxing them for display around my home.
could you make these....
of course you can, you crafty crafters!
here's how:
- find an old book, preferably one that you will not read anymore!
- lightly sand the covers
- paint the outside covers, and the inside of the front cover / first page and back cover / last page. i use chalk paint for its velvety texture, but acrylic paint will also work. let dry
- mix one part regular white school glue and one part water. you don't need too much of either for one book, and you want the mixture to be slippery - not too gluey and not too watery.
- close book and spread glue mixture on page edges. you can try to keep it contained to the page edges only, but if a bit gets on the inside of the book covers, no harm done. imperfect beauty, remember!
- put a heavy weight - perhaps a bigger book - on top of the glued book, and let it sit overnight to dry
- when dry, you can stamp, sand, stencil or further distress as you like.
See - very easy.
but how much easier is it to simply find it here, including FREE shipping! especially if you are a teacher or librarian or looking for a cute project. purchase any of the books shown here, and let me do the work for you - i won't tell anyone. :)
OR contact me about creating the blank books for you. i will ship the glued/painted books to you, and you can decide how to stamp and personalize!
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