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Dare to Make It: Holiday

Dare to Make It: Holiday


How to Make an All-Recycled Sketchbook

comments (4) November 8th, 2008     

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leethal Lee Meredith, contributor
Love it! 16 users recommend
Using recycled book pages for the sketchbook pages means some pages will have more white space than others—a constant reminder that its all recycled!
I chose for the pages to be upside down so the original book text and images would be less distracting to the sketchbook.
Using a thickish marker allows for sketching/writing over the book text with no problem.
Using recycled book pages for the sketchbook pages means some pages will have more white space than others—a constant reminder that its all recycled!

Using recycled book pages for the sketchbook pages means some pages will have more white space than others—a constant reminder that it's all recycled!

Photo: Lee Meredith
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Bring the needle back down through the fabric, then back up through the layers, repeating down to the bottom. You'll need to end with the thread coming out the back of the fabric. You can keep the stitches loose as you sew in order to see the holes in the paper and keep everything straight; then when you reach the end you can pull both ends of the thread to tighten it all up.


 Keeping the stitch widths all the same as one another is not necessary here.

Repeat the binding with each section of paper, sewing them as close together as you can and keeping them centered within the fabric. Tie all the thread ends together at the top and at the bottom to tighten and secure the binding.


 Those thread ends can be tucked between the fabric and the cover when gluing it all together.

Once they are all bound together, it may be helpful to stack a bunch of heavy books on top of the pages overnight to flatten them better before gluing into the book cover. Next is the gluing step, so heat up your glue gun and protect your working surface. Put the pages/fabric into the cover to line it up—decide how you want the pages facing.


 I chose for the pages to be upside down so the original book text and images would be less distracting to the sketchbook.

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posted in: paper, recycled, book, journal
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Comments (4)

JenniferStern writes: I'm really a go-green kinda girl, and this one definitely has my vote... I'm adding it to my Christmas Gift Giving List!
Posted: 11:14 am on November 10th
mommaviv writes: I like this idea alot! I have loads of old books (mostly outdated books from schools) full of interesting pictures. I think I can comine the pages into one really cool sketch book. I think this is a much better use of them than letting them gather dust on a shelf never to be looked at.
Posted: 11:53 pm on November 8th
laughingpurplegoldfi writes: I love this idea... I'm just not sure that I have the stamina to see a project like this through from start to finish... but I love, love, love it!

definitely 'bookmarking' this one... just in case the motivation strikes me one day... and I'm really hoping that it does :)

thanks for sharing
Posted: 5:32 pm on November 8th
Average_Jane_Crafter writes: Ooooh! I love this! Such a clever use of old books, and a cool way to combine stitching/paper/fabric. love it! :)
Posted: 4:58 pm on November 8th
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