Back to School DIYs Day 1: Upcycled Hardcover Notebook

With school just around the corner, I figured it would be a good time to post a blast of DIY projects to get you started on a creative foot. This week, I will post a new project every day to get you psyched for this year! Today's project is an easy notebook made out of an old hardcover book.

Have you ever been looking through old books at a garage sale or second-hand store and found a book with a super cool looking cover, but you know you probably would never read it? Here is an easy DIY project that you can do with those books!

I found a collection of these old Reader's Digest books at the thrift store the other day for only 25 cents:

They have really cute patterns on the covers!

Materials:

You will meed a hardcover book, a ruler or carpenter square, an X-Acto knife, a power drill with a 1/16" drill bit, embroidery thread in a color of your choice, paper, bulldog clips, and a tapestry needle.

(I forgot to put the clips and the needle in the photo... Oops!)

Step 1: Take Apart Your Book

Open the front cover of the book and cut the cover away from the pages using your X-Acto knife.

 Turn the book over and cut the other side free:

 Save the pages for another project... or read the book!

Step 2: Cut Paper to Fit

Measure the height and width of the book cover, including the spine in the width measurement. Mine was 6"x7.5"

Take these measurements and subtract half an inch from both. (5.5"x7" for me)

Using your ruler or carpenter square, mark out that measurement on a piece of paper:

Stack your paper and cut through multiple sheets at once using your ruler and X-Acto knife:

Cut out as many sheets as you would like. I ended up with about 80 pages.

Save the excess pieces for scratch paper!

Step 3: Assembly

Make a mark every half inch at the joint between the spine and the cover:

 Sandwich the paper inside the covers and secure with bulldog clips:

 Drill holes along your markings, making sure to drill through both covers and the paper

*Note- it's important that the holes are drilled at the joint of the book cover so that the book can open easily.

 Keep the clips on the book and thread your tapestry needle with about 4 feet of embroidery thread:

 Thread through the first hole at the top, and tie the thread around the top of the book:

 Cut off the excess:

 Thread back through the top hole to hide the knot:

 Begin weaving the thread through the holes as you would sew a running stitch (over, under, over, under):

 When you reach the other end, loop back around and weave back, this time in the opposite direction to fill in the gaps:

 When you reach the top again, tie off by threading the needle under the first stitch and looping the thread through itself:

Repeat 2-3 times until it feels secure and cut off the excess.

And you are done! Your finished product should look something like this:

Try this with a thrifted copy of your favorite classic book or just one with cool cover artwork! Remember-you can still read the book, but use your own discretion as far as using really nice vintage books or first editions. And please don't deconstruct any family heirlooms!

 I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! If you try it, let me know. I would love to see it!

Tarot Cards: Swords and Wands

I finally got a chance to work on some tarot cards this week! I got started on the Minor Arcana because I hit some roadblocks with the final few Major Arcana cards. I decided that I would hand draw all of the Minor Arcana because I simply do not have the time or resources to collage them all! This week I did cards one (ace) through ten in the swords and wands suits. They are kind of a hodgepodge of different card styles. Most of my inspiration was taken from the classic Waite deck and the Crowley-Thoth) deck.

Here is Ace through 10 in the sword suit:

And here are the wands:

And on a completely irrelevant note, I found this super cool Dooney & Bourke bag at the thrift store yesterday:

The seal thingy says it's "all-weather leather", but the outside is obviously fake leather (there is real suede inside). Why would they do that?? It seems silly. Anyways, I think it was a super good deal!

 Also, my friend Jessica got me some henna for my birthday, so we made some cool designs! Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of Jessica's henna, but I did this design later on:

Here is what the finished product looks like. I could only leave it on for about 3 hours, but I like how it looks!

Also, would my tiny audience (yes, that means YOU!) like to see more thrift haul stuff? Let me know below!!

Rainy Days

It has been super dry here in Butte, leaving me with a sore throat and longing for a lazy, rainy day. I made this playlist of songs that I love to listen to when it rains (or anytime really).

I don't know much about proper playlist etiquette, but this one has multiple songs by the same artists. Is that wrong? I don't know... Anyways, enjoy!

Rainy Day from TheFlyingOkapi on 8tracks Radio.

1.Promise-Ben Howard
2.Storms in Africa-Enya
3.As We Pray-Fretless
4.Beat Your Drum Slowly-Peter Mayer
5.Atlas' Marker-Rickie Lee Jones
6.Seven Years-Norah Jones
7.New Slang-The Shins
8.Satellites-Rickie Lee Jones
9.Glosoli-Sigur Ros
10.Skeletons-Yeah Yeah Yeahs
11.Someday Soon-KT Tunstall

The last song on that playlist may very well be my favorite song of all time. But I really love all of them... maybe this should just be called "My Most Favoritest Songs Ever"!

If you have any trouble playing this, please let me know! It's important that I work out the kinks so it's as accessible as possible!


*Side note from future Robin: After I posted this playlist, it rained for 5 days. This confirms my suspicions that I am in fact a magical sorcerer.

Soul Patch!

While I was at camp, my friend McKenzie, Maggie, and I decided we very much needed to form a girl band. After some strong deliberation, we decided on the name "Soul Patch" for our group, after a special someone's facial hair.... Anyways, here are some "band portraits":

Thanks to Emily for taking these lovely pictures! It was lots of fun. And McKenzie- we have to get together and rehearse!

Also- I forgot to add this photo in the last post. Here is "Soul Patch" with Tim and Koady Chaisson. They are super cool and great musicians! Check out Tim's new album, it's really great!

Have a great day and remember: "Always be yourself, but if you can be a unicorn, always be a unicorn."

-Helen Austin