My So Called Crafty Life

DIY Vintage Book Notebooks

These sweet little notebooks would be a great project for your next craft night! They are economical, easy, and super fun to make. I made three all by myself in the course of a few hours. The covers are made from vintage children’s books I get from the antique market in Raleigh for $3.00 each. They are a great size too, perfect for your purse or car!

Here’s What You Need:

*Vintage children’s Books

*Printer or Copy Paper

*Scrapbook paper, chalk paper, paint chips, etc…

*Hole Puncher

*Binder Rings

*Scissors

*Paper Cutter

Step 1: Cut up book and punch holes- carefully cut up the spine of your book with scissors and carefully remove the pages from the spine, then trim the spine off so you have an even front and back cover. Then measure and mark your spacing for your holes in your book. I made a little template on scrap paper. I measured up from the end one inch at the top and bottom, and then one middle hole that was in the middle of the first two holes. Punch out the marks to make your template then mark holes on covers. Then punch your covers where you marked for the holes. I used my cropadile with the 3/16ths hole.

Step 2: Cut Paper- Measure the width and height of your covers. You want your pages to be about a quarter-inch smaller than the covers. Using your paper-cutter cut your inside pages of copy paper, scrap paper,etc to size. For example if your book is 4.25×6.25, cut your pages to be 4×6. I’m not sure how many pages I ended up with, probably about 100 or so.

Step 3: Punch Holes- Using the template you made earlier measure and punch holes in all your pieces of paper. This takes a while, but goes pretty fast if you get a buddy to help. Be careful not to get sloppy or your holes won’t match up later.

Step 4: Assemble- Open up your binder rings and load your back cover onto the three rings. Then slowly add little stacks of pages until you have all your inside pages on rings. Add the front cover and close rings. And you are done! Pretty cool huh!

These cute little books are so fun to make! I keep one in my purse and it makes me smile every time I see it! This is a great craft to do with friends, or with your kids. You can make the inside as fancy or plain as you like. These also make great gifts and they cost less than $5 a piece to make. Overall making these books is a super cool way to spend an evening!

Happy Crafting!

DIY Decorating with Vintage Hankies

Anyone in my family can tell you, I am crazy for vintage hankies! I absolutely love them and use them in my decor all the time. I buy them different places, from etsy, the flea markets, antique malls, I just can’t get enough. I mostly use them in my designs for my shop Sweet Sophie Blue. I make necklaces and bear dresses out of them, and I embroider them for handbags. However, some of them I just are too fond of to cut up or give up, so I stash them away. One day when I have enough of them I am planning on making either a set of curtains for my kitchen sliding doors, or a duvet for my bed. I take them out and look through them all the time, but then they are back in a box, so I found a great solution to be able to use them and still be able to reuse them later on. This sweet hanky bunting couldn’t be easier! All you do is tie your hankies together and voila, you have a fantastic bunting to add to your decor. You could hang it over a bed, or a window, or carefully use a long bunch of them outside for a party or wedding! You can even layer them with other buntings. They are my favorite new thing, and I’m sure they’ll be popping up all over my house. This is just another one of many ways to use your vintage hankies. What do you do with yours? I’d love to know! Hope you all are having a lovely week!