WOYWW #8 and A Tutorial

This is going to be an especially looooonngg post, but I promise it will satisfy your curiosity as well as your creative hunger!!

Welcome to my 8th edition of WOYWW!!  If you're not familiar with WOYWW, click the button above.

This week I've been busy deconstructing antique books.  At the bottom of this post there is a tutorial on how to take apart books and remove the individual pages with as little damage as possible.

Before I get to the pages, let me tell you why I'm taking apart so many books...

Basically, I'm a craft supply shopaholic and found some great deals online.  Soon I'll be selling excess ephemera in my new Etsy and Artfire shops.

Now lets get to WOYWW...

Here are just a few of the deconstructed books.  The piles in the bottom row are all part of an 1880 hymnal that I was in the process of taking apart.  The small stack in the back is another 1880 hymnal that I'd already finished (I have 10 total).

 The ginormous stack on the blue case, is made up of pages from 3 antique books dating from 1877 to 1942. 

Here's a close-up of the 1877 dictionary pages...

When I start listing some of this ephemera on Etsy and Artfire, my plan is to offer a wide variety of themed packs such as the ones below.

For those of you that have been wondering where I disappeared to, now you know what I've been up to!  Don't worry, the Crafty St. Patty's Party will resume shortly and the March Madness Giveaway will begin tomorrow!!  Included in each of the 10 prizes will be some of this 100-year-old ephemera!!  Pretty cool, huh? 

TUTORIAL: DECONSTRUCT AN ANTIQUE BOOK

Note: This is a very messy project so be prepared to clean up when you're finished!! 

SUPPLIES

Antique Book

Craft knife & mat (optional)

The book I'm taking apart is a Lutheran hymnal from 1880.

Step 1: REMOVE COVER

Using whatever means necessary, remove the covers and as much of the spine as possible.

You may want to use a craft knife to separate the covers from the first and last pages.  With really old books, the covers will almost fall right off!

This was just something neat I found inside the spine of one of the 1880 hymnals.  It looks as though the covers and spine were actually made from old newspapers!!  And to think that we consider recycling and reusing a new thing!! 

Step 2: BREAK INTO SECTIONS 

Take a close look at your book and you'll see that the pages are actually "signatures" sewn and glued together.  If you're familiar with book binding you'll already be familiar with signatures.

In order to remove more of the spine and glue and also to help make the next step a little easier, separate your book into smaller sections.

Note: When you create your sections, make sure you do it between the signatures and not in the middle of one.

Step 3: SEPARATE SIGNATURES 

Gently pull apart the signatures from the binding.

This part is really messy.

Step 4: TEAR (CUT) PAGES

You'll notice that most of the signatures will still have some glue on them so you'll need to try and remove as much as you can.  It usually scrapes off, but if you're having a tough time, try opening the signature and removing the glue while it's open.

Open the signature to center.  Depending on your own personal preference either gently tear or cut the signatures down the center.  If you choose to cut the signatures, I highly recommend a craft knife and cutting mat.

FINISHED

Ta da!!  Now you have hundreds of great antique ephemera pages!!

Unfortunately you're also left with a huge mess to clean up!!  This little photo doesn't even begin to cover the mess from this project!!

If you're nit-picky like me, you'll want to separate the pages by topic!! hehehe

Be sure to stop by tomorrow so you can enter my March Madness Giveaway for your chance to win one of 10 crafty supply packs valued at $10 or more each!!

Thanks for reading!! Until next time...