Breaking the rules.

"NEVER rip books! NEVER." I can hear my mom's voice echoing in my ears as I type those words. That was her mantra when I was growing up. "Books are precious gifts and they are NEVER supposed to be treated badly." Well, here I sit, a grown woman - BREAKING THE RULES!! Ha ha. Ok, in my defense, I got this stack of old children's book FREE at the library's used bookstore. FREE. So I gave myself permission to treat the books "badly" and give them a new life. Actually, I am not treating them badly after all. I'm saving these sad old books from the trash and reinventing them into holiday decor. You know, like Phoebe saving the dead trees from the chipper and letting them fulfill their X-mas destiny in her living room (ps, did you know that everything in life at one time or another relates to FRIENDS). Ok, getting way off track.

Apparently book pages and sheet music are "all the rage" this holiday season, so I thought I would get on the bandwagon. I decided to make ornaments, but I also think these would make really pretty gift toppers. As you continue reading, you will see the faint outline of a blog "tutorial." I put the word tutorial in quotes because I-am-awful at it. I see so many wonderful tutorials on various blogs and they make the instructions of their project look so clear and easy. For some reason, I can't get coordinated enough to make it work. So, you'll have to bear with me.

Ok. First, tear out the pages of the book that don't have illustrations on at least one side. It's ok if there are pictures on the back, you just need one side with only words. Next, fold the pages into little accordions. Some people are very precise about this and have a scoring-board and bone folder. Not me, I just wing-it.

To make a circle, I used 3 pages. Once they were folded into accordions, I folded them each in half.

Then I glued all of the ends together to make 3 fans. After that, I glued the 3 fans together to make a circle. I used my glue gun for this because it dries fast and holds well.

oooooohh. Aaahhhhhhhh.

A while back I bought this pack of white circles from Michael's. It was $1 and I knew they would come in handy for something. The small & medium sizes were perfect for this project.

Trace the circle on to a book page and cut it out (see people, in order to get this shot, I had to hold the pencil with my left hand and take the pic with my right. As you can see by the way I'm holding the the thing, I'm clearly not ambidextrous). Tutorials = HARD.

Next, I got a bit distracted and started making paper chains out of the extra pages. Isn't it cute!? This will look dandy on my X-mas tree. I know, I know. Focus.

Uh-oh. This is when my "tutorial" totally fell apart. I was so busy crafting I forgot to take pics of the remaining steps. The next thing I knew, my ornaments were done. At least it isn't rocket science and of course you know that you can always contact me if you have questions ;)

Taa-daa!!! Aren't they charming!? I really love how they came out. I basically printed out some pics of my kiddos on regular printer paper, mod podged them to the circles that were already covered in book pages (I will skip the mod podge next time. It's not really necessary and the colors from my pics ran a bit - just fyi), and hot glued the whole thing to the accordion circle. I added a bit of glitter glue around the edges of the pictures, and added a ribbon hanger to the back with hot glue. Wallah! Pretty pretties :)

I hung them on my chalkboard to display them for Thanksgiving, but ultimately they will end up on our Christmas tree. I plan to make more of these with pics of other important people in our lives. It was super easy and fun, and would make adorable gifts too. Happy crafting people!! xo

I'm linkin' up at tatertots & Jello :)

AND Sew Chatty :)