DIY: Decorating Schoolbooks

Hello lovelies.

Yesterday I've been helping my little sister covering her books. She's going to her first year of secondary school (or high school, depending on where you live) after summer. She's no longer my little babysister anymore. Emotional moment.

Here in the Netherlands children who go to secondary school need to cover their books with paper, which we call "kaften". This way the books are protected from filth and damage.

Even though it is obligatory, it's still fun to do.

In Dutch shops you can buy special paper for this, but normal wrapping paper, or printed paper will work just as well.

This will immediately make your books much prettier to look at, instead of the boring images on the cover. You can also do this to your notebooks, diary or any other book you like.

It is fairly easy and quick to do, but practice makes perfect.

What you'll need:

♥ A book to decorate

♥ Some paper

♥ A pair of scissors

♥ Some tape

♥ Some labels (optional)

♥ A pen (optional)

The first thing you'll need to do is to cut the paper to the right size. Roll the paper roll out a bit and place your book on top open. Leave about 5cm of paper around the book and cut the excess off.



Next up you'll need to cut a triangle shape near the rug of the book like pictured above. Fold it inwards underneath the book.

Hold your book in a 90' decrees angle to make your first fold.

Fold the piece of paper on the right hand side of the book. Make sure the fold is sharp and the book can't move further into the fold. Next up fold the upper and lower part like pictured above. Make sure these folds don't touch the book, leave about 0.5cm.

Now you can fold the top and bottom. When you've made sure all the folds are sharp and in the right place and the book can no longer move within the folds, you can tape. Make sure you don't tape the book, only the paper. This way you can take the paper wrapping off, without damaging the book.

Repeat the same steps on the other side.

Your book should now look like this.

                         

A handy trick is to use the weight of the book to keep the folds down, like shown above.  

              

In the video you could see me taping the corners of the book. This is for extra protection, because the corners rip the fastest, which is prevented with a bit of tape. If you don't travel with your books, you don't need to do this, but if you put your books in your bag a lot, I would advice to do this.

All you need to do is tape the rug by placing a piece of tape around the top and bottom of the rug, shown in the upper picture. For the outer corners you place a piece of tape on the corner creating a triangle shape and fold the excess over and stick it on the inside, like shown in the second picture.

You can also add a label and write the title of the book, or the subject on it. This way you'll still know which book it is.

And then you're done! Your book now looks a lot prettier and much more fun.

Won't this look much nicer standing on your bookshelf?

Will you be decorating your books like this? Let me know in the comments! Hope you'll enjoy doing this.

~Xx

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