DIY Shadow Book

I wanted to share one of my absolute favorite DIY’s and one of my very first projects I did as a young adult. Years ago when I was maybe ten years old I was given a gift card to a book store. At the time I didn’t appreciate reading and had no specific book in mind to purchase. My mother suggested that I buy a nice copy of my favorite childhood book, which for me was Alice in Wonderland. I remember picking the copy I wanted, it had gold lined pages, the illustrations were beautiful, and it was a whopping twenty seven dollars. The book was displayed on my shelf for a year or two but then I packed it away safely in hopes of giving it to my daughter one day. I still think it is one of the greatest purchases I have ever made.

Well one year ago I found the same book at the goodwill, with a much sweeter price tag of only three dollars! My boyfriend bought it for me and I displayed it in my bedroom as well. After looking at it for days and flipping through the pages I decided to make it really come to life. I began cutting the pages and rearranging the images: recreating the story in my own way. It would be hard to take this DIY apart and show you how to do it so I decided to start from scratch with this beautiful copy of Peter Pan. Let the DIYing begin…..

*YOU CAN SEE MY ALICE IN WONDERLAND SHADOW BOOK ON MY “CREATING SPACE THAT IS YOU” POST.

I first start by ripping out all the pages that have illustrations on them, if your book is tightly bound cut them out with a pair of scissors. Go ahead and lay these pictures out and make sure to take a good look at them. Peter Pan has fewer illustrations than Alice in Wonderland so I made sure to use every detail from my pictures and carefully plan out how I would be using them.

Now time to start hacking away at your book. Go ahead and split your book down the middle so it displays nicely on a shelf. Begin taking a small chunk of pages (I do around eight at a time) and cut different or uneven ovals, circles, or squares (depending on what size and shape your book is) with an Exacto knife. I used a magazine to bare down on between chunks. This unevenness allows you to make pictures look like they are literally coming off the pages. I cut through about 30 pages on each side of my book. TIP: try to have your page that shows through your hole have text that you like, this adds even more love to your book.

Next you’ll need a paint brush and some tacky glue; I squirted my glue on a paper plate and painted it onto the page edges. After doing this set a heavy object on your pages to hold them down. TIP: if you are finding it hard to get all the pages to stick together take some glue on your finger and run it down the pages firmly, this will make sure it gets into all those cracks. Wait twenty minutes and your book should be pretty durable.

 

While waiting for your pages to dry go ahead and start cutting those images. I like to leave a small edge around my pictures as you can see in my images. When you are done cutting them out, start laying them onto your book, I played around with my images for about twenty minutes before being fully satisfied. Once you are happy with your layout take that tacky glue and paint brush and begin gluing them into place. TIP: don’t throw away your cut out pages until you are all done, you might end up finding text you want to add to your pictures like I did!

 I hope you all enjoyed this Shadow Book DIY. I think these are so sentimental and a great way to remember your favorite childhood story. These would make great editions on your bookshelf or even in your baby's nursery!