Turn a book into a jewellery box with this craft tutorial

book jewelry box

 

Our crafting tips guru turned an old book into a jewelry box using a couple of leftover Altoids tins for drawers. Whether your literary heart belongs to pulp fiction, victorian diaries or 1940s wartime codebooks, express yourself through arts and crafts with this nifty booky jewelry box.

Crafting tools:

    • 2 Altoids tins (or any smallish tins, both the same)
    • paint
    • two dresser knobs
    • Mod Podge
    • printed images
    • box cutter
    • old book
    • spray polyurethane
    • ruler
    • hot glue
    • fabric

How to turn your book into a jewelry box

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First, make sure the book you have is thick enough for the tins to fit.

Paint the drawers and/or line them with fabric. Paint your knobs if they look a little boring, and hot glue them to the tins.

Measure the book and make a mark at the midpoint (where the pencil is pointed). Mark the mid-points of the left half and the right half. Now mark the mid-points on your tins (I used a silver Sharpie). Take a look at where they are situated and make sure that’s where you want them to end up.

You’ll make two pockets in the book using your box cutter. Trace around the tins and mark how deep you want the drawers to go (the length of the tin, plus about a quarter-inch). Draw a line straight across the book so that both drawers will stop at the same place.

Start slicing the pages, using your ruler to guide your knife. Cut a little outside what you traced to allow the drawers to slide in and out smoothly. Keep cutting until you have two rectangular notches. You don’t need to go all the way to the back cover.

Try it out and make sure it sits inside nicely. Carve away any more pages as needed.

I used Mod Podge to create a collage on the cover, and painted the pages. There are lots of possibilities for decorating the cover using paint, clay, glitter, silk flowers, etc.

Next, clamp your book firmly and spray the whole thing with polyurethane. It may need two coats to keep it completely sealed and the cover attached.

Crafting tips

  • Follow the directions on the polyurethane can.
  • I prefer using a box cutter as opposed to an X-acto because the dull blades can be snapped off.
  • Sit the book at the edge of the table to avoid nicking the table when cutting the pages.
  • Watch yer fingers!
  • When spraying your book, clamping is a must for it to stay sealed.