I have some repurposing ideas to inspire you in my post today. In February, I repurposed cookbooks that were damaged and just would not sell at our local annual Fortnightly Club Used Book Sale. We had over 95,000 items (includes audio/visual) to sell this year. I’m sad to say we didn’t even sell half. Our prices range from a $1 to $5, except for old classic books we’ve researched on the internet and beautiful coffee table books. We pretty much start from scratch each year collecting book. Our Fortnightly Club book house takes in SO MANY books each year in Brenham, Texas, for our sale starting the last Wednesday of February for four days. Below is my cookbook section this year.
I attached photos to foam boards with pages from books and notes I made. I found a lot of inspiration on Pinterest and Etsy, to give the public creative ideas. I did this with the hope the public would be inspired to buy books to make for their own. I don’t like thinking of so many books being dumped in the landfill.
Here’s a table we made from a beautiful set of encyclopedia’s. We did not glue them together, because it would have been too heavy for the buyer move. We did sell the books for $20!
The Knife Blocks I made from cookbooks I selected that were stained, pages torn out, recipes cut out and books I knew would not sell in my cookbook section. I used books of different sizes and thickness to accommodate the various knife sizes. After putting together the books in appropriate heights I used E6000 industrial strength glue to glue the books together, laid on top of each other to bond a good hour. Once dried I used some twine I had on hand to tie them together, as you can see in these photos.
We sold each knife block for $25.00, with all the proceeds going to our local Nancy Carol Roberts Memorial Library for children’s books, programs, variety of books and media that’s needed. I have made more for those who wish to buy one, to help our local library.
I hope these creative ideas gives you inspiration to create something for yourself or as a unique gift for a book lover in your life. Until next time…..God’s Blessings
July 15, 2018 at 2:49 pm
Donna – While traveling in Colorado, ate a restaurant that gave us our bill in a paper-back book. Unique and simple. Hope all is well and you are having a great summer.