Turning storybooks into wrapping paper

It sure feels like birthday season around here at the moment. Practically every weekend finds us at a birthday party, or several, which can only mean lots and lots of cute pressies to wrap and decorate..!

I love wrapping presents, but I'm often left a little uninspired by commercial wrapping paper (and the good stuff is way too expensive), and so most of my gifts tend to get the good ol' brown paper treatment that's then jazzed up with some sort of interesting embellishment like stickers or cutout letters. Brown paper is a terrific standby, but lately I've been looking to try something a bit different.

Then the other day I visited a local op shop that had an absolutely wonderful selection of old kids' storybooks at ridiculously low prices (four books for $1..!!) and I found a few books graced with interesting full-page illustrations, which sparked the idea for making unique gift wrap by gridding and pasting together the pages of old storybooks.

Below are three of the books I bought, and so far this weekend I've made a sheet of wrapping paper and a matching card from Pinocchio, a sheet of wrapping paper from Pigs from 1 to 10, and an A6-sized envelope from a single page of The Pond that turned into a Puddle.

This page with its double-sided full-page illustrations was perfect for making a cute C6-sized envelope. And I know just the frog-loving lady who'll be receiving this with their gift this year ;)

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The multicoloured pages of Pinocchio were my initial inspiration - particularly because I loved how they created an interesting block of patchworked colour when laid out in a grid, and when pasted together formed a nice big sheet similar in size to shop-bought wrapping paper. 

I'm hoping the recipient will be so absorbed in the colourful effect that they won't look too closely at some of the nastier illustrations (...an armed robbery taking place, schoolyard bullying, Pinocchio being eaten by an angry looking whale and then the inside view of said whale). Pinocchio has a bit of a rough time in this 1978 Italian version of the classic story...!

To make use of the remaining cover of the book, I pasted in a block of white cartridge paper and turned it into a rather quirky birthday card, one that will perfectly match the gift wrapped present of course :)

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From the Arthur Geisert book Pigs from 1 to 10 (which is a nice, larger sized storybook printed on luxuriously heavyweight paper) I used four random pages to create this sheet, and promptly wrapped a gift for a printmaker friend who I know will be sure to appreciate the intricate and delicately etched illustrations.

Her gift now wrapped, and with a nicely contrasting stripey ribbon added, I set about making the second part of her present...

Since my friend Jay Dee loves sealife (and makes some beautiful artworks particularly inspired by aquatic plantlife), I wanted to use some of the pages from a teeny tiny 'Bancroft Tiddlers' book, Life Under the Sea to create a gift-tag as well as a label for a 1930s pickle jar I picked up for her recently (with the idea of filling it with greenery/flowers).

I used double-sided adhesive paper (JAC paper) to adhere one of the pages to the jar, and then I gave it a good coat of eucalyptus-scented wax for a matte finish and to protect it from water spills.

The gift-tag I simply made by pasting another page to some thick cartridge paper (using bookbinder's paste), cutting it to size, and then punching a hole for the string. Added a heartfelt message to the back, and voila, gift ready to go..!

En route to the party, I stopped by our local community garden and snipped some herbs, leaves and flowers to create a quick and pretty bouquet to fill the pickle jar.

Huge success! She loved it all!
And my car still smells like the rosemary from the bouquet...! :)

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A bit more about those 'Bancroft Tiddlers' books...

I recently picked up six of them at the last Lifeline Bookfest (for 25c each!) because, hey, who doesn't love a miniature book with matte textured paper and vintage-tinted illustrations?? These little beauties were published in England in the 1960s by Bancroft & Co, and there are 24 in the series. I'd sure love to get my hands on the rest of the set..!

These are my six favourite pages - one from each book - and the plan is to frame them (in some suitably vintage frame that I'm hoping to find on one of my op shop excursions soon) and hang them on the wall for ongoing admiration. *sigh*

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So there you have it, a few little easy-peasy things I've been doing with old books lately. It'll never be a commercially-viable idea, but turning storybooks into wrapping paper is a genuine labour of love, and the results can be really lovely. And tailoring the genre of the book to the recipient is definitely a nice touch!

Hope you liked your gift Jay Dee :)

Michelle
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Comments

[Kat]

What a gorgeous idea!! Looks beautiful!
Have you guys recovered from Little D's party yet?

[Sheryl]

Love this idea hun!

[Alisa]

Ohh, looove these! Lucky duck birthday peeps!

[Prahlad]

Wow, what an amazing idea. I hope you don't mind, but I'm definitely going to be stealing it!

Cheers, and wonderful blog btw!