It is no secret that textbook cover designs are uncool. Why not start the school year off with the classic look of paper covered books like these looks from Domino and Happy Mundane?
No need to limit yourself to grocery bags (though that is what this tutorial from Terri Mauro at About.com uses). Any sort of large paper item you have lying around will do the trick. Maps, old posters and unused wallpaper would all look marvelous. A clean slate for big ideas! It couldn't be simpler.
Images: 1: Domino; 2: Happy Mundane 3: Terri Mauro
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Comments (11)
Making book covers for my schoolbooks is one of my happiest memories. And now that I have a great label maker, I could easily print out an awesome label. Lurve.
I used to make book covers all the time in high-school using wrapping paper! I'd add collages over top throughout the school year. The cover would be pretty battered at the end of the semester, but I had fun.
I also used to decorate my agenda. I often spent more time in class doing that than paying attention. Drawing pictures, collages, stickers...my friends and I spend loads of money on colourful pens and markers. I wish I still had some of those old planners!
Oh man, flashback to K thru 12! I too enjoyed covering my textbooks. The brown paper bags were mandatory for all hardcover school books and were the greatest blank canvases.
if any one wants to relive those book-covering memories, i have 3 class sets i'll be working on.... anyone? lol
I loved covering my books--I always used grocery bags, and there was something so satisfying about using a fat, black magic marker to block letter "MATH" and "ENGLISH" on the front cover and spine. I always wanted to keep them pristine like that, but I'd succumb to my love of doodling within a few weeks.
I used to use the comic section from the newspaper. But I actually hated using book covers. They made all the books look so bland. Sometimes I would use the clear contact paper so the book's cover would shine through but that wasn't always allowed.
Ew. Maybe this is because I'm a bibliophile, but to me this is like taking 100 people, dying their hair all the same color and then giving them all the same hair color. Yes, sometimes the covers look a little funky, but it's beautiful when you put all the mismatch together.
That should have read the same hair cut!
Oh man, oh man. I LOVED making those brown paper bag book covers. My b.f.'s daughter just started school today, and I am dying to teach her how. I mean, being ALLOWED to deconstruct and construct something? Repurposing? Turning drab into fab? It'll be an early into to decorating for her as it was for me, I hope!
I was looking for a tutorial on these since I could not remember for the life of me how I made them in elementary school. The Partner found his beautiful stamp collection, albeit, in ugly books. Time for a quick DIY project!
I still cover most of my books with paper with the scraps of gift wrapping etc... doing it with cartoons magazine papers is my recent fave :)