Quickly Spruce Up Your Bookshelf @ Little to No Extra Cost!!!!

Having a low budget makes for a creative mind!! I'm saving everything these days, and trying to take a second look at that Good Will bin and the garbage can! I was looking at this old photo album on my black bookshelf, thinking "I wish that matched my decor." So I decided to cover it, as I did my textbooks back in grade school. Here are pics of my 9.5" x 7.5" photo album.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I wanted to keep it simple with this project, and stay away from embellishments. I took 2 pieces of 12" X 12" paper (separate patterns) overlapped them by an inch, taped them on the "white" side of the paper, and placed ribbon over the seam on the patterned side.

Steps on actually covering the book:

Step 1: Once you have completed the above task, take the attached pages and lay them down horizontally, with the white side up, patterned down.

Step 2: Place the binding of the book vertically onto the center of the attached pages, and trace a line on the top and the bottom of the binding. 

Step 3: Remove book. At the lines which you have drawn, fold the paper evenly and horizontally all the way across the top and bottom.

Step 4: Align the ribbon on the face of the book to make sure it is placed where desired.

Step 5: Once Step 4 is completed, fold the excess paper inside to the front cover. You can tape it on the inside of the front cover -OR- you can take the top and bottom folds from Step 2, and put them over the corners of the cover.

Step 6: Now repeat Step 5 on the back cover of the book.

It was really simple to do and only took 5 minutes. I'm glad it finally matches everything else, and I did it at no extra cost!!

I hope each of you find this post helpful!!!