DIY - Book Nook Bookend

Book nooks are great, and so are bookends... When we combine them we get a book nook bookend, what a long name! But if you ever looked into buying them, you would see that the least they can be is around a whopping $40. Only for a bookend?

Here is that problem solved; make it yourself from scratch, spending less than $5 or none, following this tutorial!

And, of course, do not be afraid to be creative and change what you want while making it.

You will need:

1. Lots of cardboard.
2. Scissors.
3. Old wall tiles (I used cube ones for the floor).
4. Pieces of cloth you no longer need (I used an old piece of jeans pants).
5. Hot glue gun with hot glue sticks.
6. Paints (white, red, brown, yellow, black, purple, green, orange and blue) and a paintbrush.
7. A tiny bit of paper.
8. Conducting wire (I just used some twist ties).
9. Batteries (I used 3, but it depends on your lightbulb and its voltage).
10. Small light bulb.
11. A big piece of transparent glass (or just use transparent plastic).
12. A crocheted piece (or just a bit of cloth).
13. Cotton balls (just a bit).
14. And time to spare!!

Before anything else I will note that you might want to change the measurements according to your book shelf to insure that it is not too tall.

Here are the steps to make the house:

1. The ground: First, glue each cube of the tiles on a rectangular piece of cardboard (25cm x 11cm), in a random way. (keep in mind that you need to keep spaces as borders on all the sides.)
2. The 3 walls: Cut out 2 (25cm x 25cm) squares from the cardboard then cut out a rectangle (11cm x 25cm) for the far wall. Cut out a small rectangle (8cm x 2cm) with a tip to put in between the roof and far wall.
3. Window: From one of the square pieces cut out a rectangle (14cm x 8cm) inside it for the window.
4. Roof: Cut out 2 rectangles (25cm x 11cm) for the roof and peel the cardboard so that it is bumpy with wave-like wiggles.
5. Painting: Paint the walls and roof however you like. (I painted the inside part of the walls yellow and the outside a mix of brown and red. As for the roof I only painted the outside wiggly part red.)
6. Glass for window: Hot glue the glass on the inside part of the wall with the window so that the glass is covering the window.
7. Finalizing: Now glue everything together!

In this step you will put the mat, make the bookshelves, books, curtains, couch and some other things!

1. Mat: Simply take the cloth or crocheted piece for your mat and glue it in the house! (I put it as a foot step in the very front of the house.)
2. Bookshelves: Cut out a couple rectangles (I used 6 rectangles, 10.8cm x 2cm) from the cardboard. Then glue them on the far wall with equal spacing.
3. Paper book (optional): I made only one book with actual paper because I put that one close to our view on the edge of the couch. To make this cut out a long piece of paper and bend it over and over like a fan. Next, glue it into a small piece of cardboard as a cover. Then, paint the cardboard as you wish. (I painted it blue)
4. Books: Just cut a bunch (I made 32) of cardboard of different sizes and bend them in half glueing them as such. To make some thicker than others, put more cardboard. Now paint them all different colors! After that, simply glue them however you want on the shelves.
5. Paper stack (optional): To fill the shelves in I stacked some paper pieces, glued them with hot glue, then glued them onto a shelf.
6. Couch: Cut a pieces from the cardboard. (3 5.5cm x 3cm, 2 3cm x 3cm, 2 1cm x 3cm.) The squares are the sides and the 3 rectangles are the front, seat, and backrest of the couch, with the 2 smaller rectangles as the outside arms. Glue them as so then paint the couch. (I painted it purple.)
7. Cushions: Take a piece cloth (however size you like) and glue all the sides together except one. Take spare small pieces of cloth and stuff them in the cushion then close it off with hot glue. After that, I made shapes (a heart and a happy face) on the cushions with hot glue then painted them.
8. Curtains: Cut 2 rectangles (14cm x 8cm) and 2 long strings (2cm x 8cm) from the cloth. Hot glue the top of each curtain above the window on each side. Tie the middle of each curtain with the string and glue that place to the wall of the house.
9. Portraits: I made 2 pictures which I stuck to the wall in front of the couch. Both were rectangle pieces from cardboard (2.5cm x 4cm).
10. Others: Other than that I put a broom beside the shelves, and a mug, a plant, and a globe on the shelves. (See the photos to make them)

This is the easiest step there is to this instructable! We will make the house look like it is in a cold area with snow. If you do not wish our house to have this look, you can simply skip this step!

1. Icicles: First things first, use the glue gun to slowly make icicles by putting glue then letting it fall by pulling it down and let it dry like that. Then paint the icicles white!
2. Snow: Take your paintbrush and flick it so that bits of white paint land on the roof of the house. Lastly, Take cotten balls and fuff them then glue them randomly on the roof of the house. And... You are done! Admire your snow covered house.

The very last thing we are going to do is give the house a light.

1. Wires: Cut 2 metal wires or twist ties to lines of approximately 43cm. (If you are using a wire with plastic cover, cut that cover off about 1 cm on each edge.) After that attach them to the light in a way to give it electricity. (my light had metal lines connected coming out, so I simple twisted it to the metal part of mt twist ties. After that I hot glued them to keep them in place.)
2. Lightbulb: Cut half triangles from cardboard and glue the smaller side to the top of the light bulb, so it looks like it has a cone on it. Then, hot glue the light bulb to the roof of the house and run the wire along the roof also hot glueing it as you go.
3. Batteries: Get a small and thin metal piece and a square of cardboard both 2cm x 2cm. Glue the metal onto the cardboard and glue that to the far side of the house (on the wall without the window). Place one side of a wire in a way so the metal wire is touching the metal plate. Glue it in place and glue the wire all the way up to the light bulb. Stack the batteries on top of one another on the metal plate and glue them to the wall. (Make sure they are all in order of charge. I put the plus side of each battery downward.)
4. Finishing the circuit: Finally, extend the second wire from the light bulb to the very top of the stack of batteries. Let the metal part of the wire touch the battery from the top and the light bulb will light up. This can be your switch.

That's it! Place the bookend on any shelf you want to stop the books from falling!