Magical Book Tree

Out of an old book and bit of hot glue you can make beautiful bookends, a decorative object or just a little mind-relaxing project.

An old book

(with a nice font)

Stanley Knife

Scissors

Glue

Thin wire

Hot glue gun

Optional: Glitter, confetti, etc.

Open your book in the

middle. Depending on how tall your tree should be, you decide where to cut the book pages / how "big" the bottom should be. Use a triangle ruler to keep it uniformly. First cut as many pages as you need perpendicular (I cut like 50 pages). then make a cut from the top of the book, to remove the (upper) page totally from the book. Keep the pages, we are going to need them later.

Now you have many "half pages" left in the book. Take the first page, fold it like a bow and fix it on the next page with enough glue. Hold it for five seconds, then you can go on to the next page, till all your "half pages" are stick together like this:

Cut a small circle out of cardboard. This is going to be the area where the tree is going to stand. Take one of the pages you cut out from the book before. Stick the cardboard on the page, so that you can't see the cardboard no more. Keep this tiny circle for later.

Now take the wire and start to form the tree. You can use things like pencils to form the tree around it (but keep sure you can remove it afterwards!), especially for the trunk. the wire I used was thin enough so I could cut it with a normal scissors, which was very practical. After making the trunk, form a big tree fork and a lot of branches (the more the better!). It doesn't have to look perfect, I think it's way more natural when the tree looks a bit old and "dried out".

The wire-tree is kind of instable, so use a hot glue gun, to increase its stability. Start with the tiny branches and work all the way down to the trunk. As long as the glue is hot and liquid, you may use glitter, confetti or something else and sprinkle it all over the tree (use a underlay to avoid glitter all over the house!). It will stick and the result will look even more magical. You can also add some paper-flowers or dried flowers if you like, or even form something out of the remaining pages.

Now glue the tree on the tiny circle you made in step 3. I'd recommend to use hot glue, but you can also go for regular one. And as a last step you have to attach the circle on the book itself. use paper-friendly glue (like a glue-stick) so the pages don't get wavy. Now your book-tree is ready to be a present, a bookend or just a decorative object in your room.