Natalie's Creations

Remember when I tried to protect all my most well loved books by covering them all using Kraft paper and the Art section of the New York Times? If you don’t, see that post here

One of my concern was that the ink from the newspapers will stain your fingers. So I got a solution for that: Clear plastic!

I know what you’re thinking: “Are you serious?” Yes, I am dead serious. I strongly believe that there are obsessive compulsive medical students out there who would appreciate this. Not only because we love our books, but because this is such a fun project to do when we want to take that well deserve 10 minutes break. I seriously wrapped one book at each break and finished them all almost at the end of the studying day…but who cares, I like holding them, and I do feel a lot more connected… Hey, using the right side of your brain a little bit to balance it out ;-)

Ok, now that I convinced you that I had actually had a motive, lets move on… I dont know about you but I was thinking about old grandma’s couches with the clear plastic cover on when I saw the clear plastic roll at the store and thought about doing this. However, at this day and age, clear plastic is totally in. Look at this

You are looking Prada’s Spring Runway collection. This is totally another sewing idea but that’s a different story…

No more thinking, let’s go make our books fashionable

Clear plastic $1.99/yard. For 1 yard, I got 8 books wrapped. Totally depending on the thickness of the book of course but it’s still very cheap.

Here they are, back on the shelf all shiny and nice!

Just a thought: if you want to skip the newspaper step all together and just wrap your books using clear plastic, it would be great too! You can see the original cover of the books and keep them well protected from spilled coffee, tea or whatever kind of liquid you have around to keep you awake and alert for studying. And, if you ever thought of selling these books, you can just take the plastic cover off to reveal the brand new books…

Happy studying!

Hello friends,

It’s been a long while but I seriously can’t help it. I have been so busy with school, there isn’t much time for anything :-(

Today I want to share with you something cool. You can tell it’s tightly related to what I have been doing lately :-) BOOKSSSS

These are the the books I reach for everyday. I’m a tiny bit OCD so I hate bended corners, ink smears,…any kind of unnecessary damage to my books so I cover them. Growing up, going to school in Vietnam, we always had to cover all books and notebooks. It was mandatory. Yup, some serious stuff :-) Mainly because we were given calligraphy pens and carrying small ink containers with us to class in first grade. It might be hard for you to imagine but let’s just say it was a disaster before any of us learn how to write anything.

Anyway, back to the books. I started covering them with Karft paper with the intention of doing the same thing as I did here but after only 3 of my books were covered I ran out of paper :-(

My first thought was subway map :-) like here but I didn’t have any maps on hands. Staring right at me was a stack of newspapers…so BOOM!, the rest of my books were covered with the art section of the New York Times :)

How fun is this one as the cover of Behavioral Science?

Then I whipped out my calligraphy marker…

Look pretty good on the shelf, don’t they?

Hope you like my little coping mechanism with OCD :-P

Say what? You might get your hands covered in ink from the newspapers?

Oh well, maybe you can use it as proof that you studied ;-)

Until next time…

Psst…My best friend got me a sewing machine for my birthday!! How awesome is it?

My hubbie on the other hand, got me this baby

If you know me at all, I’m dying to make something using the sewing machine and sharing it with you using the new camera! :) be still my heart!

Got a book that you use a lot? (In my case, it’s a review book that I will be breathing, eating, sleeping next to the for next 10 days)

Does the cover of the book look boring?

You get tired of seeing this book?

Wanna make the book more fun and personal?

If your answers are “Yes” to these questions, keep reading…if not, keep reading anyway :-P

Okie, first thing first, you’ll need:

A book, and a brown paper bag ready to be upcycled :-)

Cut the paper bag into a rectangular sheet of paper enough to cover the book with some 1.5-2in border and cover the book (If you don’t know how to cover the book, let me know and I will make a video tutorial on how to do that)

I actually think the wrinkling lines give the book some personality.

Time to break out your favorite alphabet stamps

and your favorite ink…and stamp away :-)

So what if your book end up having multiple personality disorder? :-D