Friday Night Pinterest Night
It all started with an early fall garage sale down the street.
No actually it started earlier than that. I saw this cute journal in a store made with the cover of an old book. It was embellished and decorated and a bunch of ideas started churning. THIS is why I save scraps of pretty ribbons, pretty papers, a single gold foil sticker, or random keys and coins. So the idea of embellished journals was in the back of my head for about 3-4 months.
Fast forward to the garage sale with an abundance of old books. I was being picky and choosy and selecting only the ones with the best "looks" so I could finally create some journals. The owner chatted me up and talked me into 3 large boxes of books for $4.00. I said sold!
Okay, now I had a TON of books with only maybe 10 that I could really use for the original journal idea. So I run to pinterest and find all kinds of projects that requires destroying old books. I think this was on a Thursday and since Adam was leaving for a hunting trip the next day I decided to throw an informal craft night. Friday night football lights is not for me. But Friday night Pinterest Night is something I can get on board with.
First a word about the destruction of old books. I find that many people harbor guilt over tearing, cutting, and mutilating books. The school demerit system and scary librarians have done a great job in that regard. So I feel it necessary to point out that I don't advocate the practice of ruining perfectly good books that can (and should) be passed on to other people. I LOVE reading the old fashioned way. But I'm not hitting up Barnes and Noble, spending big money on a top seller and then shredding it. These are old, crappy books. Books that have seen countless eyes. Books whose spines are stretched like a 100 year old woman doing yoga. Books that are outdated. Someone explain to me how a book published in 1952, which teaches the reader how to set up an efficient office filing system, could possibly be relevant today.
These are books that have swam in the depths of a moldy basement and are begging for a clean coat of Mod Podge. These are books that have crayon scribbles from countless children with bad penmanship. These books don't have feelings. They don't care if I use my 2-inch scalloped hole punch to remove a 2-inch section of page 8 for artistic purposes.
As fellow crafter, Sparrow lamented before running the scissors through a chunk of pages, "You guys, I used to work at a library. I'm pretty sure I'm going to hell."
Well, she lived to see another day and these photos are proof that even old broken down, outdated books serve a final purpose - to provide a night of fun to a bunch of gals.
