DIY Craft using old book pages ... File folder

First of all let me get one thing straight; I'm not a destroyer of books. Or wasn't until last week in France, when we were required by our teacher Jessie Chorley to bring an old book with the intention of creating a box out of it. I actually didn't make mine, because the books I had bought were too thin.

Second, let me also say, that I didn't own any old books (also until last week). As you might know, I've moved quite a lot, and what used to be an incredible book collection is now down to a "very few."

This is the first time I've used old books for crafting. I think it had to do with my upbringing. Books were precious objects, meant to be read, and after that returned to their place in the shelf.

Now my reasoning is this: What am I supposed to do with an 1883 Nature and Science book in French??

I needed a place to put some scrap reliefs that I'm sending, and I thought of those Japanese plastic file folders, which I love and find very useful.

So with that idea in my mind, I went on to use some of the pages from the books.

 I've sewn the two pages together (the left and lower part), and then added a small decoration.

For my friend who's name starts with the letter "P," I've colored the front page and also added a piece of fabric to the left side.

And for my sister who loves maps, I've added a pastel ribbon and used a piece of washi-tape, and a rubber stamp. The washi-tape had to make an appearance otherwise it just wouldn't be me!

I had no idea destroying books was so much fun, and now they can be appreciated differently. So hooray for new uses of old things!! My mind is now much happier thinking that I've just recycled some old paper.

Get crafting and have a wonderful week!
Giova