Hollowed Out Books

Although it is a bit late, I would like to share this year's DIY Father's Day gift to my dad. He has always wanted a hollowed out book to put secret stuff in like money of his keys, but he never found one in a store that he really liked. They were always too small, not deep enough, or too "obvious". So I decided to take matters into my own hands and make one myself.

First I read the instructions on how to hollow out a book in 80 easy steps. It is a wonderful tutorial that is not only instructive but also entertaining as. According to the instructions, my first objective wss to find a book I was willing to gut out. With my dad's specifications in mind, I went to the local library and searched the "for sale" section, where cast off books are sold for a couple bucks. I found a lovely copy of Stephen King's "Needful Things". My dad had never read this book, I knew, but it was very thick, which offered a lot of space once it was hollow, was a book written by one of his all time favorite authors and was on sale for $1. Objective 1: complete.

Sorry, Mr. Book. I am about to destroy you.

See how thick this is? Yeah, this is what I was up against. 

I discovered quickly that  this particular project would be no small feat. I went through 450 pages of paper, which I could only remove about 6 at a time with each round of cuts with an X-ACTO knife. I went through 6 blades because they became dull pretty quickly with so many pages to cut through. There were bits and pages of paper everywhere: on my clothes, the floor, in wedges of the book, my counter, my dog. Seriously. Not to mention the mental stress this put me though; I was literally tearing apart a beautiful bit of literature (a hardcover, no less). It felt sick, wrong, dirty......and yet, a bit fun. Like I was doing something naughty and no one could stop me. Anyway, let's move on. Not like you wanted to know about the kicks I get from ruining a harmless book.

The most difficult part about the whole operation was keeping the pages perfectly aligned as I sliced the pages out. one wrong cut can cause the next 30 pages to be crocked and then you have to go back and hope you can fix it. Most of the time I couldn't. It's not like the project was ruined by this, it just made the book look it is had definitely not been made in a factory. When I started the project, I had every intention on lining the inside of the book with some kind of fabric instead of leaving it bare like the tutorial said so.

I ended up buying felt from Michael's and spending an hour meticulously measuring out the felt to fit snugly into the book. When I was totally satisfied with the way it fit in, I hot glued it into place, successfully covering my mistakes and giving the book a more official look.

The hot glue doesn't look that shiny in real life; the flash caught it and makes it more obvious than it really is. 

Dad loved the book. It now sits on a shelf in his office, hiding all of his secret stuff. I must say that I am a bit obsessed with this project now. Every used book I see "would make a really good hollowed book". I now have a stack of books I wish to hollow as gifts, but have not started another just yet. I am a bit preoccupied with other projects right now.

Book= $1
X-ACTO knife+blades pack=$9
Decoupage glue, plastic wrap, and heavy things to help set the glue= free (I already had them)
Total Father's Day gift cost= $10

Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.