How To Make Miniature Antique Books and Free Printable

Even though I'm an e-reader, I love the feel of physical books and having them around my house. My dollhouse is no exception, and I've been busy making books to put into my new project.

Recently I made antique book covers and used an existing book for the pages. The results are wonderful, so I knew I had to share.

First, print out the free printable I made from existing antique books. You will also need an old book that you don't mind cutting up. Mine came from a stack of free books that someone was getting rid of. I'll admit that I never read a Danielle Steel book in my life, despite my mother reading a million of them as I was growing up.

Cut out your strips using either a paper cutter or just scissors. I printed my covers out on regular printer paper, so I Mod Podged mine onto slightly thicker, drawing paper. If you printed on cardstock, you can skip this step.

Next, grab a chunk of pages that you think will be thick enough for the spine of the books. Some of these books are smaller and larger spines to add depth to your collection, but most of them are about half of a centimeter.

Cut out the chunk with an Xacto knife or just scissors. Try to keep the original binding glue on your stack.

Start by gluing the bindings onto the stack and let dry. This will make sure the books don't move around when gluing the covers and backs.

Once dry, glue the backs and covers. I used tacky glue for these steps because it's a little stronger and dries quickly. Try to glue them as evenly as possible so that when you cut, you will be cutting them out evenly.

Using an Xacto knife (it might be too thick for scissors), carefully cut out your books. The paper will cut easily especially if using a mass-market paperback, and cut on one side all the way through or else your papers may be uneven. You may need to trim some extra bits as you review your work.

I hate waste, so in order to use the rest of the pages without the existing binding, I carefully stacked the pile, and made a quick tacky glue binding. I also made a smaller and larger stack this way in order to get the rest of the books completed.

After repeating the process and cutting out the rest of the books, I wanted to age them. If you're building a period house, you may want to keep them looking as new as possible. To age them, I first applied a layer of Mod Podge, then gilded the page edges with a metallic gold paint pen. Putting a coat of Mod Podge helps show the gold. If you just paint the raw pages, it comes out brown. Once dry, I smudged some brown stain on a few key areas of the covers that would have the most wear (spine, edges, etc). Then I added a little bit of gloss to make it look more like the shiny leather that antique books were often bound in.

Here is the finished result:

FREE PRINTABLE:

To save the image, click on the image, and then right click and choose Save Image As. It's sized to fit on a standard, 8.5" x 11" paper.