*UPDATED* DIY Book Canvas

I decided to get a little crafty for this post. I had a blank canvas and a couple of books that I had left over from a previous project (I'll try to post about that one later), and decided to combine the two. I've seen different crafts similar to this with sheet music or magazine pages, but never with book pages. So, I decided to create my own tutorial for book lovers. And now, without further ado, here is my project.

Supplies:

1 blank canvas (any size and shape will work; I used a 12X12 square canvas)
Book(s)  (the number depends on what variety of words you want on your canvas)
Mod Podge
Brush
Exacto knife (this is optional, I have found it makes it easier to tear the pages out cleanly)
Patience

Instructions:

1. The first step is to rip out your pages. I know this can hurt for a book lover, but once you reconcile to yourself that it is for art and you pull out a couple of pages, it gets a little easier to think about. This can be done one of two ways. The first way is the old-fashioned technique of taking a page and just ripping it out. The second way, which to my thinking is easier, is to take an exacto knife and slice along where the page meets the spine. This is faster, as it can remove several pages at once, and helps you take advantage of the entire page.

Once you're through with this step, you should have a stack of pages. As you can probably tell from the picture, I had a little too much fun slicing the pages out of the book. In retrospect, I only needed about 6 or 8 pages total to cover the entire canvas.

My stack of pages

2. Once you have your stack of pages, it's time to rip and have some fun! This is the most time consuming step of this entire project, not counting the time it takes to let the Mod Podge dry. What I did for this is I (carefully) ripped along the edge of each page so I would have ragged edges on each side of my torn pieces. This is a lot easier, in my opinion, than tearing each individual piece. You can do either, whichever you prefer to do.

After each page was distressed along the edges, I went to town ripping each page. After a few minutes of ripping, I finally stacked about 3 pages together and ripped them at the same time to save some time. I ended up with a nice little pile of ripped paper that I could then glue to my canvas.

3. Now is the fun step: gluing! This step allows for the most creativity. Pretty much all you do is start at the center of your canvas and work your way out, fitting pieces wherever they fit. You might have to rip some pieces a little smaller so they will work in a spot, but other than that this step requires very little effort.

 
When you get to the edge of your canvas, you can either cut the extra pieces off flush with the edge and finish it, or wrap the pages around,  which is what I did.

Once you're finished gluing all the pages to your canvas, you can either move straight to the last step, or embellish your canvas a bit. The sky is the limit as to what you can do here.

4. The final step for this easy project is the same as any other Mod Podge project. Keep adding layers of Mod Podge until it is smooth enough for your taste.  Once you are finished with the Mod Podge, you can either add hanging hardware or use the canvas' grooves on the back to hang it on a hook.

Here is my (almost) finished canvas. All it is waiting on is whatever embellishment I choose to do, and a hook to hang it on.

And there you have it! Easy wall art fit for a book lover's room. This would make a great gift for a reader, or just decor for your home.

If you decide to do this quick and easy project, send me a picture in the comments. I would love to see what my readers come up with!

Happy reading and crafting!

*EDIT* It's a little late in coming, but I thought I'd give a little inspiration for what to draw/paint over the pages if that is what you want to do. I used an inky style butterfly in the bottom left hand corner, with the bottom tips of the wings extending over the edge. Another idea that I considered is making several and drawing a large picture over all the canvases, or making a theme of some kind, maybe using symbols for your favorite book genres or symbols from book series. :-)