Project Nursery :: "D" Book

So, one of my **cough** obsessions is cruising Pinterest trying to find inspirations for Declan's Nursery and crafty projects to make for him/for the nursery.  This "D" book was one of my Pinterest inspirations that I was determined to do once I found out Declan was a boy and we had chosen his name.

Here's where I found the picture and original inspiration:  http://www.cmybacon.com/2010/05/book-letter-decoration/

All I needed for supplies were:  an old book, an x-acto knife, plenty of spare blades, something to protect my table, LOTS of hand strength & patience an&d TV to watch to distract me, and finally M&M's for snacking.

{I don't have a ton of pictures of this as my only "camera" was my iPod...so please excuse the picture quality.}

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I began by choosing a book that was about the right size and in a color blue that I liked.

Next, I traced a "D" on the inside of the book cover.  I used the "D" from another project that I will soon post about.

Next, I cut through the cover following the template I made.  I made sure to protect my table from the x-acto knife.  Make sure your x-acto blade is sharp, that makes this whole project a lot easier.  I probably went through a half-dozen blades for this whole project.

I made the cuts as smooth as I could.  After cutting through the cover, I closed it and used it as a guide to cut through the rest of the pages of the book.  This required a lot of patience and hand strength.  It took me probably three-ish several-hour sessions to complete the book.

When I was finished, this is what the book looked like.  It is a little rough on the inside, but I cannot think of a different way to do this that would have yielded a better look.  Maybe if I had used more 

x-acto blades, making sure that they were continually sharp, it would have turned out a more 

polished look.  

Overall, I am VERY pleased with it.  Take a look at the picture below to see how it looks when displayed!

This is one of my favorite decorations I've created for Declan's nursery so far!  It wasn't a complicated project, but just time-consuming and it made my hands/arms/wrists/shoulders ache after working on it.  Though, part of that may have been that I was hunching over it rather than sitting at a normal-height table.  That may have made a difference.

Toodles!

~N~