How to Redecorate Drab School Books to Look Cute

You can make your schoolbooks less boring.

Since schoolbooks get used by new students every year, most schools require that students cover their textbooks to reduce wear and tear. Covering textbooks in re-purposed paper grocery bags is a time-honored tradition that your parents and maybe even your grandparents probably participated in when they were students. The trouble with covering your books in grocery bags is that they are usually brown and drab, and since everyone's books are covered the same way, it could be easy to mix your books up with someone else's. You can solve this problem by personalizing your schoolbook covers at home.

Things You'll Need

• Paper grocery bags
• Scissors
• Tape
• Construction paper
• Magazines
• Photographs
• Glue

Instructions

1. Cut a line down one of the corners of a paper grocery bag from the top to the bottom. Cut out the bottom of the bag, so that you are left with what looks like a sheet of brown paper with some creases in it from where the corners of the bag were.

2. Smooth out the creases in your paper. Lay the bag in front of you, horizontally oriented on a flat surface, blank side down. Measure the height of the book you are covering and measure the height of the paper, in inches. Subtract the height of the book from the height of the bag, and divide this number by two.

3. Take the number remaining from your equation and fold this many inches of both the top and bottom of the paper toward the middle. If the edges overlap, trim them so that they are at least 1 inch apart. You should now have a long piece of paper in front of you with both the top and bottom edges folded toward one another.

4. Place your closed book in the center of the paper and fold the paper over the book. Make sure the paper fits snugly over the book. The paper should be longer than both the front and back of the book. Open only the cover of the book, and fold the excess paper tightly around the edge of the cover, creasing the paper at the edge. Fit the edge of the cover of the book into the top and bottom folds in the paper. Do the same with the back cover, and secure both sides with tape. Make sure to tape the inside flap of the cover to the outside of the cover, rather than directly to the book.

5. Decorate your book with a collage. Go through all of your magazines, construction paper, and photographs, and cut out pictures that you like. Practice arranging the pictures into new compositions on the cover of your book until you come up with a design you are satisfied with. Come up with a different theme for each textbook, such as you and your friends on a dream vacation, or you and your friends riding horses. Look for pictures in magazines that match this theme, such as palm trees or horses, and assemble a new scene on the cover of each book. Find pictures of you and your friends, cut out your bodies, and insert them into these new scenes. It is OK if not all of the pictures are the same scale and they look a little bit silly. Once you have arranged a collage that you like, carefully glue all of the pieces into place. Make sure not to get any glue on the book.

Tips & Warnings

• Keep your backpack neat and clean in order to keep your personalized books looking good.

• Make sure that nothing you put on your textbooks is against your school's rules.

References

• Artists Helping Children: How to Personalize and Decorate School Books