DIY: Old Books Repurposed into Art and Prayer Journals

I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am about this blog post! It combines so many of my favorite things: Books, repurposing, journaling, art journaling, prayer journaling, crafting, and even thrifting! What a fun and unique project!! I think these adorable and one-of-a-kind creations make great gifts too!! The customization options are truly endless!! I really hope you enjoy this DIY project as much as I did! And I hope it brings you even more blessings as you use it!!

This tutorial will primarily be a visual tutorial with instructions below each photo. Again, the customization options are endless, so think of this as more of a guide. I hope you find ways to make it something you truly love!!

Materials:

• Old Book
• Journal (measure first to make sure it fits inside your old book)
• Pens/Pencils
• Adhesive Laminate
• Scissors
• 3/4″ Wide Elastic
• Cardboard
• Butter Knife
• Strong Adhesive or Super Glue
• Felt Squeegee Tool
• 1/2″ Wide Elastic
• Needle & Thread
• Optional (for cover décor): Printer, Etsy-Purchased Image, Jute Cord, Mod-Podge or Other Paper Adhesive, Stencils, Paint, Paintbrushes

Instructions:

Start out this project by doing some good old-fashioned thrift store treasure-hunting! Yes, I looooove thrifting! And when shopping for hardback books that have fun and quirky titles, I may have a bit too much fun! I’m sure more than one checkout attendant has questioned my book purchases, but I just love seeing what treasures I can find!!

This step always cracks me up a bit because my book-loving sister cringes at the idea of tearing up any book, regardless of its length of time on a shelf. Sometimes I text her a pic of my projects just to mess with her. (love you, sis!) But, if you’re going to repurpose your old book into a journal, this is a necessary evil. That said, hold onto some of those pages in case you want to use them for your front cover décor!

Now that you have an empty book, cut a piece of cardboard to fit inside your book binding, as pictured above and below…

Time to grab your adhesive laminate…

For my laminate, I chose Pioneer Woman because I loved the design and it’s workable to remove and reapply until it’s left on there to adhere permanently. In other words, I can reposition it as needed until I like the way it’s applied.

Cut a piece of adhesive laminate that will fit over the cardboard and will also lay over approximately 1/2 each side of the inside cover too. Fold it over the top and bottom of the piece of cardboard and lay the cardboard down into position. See the photo below…

Using a butter knife, gently rub down the creases of your laminate into the creases of the book binding. The laminate should be adhered to the cardboard and 1/2 of each side of the inside covers, but the lip that is folded over on the top and bottom will need some extra glue in order for it to adhere… see below:

Alright! Time to cut two pieces to finish covering the inside of the book cover on both sides! I do not try to make them line up… I like to just overlap them and get as close to the binding as possible.

It’s coming together, friends!!! Your book should look like….

Now, we are going to start working on setting up a place to secure the journal and a place for your pens and pencils. Yay!

Starting on the right side, cut a piece of cardboard that will fit within the inside cover.

As before, cut a piece of laminate to wrap around this piece of cardboard. Unlike the previous cardboard wrapping job (the binding), this one will wrap around the cardboard only. You may need to use glue to secure it down.

Time to grab your 3/4″ wide elastic and attach it to your cardboard. It should run vertically from the top of your cardboard to the bottom, wrap around the front of cardboard and be secured on the back. This will hold your journal in place, so we need to make sure it’s very secure. I actually grabbed some pretty powerful adhesive and then secured it down for 2 hours until I was absolutely sure that it would hold.

When you are sure that your elastic is secure, add some glue to the back of your cardboard and glue it down to the right side of your inside cover.

Next, cut a piece of cardboard for the left side of the inside cover…

Again, wrap the new piece of cardboard with your adhesive laminate and secure laminate with glue, if needed. Do not glue it down to your book cover yet.

Quick tip: Using a felt squeegee to smooth out the adhesive and remove any air bubbles can save you from bubbles later on…

Time to grab your 1/2″ wide elastic, a needle, and some thread. This piece of elastic will go horizontally across your cardboard. I wrapped it around the back and secured it down on one side with needle and thread. Next, I slid a pencil underneath the elastic and secured each side of the pencil tightly to make sure that it wouldn’t move and it would be a snug fit. Repeat for as many pens or pencils and you would like and then secure the other end to the back of the cardboard.

Secure this piece of cardboard down to the left inside cover with your powerful adhesive.

You should be getting really excited about how your repurposed old book is looking by now!

Everything should now be secure in place. The pens and pencils are held in place by the elastic on the left and the journal is held in place by the elastic on the right…

As a side note, the extra elastic you see on the right is part of the journal itself to hold the pages together.

The inside of your journal is complete! Now you get to decide if (and how) you want to decorate the outside cover!

I’ll show you how I decided to decorate mine…

First, I started out by finding some images that I liked on Etsy and playing with different ways to print them and apply them…

I printed them on cardstock and on some torn book pages to give me some options…

Want to find these images on Etsy? I’ve added the links here:

• Be Still image
• Deep Waters image
• Flower stencil image (further below)

I played with different placement, added some jute cord, made a decision, changed my mind, changed my mind again, and ended up with this…

I felt like it needed something on top, so I decided to use a stencil and paints to add some flowers…

… and I just love how it all turned out!

So, why did I specifically call this an art journal or prayer journal?

My hope is that this tutorial will inspire you to be creative, while also dedicating a space to writing your dreams, wishes, prayers and most importantly, documenting your miracles!

Here’s part of why I hope this inspires you to build a prayer journal…

There are so many of my friends that are going through life-changing events. My desire is to blanket them with prayer because our God is bigger than any mountain and I firmly believe in the incredible power of prayer. Sometimes, my life gets so busy that I forget to stop and send up prayers for those I love. A prayer journal gives me a place to make a list of those that I love that I want to remember in my prayers daily, plus I can write my own prayers, dreams and fears. And more importantly, I can document the beautiful miracles that happen and I can look back and see how God moved!

I just love this idea!

Want to make an art journal instead? Simply add a journal inside with unlined pages! Throw in a couple of charcoal art pencils on the left side and boom… instant art journal!

Blessings, friends! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Please drop us a comment and let us know what you thought!