I Love to Create Recycled Denim Book Covers

Recycled Denim Book Cover Margot Potter for I Love to Create Copyright 2009

When I asked my daughter if she needed to make book covers for her school books she looked at me what that, “Are you daft?” expression on her face. Yes, it’s official, I’m daft and I’m old. Undaunted by these facts, I was certain that book covers hadn't gone the way of record albums and After School Specials and then we saw some ready made stretchy covers at our local Big Box store.

A ha! Maybe I'm not so daft after all!

I thought we'd try and make some recycled covers instead of buying ready made. Back in my day, we whipped up covers to protect our school books using brown paper shopping bags. Those brown bags aren’t as easy to score these days. No worries! I have a huge stash of recycled jeans from a class I taught last year and that’s where this project was born. I got these jeans for pennies at my local Goodwill. You can do this for school books or for any books that get a fair amount of use to protect them. I love the little pocket for your pencils and pens or anything else you want to take along with you. Teens can personalize these any way they like and make a different one for every book.

Recycled Denim School Book Covers
Margot Potter for I Love to Create Teen Crafts
Copyright 2009

Materials
Pair of recycled stretchy jeans (You’ll be using a pant leg and a pocket)
Aleene’s Quick Dry Tacky Glue
Aleene’s Patch and Applique Glue
Tulip Fabric Spray Paint Emerald and Fuchsia
Tulip Soft Matte Fabric Paints in Azalea, Ebony and Glacier White
Tulip Pearl Dimensional Fabric Paint Clover Green
Tim Holtz idea-ology Mini Masks Regal
Star Stencil
Hero Arts Writing Stamp

Tools

Ruler
Stencil Brush
Fabric Scissors
Foam Brush

1. Cut a leg from a pair of old stretch jeans. Cut a pocket off of the back of the jeans, leaving the backing so it’s still a pocket.

2. Place your book on the jeans and determine width and length of your material. You want the material to be able fold over on both sides about 2.5” and to be able to overlap the edge of your book cover about 2.5”. The fabric when folded top and bottom should hit at exactly the width of your book. Measure twice and then cut to size.

3. Run a bead of glue along the top and bottom edge of your folded fabric, stop gluing approximately 2.5” from each edge. Allow to dry.

4. Slide the front of the book cover into each side of your folded and glued fabric, creating protective sleeve.

5. Adjust the fabric tension and glue the edge down on each side. Repeat for the back cover. Allow glue to dry.
6. Glue pocket on front of cover with Patch and Applique glue. Allow to dry.7. Decorate the pocket using a variety of fabric paints, stencils, rubber stamps and splatters. I used the Tim Holtz flourish mask with pink and green fabric spray paint, the Tim Holtz flourish stencil with the azalea paint, smeared and flicked on the green paint on the pocket with my pointer finger and stenciled the stars on with the stencil brush and black paint. 8. Use a foam brush to apply fabric paint to a rubber stamp with text and stamp on the center of the pocket. Allow to dry.

Ranger U

I spent the past three days at Ranger University. I'm now officially a fully certified Ranger Instructor. It was three information packed days of techniques and products taught by crafty rock stars Tim Holtz, Suze Weinberg and Claudine Hellmuth. We learned, we played, we explored, we questioned...and in true Madge fashion I made a ton of glorious messes. We made manilla tags as we went along of many of the techniques for reference later. A lot of folks made pretty tags, embellishing each one perfectly into a miniature work of art...but every technique made me wonder...what if I did this...or that...or added this? Therefore I have a bunch of pretty ugly tags...but a brain full of great ideas. Since I don't have to hang my tags up a store, it's okay! I took a ton of pictures...which I'd love to share...but I left my camera there. Oops. I promise to share later...scout's honor!

Ranger U is a three day 9-6 intensive overview of the Ranger product line. You leave with product and with ideas and fully certified. You learn synergistic techniques that integrate a variety of products you can apply to your specific disciplines. It's an amazing experience! You can go here to read more and to apply.

I was completely exhausted at the end of every day. It was so much information to process and I literally collapsed in my hotel room after dinner at around 9 each night. I'm still exhausted today, but there are a lot of ideas percolating in my brain. I wish they sold everything in gallon sizes, because I'd like to distress my furniture and my walls! I want to crackle and ink my supply drawers, emboss and paint my new TV stand...color wash my curtains...I'd distress the whole house if I could! I'm sad my new book isn't mixed media focused, because I've got some great ideas for making beads and jewelry. The bonus for you is that I'll be sharing them here and in my videos. I find it hard to concentrate on stringing beads these days when there are crafty potions to be brewed and new mixed media techniques to discover.

Thank you so much to all of the wonderful folks at Ranger for inviting me back. Thanks to Tim, Suze and Claudine for the creative inspiration. Big thanks to Patti and Mario for all of your hard work supporting the classes. Thanks to Robin Beam for introducing me to the wonders of Ranger products. It's kinda like Willy Wonka with crafty products instead of candy...which is like all the best stuff wrapped up in one glorious three day weekend!

Until tomorrow...craft on with your bad selves!

xoxo,
Madge