How to Make a Gratitude Book From an Old Book Cover

Today’s thrift store makeover / upcycle challenge is a little different.  It’s not a jewelry cabinet and there’s no paint involved.  I took one of the many old, worn-out books that I’ve found at thrift stores and made a gratitude book.  I can’t believe I made this EIGHT years ago and never shared it!

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The Rules:

• Upcycle an item(s) from a thrift store, resale store, or garage sale into a new piece of decor.
• There’s no monthly theme.
• There’s no budget to stick to.

Meet the Hosts

Amanda | Domestically Creative Michelle | Our Crafty Mom
Vicki and Jennifer | 2 Bees in a Pod Pili | My Sweet Things
Angela | Simply Beautiful by Angela Kim | Made in a Day
Lindsay | Crazy Organized Marie | DIY Adulation Ann | Duct Tape and Denim
Denise | My Thrifty House Jeanie | Create and Babble Debra | Shoppe No. 5
Shirley | Intelligent Domestications Victoria | Dazzle While Frazzled Lora | Craftivity Designs
Maureen | Red Cottage Chronicles Jeanee | Centsably Creative
Florence | Vintage Southern Picks Deborah | Salvage Sister & Mister

Make sure you follow our board on Pinterest for more upcycled decor inspiration!

My Gratitude Book

I’m probably stretching the home DECOR challenge theme just a little bit.  But I do pull this out during our 30 Days of Thanksgiving celebration every year as a coffee table book.  Can that count as decor?

I wasn’t even thinking about writing a blog post when I made this so I don’t have step-by-step photos.  But I did find this video on YouTube that shows a similar project using the same Tim Holtz binder mechanisms that I used.

Just about everything else in my gratitude book was either from a thrift store or scraps leftover from other projects.  I used several Bingo cards.  (See more of my Bingo card projects HERE.)

Then I printed out one of my 30 Days of Thanksgiving Bible verses, tore it out, and clipped it to the back of that first page.

I love this photo of my grandparents.  It’s actually a copy.  I don’t use the real photos in my projects.  But that rhinestone button is real… and it was one of my grandmother’s!

Here’s another photo of my grandmother washing clothes.  I used it on this page to remind me to “GIVE THANKS” for my washing machine!!!

I also give thanks for where we live.  It’s really beautiful here!  This is a photo we took with more scraps of paper on a piece of repurposed cardboard.

Bingo!  One of my cutie nieces.

I filled a few pages with ticket stubs, receipts, and other ephemera to remind me of some of the things I did that year.  See that price tag at the top of the page?  It was on a pair of pants that I found at the thrift store.  Bought them for $2.00 with the original tag of $148 on it!

 

And now for more thrifted makeovers!

Check out what my fellow upcyclers created below!

Do you have a gratitude book?  I’d love to see it.  I created a 30 Days of Thanksgiving Facebook group so we can share photos… come join us!

‘Til the next project,

 Ann @ Duct Tape and Denim

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Originally published Oct 26, 2017.