More Recycled Crafts

Lately I've been looking for ways to reuse things that I would normally recycle or throw out. My recent paper bowl obsession has resulted in half-a-dozen recycled magazine receptacles sitting in my living room, so I've decided to take a bit of break from them and move on to some less time-consuming projects.


I found an old Thomas Brothers map book from 1996 that was pretty useless to my family as it's outdated and we all live in San Diego now. Since I love decorating with maps, I decided to update my book shelves with the book's pages. I started by ripping out the pages that I wanted to use, and laying them out in order.
Because of the way these books are printed, I did have to photocopy the backs of some pages to get a complete map. However, only a few photocopies were needed, and I used recycled paper for those.

Once I had completed a section of map, I trimmed off the white borders (they were recycled this time, but in the future I may save them to make some home-made paper).

Next I adhered my map pages to the original backing of my bookshelf using photo mount. Photo mount worked great for this project: it adheres paper cleanly and without moisture, and can be repositioned with little worry of ripping the paper.


Once all the maps were in place, I folded the excess around the back and glued it in place. Lastly, I nailed the backing onto the shelf, and ta-da!-- a "new" bookshelf.