X: Using an X-ACTO to Make a Kindle Cover from a Hardback Book

This book is about Captain Kidd’s last 6 years of life. He claims He was a privateer under orders from England. But he was imprisoned, tried, & convicted as a pirate. Fair? Read & decide.

I am reading through the books on my bookshelves  to see which books I can let go of. Go here to see why.

I’ve recently read some of my children’s books like . . . 

• The Summer of the Swan
• Civil War on Sunday
• The Mystery Girl, and
• The  Mysterious Voyage of Captain Kidd.

I’ve had this last book since my kiddos were young. The copyright is 1970. The sticker on this hardback book says the book cost $2.95. For more information about Captain Kidd, go to this link.

I liked the book but won’t read it again. But since I think the cover is cool I didn’t put the book in the “donate pile.” I decided to make it into a cover for my Kindle.

I followed the directions here (from Rimarama) to make mine.

I just checked out how much I could have sold this on e-bay. Yikes. I could have made between $27.08 and $50.00. Instead I cut into this vintage book!

This took me about 3 hours to make. The most time-consuming part is the cutting out the pages part especially the corners.

Tips and Observations

1. Use  a clamp to hold the pages together after you have modge-podged them. I put a piece of cardboard between the clamp and book so that a dent would not appear on the book.
2. I drew around my Kindle to make my cutting lines. Make sure you draw straight down and not at an angle inwards. If you draw at any angle inwards, the “cave” will be too small. You will then have to recut the pages to make the cave bigger. This will add considerable time to the project.
3. Use a sharp blade in your x-acto knife. If it isn’t sharp, the pages will tear.
4. 

   As I cut out the pages from my book, I looked at all the picture pages including the table of contents as possible pages to line my Kindle “cave.”

   When you change the blade to use the other side, put some finger nail polish on the used side. That way you don’t have to remember whether it is new or used.

5. Use a metal ruler as a guide when you cut along your pencil line. This will keep you from cutting away more than you mean to. I did this for about the first 20 pages or so.
6. I used a file to smooth some of the page corners. This really wasn’t necessary. After I did the final modge-podge step the pages looked good enough.
7. I didn’t use scrapbook paper as top page as per the directions. Instead I chose to leave the cave frame as it was. And I put the Table of Contents in the cave and a cool picture page (from the book) on the inside of the left cover. I modge-podged them both in place.
8. 

   I put a loose ribbon behind the Kindle. Now it is easier to lift it out of the cave.

   I really wanted to use this particular book. Even though it didn’t have  a 1 inch margin between the Kindle and the edge of the book page, I tried it. It seems like it will work anyway.

9. My “cave is a little tight for the Kindle. So I put a loose ribbon behind the Kindle.  That way it is easier for me to lift my it out of the book.

Related Posts

• How to make a Kindle case from an old book
• Q: QUICK! Decorate your KINDLE Cover With This No Sew Idea
• Kindle cover
• 

  Finished inside of book

  K: 3 Reasons I Love the KINDLE Especially When my Shoulder Was Broken (plus 5 more reasons)

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NOTE: This post is written for the Blogging From A to Z Challenge. There are 22 categories and my category is MI = Miscellaneous.

During the month of April I will post 26 times finishing up posts that have been in my draft fie for at least a year. For a list of all the posts go to the A-Z button on my header.

Today’s letter is X. The topic is Using an X-ACTO Knife to Make a Kindle Cover from a Book.