My 3 Monsters: Super Easy Book Page Garland

Super Easy Book Page Garland tutorial at /

Hi guys! I adore the look of old books and book page art. Over the years I have amassed quite a collection of old books from thrift stores that I like to use for little projects around my house. Don’t worry — none of them are valuable, though I did find Gary Cooper’s autograph on a slip of paper inside an old book one time! Most of my stash have already had their covers removed and used for other projects, so all that is left are the beautiful old, yellowing pages that are so perfect for vintage-style home decor projects like this one. I have used these book page garlands all over the place lately — in my dining room, in my office at work, and to decorate for a vintage paper doll themed baby shower. They are quick, easy, and inexpensive — the perfect crafting trifecta!

You will need:

an old book that you don’t mind tearing a few pages out of
a printer
decorative paper {optional}
twill tape or ribbon
tape and glue stick

The first thing you will need to do is set up your computer to print on the book pages. I have an older version of Microsoft Word that I like to use, but any word processing program will work. Your screen shots may not look exactly like mine, but the process will be very similar. Chose the book you would like to use and carefully tear out enough sheets to make your garland — one page per letter. Often the margins will not be equal {which drives me crazy!} so I trim the edges a bit to make sure the text is centered on the page. Measure the length and width of your book page. In this example, my page is 3.75 inches wide by 6.5 inches long.

Open up Microsoft Word and click on File in the upper left corner, then choose Page Set Up. In the box that pops up. you can adjust the page margins and size. The first tab in the box is for the margins, as shown above. I like to set all the margins to .5 inches. If you would like your letters to be printed lower on your page, simply adjust the top margin until it looks the way you want.

The second tab in the box lets you adjust the paper size as shown above. Your book page is most likely not one of the standard sizes listed, so choose “Custom Size” and enter your width and height in the boxes below. Click OK and you’re all set. The shape of the printable area should change on the screen to match your book pages, just like magic. Choose your font and size then set it to center justification. I almost always use a typewriter-inspired font like Linowrite at 200 pt. for my book page garlands, but any font will work. Just make sure it is big and bold enough to stand out against the small text in the background.

When you go to change the size of your font, 200 will probably not be a choice in the drop down box. I’m a little embarrassed to admit that for years I didn’t know you could make text any size you want by highlighting the box and typing in any number then hitting enter. When I realized that, it was a major face-palm moment. Duh! Please tell me I’m not the only one. . .

Anyhoo . . . Type in the message you want on your garland — one letter per page — and print it out on your home printer.

I wanted to give mine a little more interest by cutting the bottom into a shape, so I drew the design I wanted lightly in pencil on one of my pages. You can get as creative as you want here. I went for a simple point, using a ruler to keep everything straight and symmetrical. You only have to draw it out on one page because you can use that first one as a template for all the others. Use scissors or a paper cutter to cut out the design.

For this particular garland I decided to add a little color as well, by mounting the book pages onto decorative paper with a glue stick and cutting it out with a narrow border on each side. This is completely optional since the garland also looks great using just the book pages.

Once all of the letters are prepared, assemble the garland by folding the top of the page back about 1/2 inch over the twill tape or ribbon and taping it in the back with scotch or masking tape to secure it. Be sure to leave 12-18 inches of twill tape or ribbon on each end of the garland for hanging or to tie a decorative bow. I clipped this one up to my chicken wire memo board with mini clothespins and embellished it with tassels made out of cute cocktail napkins.