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 Homemade Gifts:This hollowed out hard cover book will conceal your money, valuables, or sentimental keepsakes while travelling or at home. The idea also appeals to children, who love to have a secret place for little treasures! What You Need: Hard cover book of sufficient size to allow a cut-out of 1/2" to 1" deep WARNING: Exacto knifes are VERY sharp. Although the instructions for this craft are relatively easy, it does involve deep cutting with an Exacto knife and may be dangerous for some people to do. It is definitely NOT a safe craft for children! Please proceed with this craft at your own risk. If you prefer not to work with sharp knifes, consider buying the reasonably priced book safe featured at the bottom of this page. Instructions: 1. If your book has a paper cover, remove it and replace it when you are finished making the book safe.
3. You may need to support the side of the open book that you are not cutting, so that the pages lie flat as you work. If so, use another book placed under the open front cover to support it. 4. Begin cutting with the Exacto knife, using the ruler as a straight edge on each side of the rectangle, cutting down through about a 1/4" inch of pages. Take particular care with the corners to ensure each cut meets the cut that joins it. 5. Remove the cut out rectangle that you just created and discard. Use nail scissors if it is necessary to trim the sides straight. 6. Lay down the pages that now have an opening cut in them, and draw around the inside of this rectangle, on the page directly below, so that you may repeat the cuts exactly. 7. Repeat steps 4 to 6 until you reach the back cover. Place a piece of scrap cardboard inside the back cover as you work on the last section, to avoid scoring or cutting the back cover with the knife. 8. Cut fabric or felt to fit the bottom of your rectangle. Measure the depth, and cut one or more strips of fabric to this size, with enough length to cover all four sides of the rectangle. 9. With the glue gun, place enough hot glue in each corner of the rectangle and up the sides to secure the pages in place, forming your "book safe." This will be covered by your fabric lining. 10. Use hot glue to secure the side strips of fabric all around the rectangle, being careful that the fabric does not extend anywhere above the opening or the book will not close properly. 11. Finally, use hot glue to fasten down the bottom lining fabric. Cut away any glue "strings" once the glue has cooled, and close the book. If you have one, replace the paper book cover. Your book safe is now ready to hide money, valuables or keepsakes in its secret compartment! |
2. Open the book and decide how deep and how large you want the cut out opening to be. Measure and mark the width and height of this rectangle on a page that is at the depth that you have chosen, measuring the depth from the inside of the back cover. The cut side that is closest to the center of the book should be far enough from the center to allow use of the ruler as a straight edge for cutting; usually this means at least a ruler width away from the center line.