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You've seen book centerpieces. You've seen succulent centerpieces. But have you seen books-used-as-succulent-planters centerpieces? Thanks to Tribesmaid Aravaile, now ya have! They're unbelievably gorgeous whether the books are closed, or open…
Would you believe these were home-made?
We drilled or hand-cut holes through the covers, or open pages of books, and planted succulents into them. We used the pages removed from this children's book specifically to make the table number holders, by Mod Podge-ing them onto Mason jars, which we filled with black sunflower seeds and stuck cheap chalkboard signs in. –Aravaile
Want to know where to get free books for projects like this? Alternately, feeling aghast about the idea of (gulp) KILLING BOOKS to make something like this? We have the inside scoop from a librarian right here.
About the Author: Megan Finley Horowitz
When Megan's not writing, traveling, and sleeping, she's eating like the fate of the world depends on it. (You're welcome, world!) You can snoop into her personal life over on her website The Dash and Dine!
Holy crap, these are gorgeous and exactly what I want!!
Was it costly, though? I’ve been pretty frustrated trying to create book centerpieces – seems like I have to spend hundreds of dollars on (nice looking, not falling apart, hardcover) books to get it right. Has anyone does this on the cheap(ish)??
anonny non,
Check out book sales at local libraries or watch for them at yard sales. You should be able to find good looking books there without spending a fortune. Good luck!!
why not look at second hand bookstores, trift stores, garage sales, flea markets and the likes? maybe even ebay has a few. It won’t be classics that come cheap, but a few books that got forgotten over time or even cheaper those that did not age well, like the hilarious microwave cookbook of the 70’s, ans if you really don’t like the book at all you can always just paint the cover, glue pictures, lace, what ever is your fancy.
Will second the library book sales idea. Especially toward the end, they may have a “bag sale” day/time where you can load up a big ol’ bag o’ books for a fixed price.
I love it too!!! I’m working on getting a celtic style wedding together and this is definitely something I will think about
HOLY CRAP BALLS I WANT THIS
Hooray for mod podge!
I also just mod-podged scraps of book pages onto recycled glass jars. It was a ton of fun, and it was a good way to use an old, yellowed copy of Alice in Wonderland. I bought green flower-arranging foam (I can’t remember what it’s called) and put a square inside each decoupaged jar. On the morning of the wedding a friend is going to pick up farmer’s market flowers and arrange them in the jars for centerpieces.
I maaaayyy make these for my house.
What a great way to recycle those useless copies of 50 Shades of Grey and Twilight!
Gave me an awesome idea of what to do with lots of yellowed books in my room! Thanks for sharing this! <3
Hey guys thanks for featuring our centerpieces! I actually just noticed this now, so I’ll try and answer your questions (a bit belated I’m sorry)
The books we used to balance the others on were all Readers Digest hardcover books a thrift store was trying to get rid of. They had hundreds and sold them to me for 10 cents each.
The books we cut open were mostly from my grandmother’s basement, and a lot had water damage from hurricane Sandy.
We did cut a few by hand with a razor blade, but I would not recommend it as it was very time consuming. The majority of them were made using a circular saw attachment on a drill press.
i am doing something like this but using a pan and rocks and floating candles and a single flower in it . i love the idea so much. i have gotten some bad feed back from family about tearing up books , but i am getting all of mine for .25 cents from local junk store .
I love it ! Thanks for sharing !