Pro tip: cut your old covers before you toss them

Last month I had a stack of paperbacks with torn spines and coffee stains, not worth saving. Before recycling them I started cutting the front covers off, just the outer board, and glued them into a scrap folder. Then I needed a quick backing board for a small rebind job and remembered I had them. Worked perfect. The old cover gave the new one some stiffness without adding bulk. Also used one to slide under a page when I was painting edges, kept the paint off my table. Has anyone else repurposed covers like this or am I just hoarding cardboard at this point?

1 comments

1 Comment

green.jessica14d ago

Gotta admit I'm basically a retired librarian's worst nightmare at this point, my whole craft room is just a graveyard of book spines. I did the same thing with some old hardcovers that had water damage, but instead of gluing them into a folder I just stacked them sideways like a little tower next to my cutting mat. Now I use them for everything, pressing flowers, as a coaster for my coffee mug (ironic, I know), even as a mini dry erase board when I tape a post-it to one. The edge painting trick is legit though, I tried that last week with a mystery novel and it saved my table from getting flecked with red all over. So yeah we're probably both hoarders but at least our hoarding has a use, right?