Check out the wedding centerpiece magic when you plant succulents inside books #Decor#Favors & Flowers#books#centerpiece#non-floral centerpiece#succulents Updated Oct 12 2015 (Posted Nov 7 2013) Megan Finley Horowitz meggyfin Photos by Crystal Liepa 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. 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! @meggyfin @thedashanddine @meggyfin PREVIOUS Emma & Brian's geeky rainy love fest wedding NEXT The mother of all "Oh-Shit!" Kits, featuring the Decormergency Kit Show/Hide comments [ 13 ] 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)?? Reply 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!! Reply 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. Reply 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. Reply I love it too!!! I'm working on getting a celtic style wedding together and this is definitely something I will think about Reply HOLY CRAP BALLS I WANT THIS Reply 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. Reply I maaaayyy make these for my house. Reply What a great way to recycle those useless copies of 50 Shades of Grey and Twilight! Reply Gave me an awesome idea of what to do with lots of yellowed books in my room! Thanks for sharing this! <3 Reply 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. Reply 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 . Reply I love it ! Thanks for sharing ! Reply Join the conversation Cancel Reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Sign me up for your offbeat awesomeness newsletter! No-drama comment policy Part of what makes the Offbeat Empire different is our commitment to civil, constructive commenting. 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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)?? Reply
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!! Reply
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. Reply
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. Reply
I love it too!!! I'm working on getting a celtic style wedding together and this is definitely something I will think about Reply
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. Reply
Gave me an awesome idea of what to do with lots of yellowed books in my room! Thanks for sharing this! <3 Reply
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. Reply
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 . Reply