Faux-Vintage Children's Books

I think the smartest move Target stores ever made was creating the Dollar Section and putting it right by the entrance so you HAVE to walk past it . . . and I can NEVER walk past without taking a peek at what’s there!  

Today I found these adorable little Easter board books so I grabbed three of them.  Having seen so many cute vignettes using real vintage children’s books (which I’ve been unable to find), I decided these would be perfect to make my own!

They're just tiny board books, each measuring about 4"X4".  They started out like this, all shiny and new looking.

I started by taking sand paper to them, scratching, dulling and tearing the edges.  I even peeled back some of the bindings and corners, tearing away the cover to reveal the cardboard.

Next I used some of my favorite “distressing” rubber stamps to add more of that “worn”, “well-loved” look.  Then, using a sponge dauber, I rubbed a dark, tan ink over the edges where the cardboard was which added to that old, vintage look.

I added some vintage-looking ribbons around each book and then decided to add these little tags I made.  The process is explained a bit more thoroughly in my Vintage Easter Prints post but basically, this is what you do. 

Find your images (I just googled “vintage Easter pictures”), copy and paste them into a document.  Adjust them to the size that will fit on your pre-cut tags and print them out on plain paper.  Then, using a small amount of adhesive, attach the tags OVER the image and run the paper through the printer once more and they’ll print right on the tag.

        

I’m thinking this would fun to do for ANY holiday!  Can you picture little Christmas or Halloween books?  But there’s still time to do these for Easter – simple and only took me about half an hour to do all three!