Valentine's Day

Every year around Valentine's Day I try to do something really creative for my wife.  Last year I put together a picture for her in Photoshop.  This year I decided to create a gift that shows my love for her and my love of books.  

I was browsing in an antique store and found a box full of old printer's letters.  Once I picked out the letters I wanted I was wondering how I was going to display them.  I was browsing in a thrift store looking at books when I realized that a book would be the perfect place to display my printer's letters.  

What I did: 

I figured out where I wanted to put the letters.  I used an exacto knife to cut though the cover and about 200 pages.  I put a piece of glass between the pages where I wanted to stop cutting. I masked off the pages and spray painted the cover gloss white.  I then spray painted the edges of the pages flat black, using a hair dryer to keep the paint from sticking the pages together.  

I used Photoshop to design a new cover.  I simply measured the old cover of the book and opened a new file in Photoshop with those measurments.  As a background, I copied and pasted text blocks from Google books.  (Phantastes, by George MacDonald).  I used a filter to tweak the text a bit.  I scanned in the printer's letters and arranged the images on the spine.

I decide to add a little light to the book.  I hacked a Blu-ray gift card from Target.  I replaced all the blue LEDs with red ones.  I then drilled holes through the cover of the book and cut out a place in the pages for the PCB and wires to fit.  I glued a small piece of cork on the button, so when you press on the lower part of the cover you activate the LEDs.