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.
