About

Cost: $ $ $ $ $

Difficulty: • • • • •

Time: 1h00

Recycle old cereal boxes in to books.
Save mini cereal boxes from the trash; they make a great home for pages made from old maps, discarded notebooks, and old calendars. Need a bigger book? Eat your way through a family-sized box.

Finished dimensions
23⁄4 x 45⁄8 inches (7 x 11.8 cm) each

Designer: Rhonda Miller. From the book Eco Books by Terry Taylor. Read our review <a href="http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/blog/eco-books">here</a>.

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Step 1
Creating the Cover
Dismantle the mini cereal boxes by separating the glued edges, and open them so that the boxes lie flat.
Step 2
Working on your cutting mat, use a utility knife and ruler to trim the small flaps off the top and bottom of each box. Trim the sides so that only the box front, box back, and one side remain. The one remaining side will be the spine.
Step 3
To make a punch template for the spine, enlarge the spine template so it’s the same height and width as the spine.
Step 4
Place the template on the spine of one box. Use the awl to poke holes through the template and through the box. You’ll have four rows, each with  six holes. Repeat for the other two boxes.

Tip: When poking the holes, it is best to start on the outside of the box so that the divot of cardboard created by the hole will be hidden on the inside of the book.
Step 5
Making the Text Block
The paper for the pages needs to be cut to fit inside the covers. The pages should be twice the width of the cover and the same height, minus 1⁄4 inch  (6 mm) in each direction. Using your utility knife and ruler, trim all your assorted papers to the appropriate size. You will need 36 sheets for each book (or 108 total for all three books).
Step 6
Gather the sheets into six stacks of six sheets each. Fold each stack in half and crease it with the bone folder. You may want to press the folded sections under a weight overnight to compress the folds and make the sections lie flatter.
Step 7
To make a punch template for the pages, copy the signature template onto a piece of scrap paper, and cut the paper so it’s the same size as the text block pages. Reverse the fold so that the marks are on the inside, insert this template into the middle of a section, and use the awl to poke a hole through the fold at each mark. Repeat this step with each section.
Step 8
Assembling the Book
Cut a piece of linen thread that is about eight times the height of the book, and thread the needle.
Step 9
Attach the sections to the cover using the long stitch binding technique.
Step 10
Making the Case
To make the case, dismantle a large cereal box so that it opens flat.
Step 11
In the center of the box, score four lines to mark off a rectangle that  will be the largest side of the case. The rectangle needs to the same  height as the book and three times the width of the spine.
Step 12
Mark a strip that measures the same width as each book to each  side of the rectangle, and trim away the rest of the box as illustrated  (figure 1).
Step 13
Fold and crease each side along the scored lines, and use a utility  knife and ruler to cut a narrow notch in each corner.
Step 14
Apply glue to the printed side of the four corner pieces. Fold each side, tuck the pasted corners under the other sides, and burnish the corners with a bone folder. Let the case dry.