How to Make a Book from an Upcycled Greeting Card

Greeting cards are more than just a waste of paper…

Well, they are if you upcycle them!

Here’s a useful and cute way to upcycle a greeting card into a blank book. Use it as a travel or nature or art journal, or just use it for your shopping lists. No matter how you use it, you’ll have given new life to one old greeting card, upcycling it into something brand-new.

You will need:

Greeting card. My favorite cards to use are the ones with personal notes inside–it’s an easy way to keep your loved one with you in the day-to-day.

Blank paper. You can use any paper that you want. Look for paper that has at least the same dimensions as the greeting card when it’s unfolded.

Embroidery needle and embroidery floss. You’re actually going to bind this book. No staplers for you!

1. Measure and cut the inside pages. Measure the length and height of your greeting card; your paper should be about 1/4″ shorter in each of these dimensions.

Your book will need to have fairly few pages, although there’s some wiggle room here, depending on the thickness of the paper that you choose. I took this paper from the inside of a vintage scrapbook, so it’s pretty heavy, and I found that eight pages were just about the perfect number for my little greeting card books.

2. Align the paper with the greeting card cover. You can do this really precisely, but for these little books, I just eyeball the alignment. Center the paper over the greeting card, with the inside of the card facing the paper, and then use paper clips to hold it there.

3. Poke holes for the binding. Use the template from my bookbinding tutorial here to poke five holes down the center of the book, along the fold in the greeting card:

4. Stitch the binding. Use that same template to stitch the binding with embroidery floss. Your floss will start and end in the same spot, so it’s easy to tie the two ends into a square knot and then trim them:

These books can be made quite quickly, and they make cute easy gifts. Keep a couple in your bag at all times, and you’ll never be without paper when inspiration strikes!