5 Bookish Crafts from Instructables that Don’t Require a Saw

Jodi Chromey

Staff Writer

Jodi Chromey is a freakishly tall writer who edits MN Reads and has been blogging at I Will Dare since 2000. Follow her on Twitter: @jodiwilldare

So Instructables is this great community site where people make cool stuff and then tell you how you can make cool stuff too. There are all kinds of projects ranging from how to write poetry to how to make animatronic cat ears.

Many of the bookish projects seemed to involve saws. Lots of kinds of saws. And since saws are kind of scary, I went in search of bookish craft projects that didn’t involve saws. The chances of you losing any appendages completing this project is really slim. I won’t say there are no chances because, well, accidents can happen.

Here are five of my favorite no saw required bookish projects.

Amigurumi Book

amigurumibook
This is adorable. Sadly there are no instructions on how to make it. . . so much for the instruction part of Instructables. Alas! Googling Amigurumi book was not as helpful as one might imagine. However, you can bet your sweet bippy I am going to figure out how to make this my own self, because doesn’t everyone need an adorable, bespectacled book in their life? Of course they do and shut up about the fact that I already have a stuffed dictionary I got as a gift a few years ago.


Amigurumi Very Hungry Caterpillar

VeryHungryCaterpillar
Each of my five nieces & nephews have gone through an Eric Carle phase at some point in their lives. Who hasn’t? When my niece, who is now fifteen, was about two I we would read The Very Hungry Caterpillar every day and every single time when we reached the end she’d gasp “oh, a beautiful butterfly.” It was adorable. I will also be making this at some point probably within the next seven days because I am compulsive like that. Unlike the book, this one actually includes instructions.


Top Hat from Old Books

tophatbook
Because, of course. Now you’ll know what to wear to your next formal occassion. I bet with a bit of ingenuity you could take these instructions and modify them so that your hat perfectly matched your gown or tuxedo.


Little Monster Book

littlemonsterbook

No longer do you have to keep your Post-It Notes just laying about all naked and unadorned. Now you cang give them a spiffy faux fur jacket and some goggly eyes and have the must fun Post-It Notes on the block. Googly eyes make everything better. For real. Heather, a member of my Rock & Roll Bookclub went through this phase where she would sneak goggly eyes onto various things in your house. I’d find them on an onion, or a doorknob to a room I rarely went into. It was so fun. Technically the instructions here call for animal eyes, but you know what you’re a creative person and you can do a little bit of off-roading here if you want.


A Book Headboard

headboard
This, surprisingly, doesn’t involve saws. However, the instructor suggests getting books from a thrift shop or used book store, which makes sense because you don’t want to cut up your favorite books. But, you know, as a nerd I’m not sure I’d want to sleep under a bunch of shitty or unknown-to-me books. What if they infested my dreams? Still, this is pretty rad.