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Great Gift Ideas:

As I college student I realize that there isn't always enough money to pay for tutition, books and still have some extra cash left over for things like birthday and Christmas presents.

Being tight for cash I've had to come up with alternative ideas for gifts. These are just a few projects I managed to come up with.

1) Hollow Book Box (Like right out of the mystery movies)

This has to be by far my favorite project. I enjoy doing it, and I think the end result is amazing. To start this project you need the following items: A razor blade, an old hard cover book, glue, paintbrush, paper clips, pen, ruler (or smaller book to draw the shape inside the book).

A hard cover book can usually be aquired for free or very little money at a library sale, garage sale, or used bookstore. Depending on the size of the box you want pick your hardcover book on personal preferance. The options are endless I have dozens of books I've made, all sorts of different colors and thickness.

Once you've gathered the supplies to begin set out the hardcover book. You can either decide to start the hollow part of the book right from the inside cover of half way through the book, whatever you want.

Open the hardcover book, and trace the perimiter of the inside space on the page and start cutting out pages following the lines you've drawn. Continue removing pages, hollowing out the book. When the hollow pages start to accumulate you can clip them together with a paperclip. The weight of the clip will help keep the pages out of your way.

Keep cutting out the pages until you reach the end of the book. When you are finished make sure that the extra paper scrapes are out of the book. You can do this by easily taping the book or blowing out the remaining pieces.

Remove the paper clips and close the book. For the next step I recommend getting a paintbrush to brush on the glue onto the pages. Keeping the book closed apply gule to all pages and every side of the book. There is no reason to glue each page induvidualy. I usually apply a liberal amount of glue to make sure the book stays together.

When you are done with glue set the book somewhere to dry and weight it down to keep the book in its proper shape. Let the book sit for a few days to fully dry. Sometimes the cover will stick to the rest of the book. You can easily remedy this by taking a pen or ruler and proping it under the cover of the book and applying pressure upwards. The cover should pop off. Some pages may rip but that is no big

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