Did you know you can print on book pages? It’s rather easy. You just need access to a printer, a graphic of your choosing, and book pages. I’ve put together this step-by-step tutorial to walk you through the process of making your own DIY Book Page Art. When you’re done? Frame it for a great gift or practically free wall art in your own home!
I love a good gallery wall, don’t you? Whether we own our house or are renting an apartment, I always have at least one gallery wall going on which means I need a lot of unique wall decor to mix and match depending on the layout and needs of a room.
A couple of years ago, I made these quick book page art pieces to fill in a few gaps for a gallery wall and they’ve been such an easy, neutral addition to any room.
This project is SO EASY. No need for photoshop. You can do this DIY book page art n Microsoft Word for the cost of some printer ink, a picture frame, and a few ripped book pages.
Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases through some of the links in this post. Please know that I only recommend products I have personally used or that are VERY similar to products I’ve used.
How to Print on Book Pages
Ready to make your own DIY Book Page Art? Here's a quick tutorial to walk you through printing graphics on book pages.
Materials
- MS Word or equivalent
- Book pages you don’t mind ripping out
- Graphic File to Print
- Access to a Printer and ink
- scissors or paper cutter
- Picture Frames to display your book page art
Instructions
Select and Prepare Your Book Pages
- Rip your book pages: clean up any jagged/shredded edges.
- Measure + make note of the page’s width and height. This page measured 4.5″ x 8″
Format Your Image
- Open a new document in Microsoft Word
- Go to File >> Page Set Up
- Select "Paper Size" in the drop down
- Select "Manage Custom Sizes"
- Add your book page’s dimensions and set margins to zero
- Insert your image into the document
- To position it where you want, right click on your image, mouse over ‘wrap text’ and select ‘through.’ Now you can arrange your image where ever you’d like.
Print Your Book Page
- Feed your book page into your printer
- Go to File >> Print
- select “paper handling” in your printing dialog box (usually defaults to copies & pages)
- Check “Scale to Fit Paper Size.”
- Click Print!
Notes
Test your art on a regular piece of paper cut down to the same dimensions as your book page to make sure your image is positioned on the paper correctly. Also notice how your printer releases the page. If your printer spits the page out upside down, you’ll need to load your book pages with the words upside down.
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Step 1: Select and Prepare Your Book Pages
Rip your book pages, clean up any jagged/shredded edges.
Measure + make note of the page’s width and height. This page measured 4.5″ x 8″
Step 2: Find Images for Your Book Page Art
There’s tons of resources out there. A favorite place of mine for cool, vintage graphics is The Graphics Fairy. I haven’t tested this project out with color images, so I stick with clean black and white graphics. I’ll be using this teapot image I found awhile ago from The Graphics Fairy. I can’t find the original file on her site, but if you do a simple “tea pot” search, a ton of wonderful graphics will pop up!
Step 3: Format Your Image in Microsoft Word
In Microsoft Word, open a blank document and go to File >> Page Set Up and under the “paper size” drop down, select “Manage Custom Sizes.”
- Add your book page’s dimensions and set margins to zero. This helps to reduce border clipping.
- Insert your image into the document. To position it where you want, right click on your image, mouse over ‘wrap text’ and select ‘through.’ Now you can arrange your image where ever you’d like.
Step 4: Print Your Book Page Art!
Ok! Let’s print some book page art!
- Go to File >> Print.
- Make sure the image bounding box is within the document or you might get some of the image clipped off.
- To ensure your whole image will print on the document, select “paper handling” in your printing dialog box (usually defaults to copies & pages).
- Check “Scale to Fit Paper Size.”
- Click Print!
Word of Caution: Test your art on a regular piece of paper cut down to the same dimensions as your book page to make sure your image is positioned on the paper correctly. Also notice how your printer releases the page. If your printer spits the page out upside down, you’ll need to load your book pages with the words upside down.
A Note on Ripping Book Pages:
Pick a book that is not sentimental or buy a copy of a sentimental book if you are choosing book pages that symbolize something important to you. This is so important you guys. As a book lover, I found it extremely hard to bring myself to the point of ripping a page out of a book. I probably spent hours trying to find a book in my house that was interesting yet meaningless to me.
I settled on this little abridged version of the King Arthur tales that I had to pick up for a general education class in college.
King Arthur and his knights have been written about in much finer ways, so I convinced myself this little book wouldn’t be missed.
Then I ripped with reckless abandon.
If you decide to pursue this project, leave a comment below and let me know which book you picked! I’d love to see your results!
A Little Overwhelmed?
If you’re not quite ready to venture into the world of DIY book page art, Here’s some great book page art on Etsy already done for you!
1. Vintage Top Hats on Dictionary Pages by The Blue Butterfly Emporium
2. Cabinet of Curiosities by Madame Bricolage Press
3. Raven Reading a Book by The Curious Printery
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Don’t Forget! Pin for Later:
