Turning a book into a frame

My brother is notorious for creative and thoughtful gift giving. A few years back he gave me a framed photo of the two of us as kids. He made the frame himself out of an old children's book we read as kids. It has been on my nightstand ever since he gave it to me and when I looked at it the other day, I thought it would be a great DIY project with any book and photo. I love the children's book idea for a child's room or playroom. I also think old vintage books would look really great as a frame. There are so many options!

So here it is....

 What you need...
- a hard back book
- photo
- glue
- a cheap frame that you don't mind taking a part and using the pieces

This is what he did....
1) Using a hard back book, cut a square out of the front cover using an exacto knife. The square needs to be the same shape and size of the photo you want to frame.
2) Take the glass rectangle from your cheap frame and glue it to the inside of the front cover.
3) Glue your photo to the front page of the book, behind the glass.
4) Glue the book pages together by closing the book and gluing all of the pages edges together.
5) Once all glue is dry, it is time to make the stand for the frame. When my brother made this one, he used the rectangle from the front of the book and trimmed it to the size and shape of a frame back, you could use the cheap frame's stand as a stencil. He used the hinge of an old frame to attach it to the back of the book. This method works well but it could be faster and easier to just take the entire back of your cheap frame that has the hinged stand, and glue the entire thing to the back of the book. This method wouldn't require cutting at all, just more gluing.

Once all of the glue is dry, your frame is ready to go! I am going to pick up some books from the thrift store and try this out myself.