Secret Book Safe

I have always wanted to make one of these!  This worn, water damaged book was discovered at World Mission Thrift for .75 cents. After being read (it took me a loooong time to finish this one), it has been collecting dust in my living room book case.  Its too ratty to donate but I hate to throw anything away.  Today this book has an important new purpose: guarding secret treasure.  Almost anything could be tucked inside this little catacomb, from money and jewels to candy or incriminating photos.

To make this book safe I used: an old book, felt, x-acto knife, and an index card.  

Using the index card as a guide, I drew a rectangle on the first page of the book and cut out a block of pages with the x-acto knife.  I removed about a ½ inch of pages at a time.  If you can get your hands on them, a metal ruler and clamps come in handy to cut straight lines and hold the pages in place as your cavity gets deeper.  When the hole reached the back cover of the book, I used a cardboard strip to rub quick-set epoxy on the sides, binding the pages together, and added a line of hot glue in each corner.  The epoxy was a mess and I now realize that I didn’t need to use it.  In the future, I would stick to just hot gluing the corners.  To hide imperfections caused by hacking out pages with a blade, I lined sides and bottom of the hole with felt.

Secret passages, mysterious artifacts, and hidden treasure have fascinated me ever since I watched Alice in Wonderland as a little girl.  I dreamt of finding mysterious magical routes to other places and searched for valuables hidden in the tree trunks behind my house.  I’ll most likely show the book safe to everyone that comes over, so I doubt it will stay secret for very long.

Just place the book safe on your shelf; no one will suspect a thing- hidden in plain sight!