recycle a used/useless book into an a functional hard case for an ipod or other mp3 player!

Step 1: Gather Your Tools and Materials

you need:
an old book, preferably hardcover, thick enough to accomodate your music player,
some white glue, elmers or equivalent,
something to hold the glue in (film canister)
a small brush to spread glue,
a box cutter, exacto knife, or other sharp tool
drill or drill press
small magnets (2)
small piece of steel (must be thin and magnetic)
straight edge or ruler
spray paint (optional)
masking tape (optional)

Step 2: Glue Up Your Book

take your book and find what pages you want to save. even if you do not want to save any, at least save one for use in a later step. mix up a glue solution of around half glue and half water. put one of those clear plastic page protectors into the book where you want to save pages. then take the glue solution and paint it onto the outside of the book. dont use too much or the pages will warp and itll look like you got water on it. allow it to dry under something thats moderately heavy.

Step 3: Start Cutting

take your page protector out of the book and open to the first glued page. take out your mp3 player/ ipod and lay it on the page. trace around it. if you want to line the hole with something soft at the end cut a little outside of the line. use your boxcutter to cut a hole using the line you drew earlier as a guide. make sure you are using a new, sharp clean blade, or it will take forever. you can carefully use a little force and cut a lot of pages at once. it only took me like ten minutes to cut out a hole for my mp3 player. if you want, go ahead and cut a spot to store some ear buds, like i did.

Step 4: Add Magnets.

take the drill or drill press and drill into an unused part of the glued section of the book. insert a magnet and glue it in. do the same thin again on another part of the book. then on the inside cover glue the two thin pieces of metal in spots that match up with the magnets in the glued section of the book.

Step 5: Clean It Up

test fit the mp3 player. if it fits well, coat the inside of the hole with the glue solution. then apply a very thin coat of the glue solution to the top of the glued section and put one of the unglued pages on it. close book tightly. when its dry, open the book and cut through the page that you just glued to open up the hole that you cut in the book. this is to cover up any marks that you made on the book or any cutting errors, as well as the magnets.

Step 6: Paint

this is an optional step to make the book look cooler. i used a readers digest book of condensed books, so i painted it. if you want people to see what book you used, dont paint it. mask up the sides of the pages, and the front and back covers, and paint the spine. when dry, remove masking tape, then mask the spine and paint the covers. when the paint is dry, remove the tape and your done. i did mine with a flat black spine and hammered finish grey covers.