Craft: Turn a useless phone book into key safe
Like most people we’ve got a number of phone books lying around. I do make use of them:
- Keep a recent one in the car in case I forget my phone and need to look up something
- When I’m gluing or painting items, instead of getting glue/paint on the table, I open a phone book and glue/paint on a page. When the page is sticky or wet, just move on to another
But the other day when I was looking for a place to hide some keys, it struck me that I could turn one of the phone books into a “safe.”
What burglar would think to look inside a telephone book for something of value?
Several great things about this project:
- Very easy and takes less than 15 minutes
- Requires no glue
- You can still use the phone book for other purposes as mentioned above
How to make a phone book key safe
NOTE: I can’t believe I need to say this but I’m going to anyway. This is not a real safe. There is no lock. It is not fireproof! Think of it more as a hiding place.
Supplies
1 telephone book, the thicker the better
Craft knife with sharp blade
Metal ruler
Pencil
Shallow cardboard box like one jewelry comes in
How to
1. Place box on table on side of phone book. Measure up 1/2″ from top of box and make small pencil mark. This is where the top of the box will be when you open the phone book.
2. Open the book a few pages above where you made the dot. Place the book in the center and draw a line around the box adding 1/16th-1/8″.
3. Remove the box and use the knife to cut out the section where you’ll insert the box and remove what you’ve cut. (Be sure to recycle the paper or use for another project).
4. Insert the box and put in keys or whatever you want to hide. Put on box top.
5. If your phone book is thick enough you should have lots of pages to use in the front for painting and gluing if you like.
6. Close the book and no one will know your secret!
Have you crafted a hiding spot? Would love to see what you did.
This post is part of the Upcycled Crafting Challenge (#freefromtrash) hosted by Calley, The Eco Chic, and is part of a one month challenge to create from trash. This challenge hopefully will open your eyes to the number of items we still end up trashing every day that could be used by ourselves or our kids ot create fun and useful items. To find out more about the challenge and to see other projects, click on over to Calley’s announcement page.
Lynn Colwell and Corey Colwell-Lipson are mother and daughter and authors of Celebrate Green! Creating Eco-Savvy Holidays, Celebrations and Traditions for the Whole Family, and founders of Green Halloween®.
