Today I have another Back to School DIY for you, where we’re making custom binder covers based on YA novels! My friend Emma “Elmify” Mills wrote a YA novel called First & Then which comes out in October, and she asked me to be a part of the “vlog tour” to help promote the book. I already read an advanced copy of the book and loved it, so I was happy to come up with a fun DIY based on the gorgeous book cover! Keep reading to learn more about the project and get the high-quality JPGs and PSDs as free downloads.
Basically the idea is that we’re going to edit the book covers to become binder covers for all of our school subjects. Just find a book cover where the title is on a solid background or otherwise fairly easy to erase, and paint over it. Then recreate whatever school subject you want to write either out of the letters from the original title or by downloading a similar-looking font.
You can also replace the author’s name with your teacher’s name the same way, or with your name to label the binder as yours. And have fun with it, like editing where it says “a novel” to say “a class.” I only did the front covers for my binders, but you could also definitely edit the spine and back cover as well, and I’d love to see photos if you do that too!
If you don’t want to start from scratch yourself, here are the high-quality downloads for each of the covers I made. I removed the teacher’s name in the JPGs and just left the author’s name, since everyone’s teachers are named different things. But in the PSDs, I left in the fake teacher’s name that I included in my examples so you can change them to whatever you’d like.
First & Then: JPG PSD
Fonts Used: Mrs. Eaves (paid). Caslon is a similar free font.
Fangirl: JPG PSD
Fonts Used: Autumn Rats (free download)
The Fault in Our Stars: JPG PSD
Fonts Used: None, just rearranged the existing letters
Mockingjay: JPG PSD
Fonts Used: Hunger Games (free download), Data Trash (free download)
I’ll Give You The Sun: JPG PSD
Fonts Used: Univers (paid). Helvetica Light Oblique is a similar font and should already be installed on most computers. Bebas Neue is a similar free font for the author text.
I hope you liked this DIY, and I would love to see photos if you decide to make any of these for yourself! If you want more Back to School DIYs, I posted three videos on HGTV Handmade last week all with a back to school theme, which you can check out here: DIY Homework Jenga, Back to School DIYs, Back to School Hacks
Don’t forget to pre-order First & Then if you’re into YA books, and subscribe to Elmify whose videos are just as funny as her writing. Thanks so much for reaching, and stay tuned to my channel on Tuesday when I’ll be putting up a TopShop and H&M haul video! I hope you all have a great weekend!
