Discussion: What to do with old ARCs

I recently won a box of ARCs, and while I'm super grateful to have won them, I'm also a bit at a loss as to what to DO with them. Of course I'm going to read the majority of them (duh!) and pass along some newer ones to other bloggers for review. But then some of them are ARCs for books that were published in 2015/2016, so I don't really feel right about passing them along, but I can't really just throw books in the garbage...

Edited to add: I've seen several authors put up posts PLEADING with reviewers not to pass on ARCs to schools/readers etc. These copies are meant for review purposes and are NOT "real books" (even though they're masquerading as them in pretty covers) and are filled with typographical errors and in many cases are missing entire scenes and things. One point brought up was that it does the reader a disservice to read an ARC instead of the finished, polished copy of the book and that these books are for REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. ARCs are not the best version of the book, y'all. You are missing out on some glory and beauty by reading only the ARC and not the final version.

This is where you come in, bookish webiverse! What do you do with old ARCs? I know they're just draft copies in fancy covers, not meant to be forever books. (Don't let the cover fool you! These are not "real books!")

I have mighty aspirations to turn the pages into craft projects. Here are some of the ideas I found so far. Since the holiday season is approaching, you can see my mind kind of went hard in very Christmas-y ways... ;)

Bookish paper ornaments

I love this adorable monogrammed paper star ornament from Jaime Costiglio - check out her blog for step by step direction. 

These book page star ornaments are also really cute - you can find the how to guide over at Harbour Breeze Home. 

I must just be into star ornaments right now... this 5-pointed origami star ornament tutorial can be found over at Homemade Gifts Made Easy

And if you want to get a little fancier with your paper folding, this tutorial over at Krista Sew Inspired for (yet another) paper star ornament is glorious.

Bookish wreaths

This Christmas book page wreath is gorgeous, and you can find the tutorial over at Sparkles of Sunshine.

Another variation on the book page wreath is to use rolled pages fanning outwards. Vintage Paint and More has a good tutorial on how to get started on this type of wreath.

Origami & papercraft

I could always use book pages as origami paper to make things like lucky stars and flowers, and even if I turn out to stink at the art of folding paper there are non-origami ways of making paper flowers too.

Do you have any good ideas about what to do with ARCs for books that have been published for a while? Is it OK/good/better to pass them on to other readers? Should I try to "upcycle" them? 

Homemakers Nov. 9 - Fleece Tie Blankets

I love my neighborhood. ❤ We have a group of ladies that get together once a month during the school year to do things. Every September we have a meeting to talk about what we want to do each month for the upcoming season, and it's always a lot of fun. In October we had a bonfire at my mom's house.

For November, we got together at my neighbor Pam's house and put together fleece tie blankets to donate to Alexandra House, which provides services to people and families suffering from domestic violence. Each blanket uses two yards of fleece, one yard for one side and one yard for the other, and then we cut 3" strips all along the edges and tied the two pieces of fabric together. I bought a whole bunch of styles of fleece in two yard increments from JoAnn Fabric a long time ago, so it was great to finally have a use for all that fabric! We ended up making some that were two yards large, some that were one yard, and two that were half a yard (because of cutting error on my part, whoops!) All together we made 10 blankets in about an hour and a half!! That's what I call teamwork!

Below are some pictures of our event last night.



The Homemakers with our completed blankets (I'm the one with the purple blanket)

This is me working on one of the kid sized blankets.
My neighbor Karen likes filters for her photos, haha!



 



 

 



 It was a really fun night. I sure love my neighborhood! Special thanks to my neighbor Pam for opening up her lovely home for us to gather in.

Do you do any crafting type things? I am currently working on knitting a Hufflepuff scarf and hand-sewing a quilt made with the English pattern piecing technique (but I'll share more on that later!)