Bubble, bubble, toil, and no trouble at all!

Are you needing an ancient spell book to go along with you Witchy accessories?

Well worry no more!

Super Simple way to make an spellbook!

You will need:

a hard cover book:

You can find some at goodwill or even at the dollar store

(please, please, please, make sure you are not defacing an important or first edition book!!)

Paper towels

watered down mod podge or watered down school glue

paint brush

paint

scrap cardboard

Start out by picking your book you will be working with.

I bought mine from the dollar store.

( ignore the box cutter...

this pic is from another upcoming project.

 i used the same kind of book on this one..lol)

If your book has a dust cover, you will need to remove it

now you will have a nice plain hardback book

Start by picking out your design

I chose the Celtic tree of life

Draw your image onto your book

 i  started by drawing it on paper,

then i  taped the paper onto the book and retraced it,

 pressing down hard to transfer the image

I went over the transferred image with pencil

To make my image seem a bit embossed

i went over my image with hot glue

allow the glue to dry completely

note: if you want your image to be really defined

 i suggest adding onto your glue lines, making them very pronounced

Next you will need to make your name plate and 'spines'

draw out out name plate on the cardboard and cut it out.

make sure your cardboard is thick enough to be pronounced off you cover

you don't need to cut it perfectly,
 it adds to the aged look of the book

glue it to your cover

Next draw out your pieces of your spine

cut them out

glue them to your spine

( i had to trim mine a bit)

Next prepare your glue

either water down your mod podge a bit, or water down school glue

place a paper towel over the cover of your book

starting in the middle,

dab your glue/ podge on with a paint brush

work your way outwards,

pressing the towel in and around your design

Do this to the whole cover

while your paper is still wet

paint it with your base color.

I watered my paint down a bit

 so it will spread and blend better

(below pic is bad at showing the brown color..)

allow to dry

Once your cover is dry open the book

 and fold in your edges,

using the same watered down glue to glue it down

fold the edges like you would on a present

allow to dry

Next, move to working on the spine

fold over the paper towel and

using you glue mixture, glue it down

add another edge of paper towel and glue it to your spine

you can work on the backside as well as the spine

using the same glue technique as the front

Paint with your base color while still wet and allow to completely dry

I have a lack of pictures concerning the next few steps

( my camera battery died)

1. i first painted my tree and spines with a watered down dark green and allowed to dry

2. i painted over the whole book cover with a watered down grey/black mixture

then lightly wiped it off with a paper towel

3. I painted the whole cover with a watered down black and wiped off with a paper towel.
allow the whole thing to dry

I still need to age my pages

i am planning on gold leafing the outer edges of my pages

( i couldn't find my gold paint)

and i still need to name my book

and maybe add a bit more design...

here is the current final product though

Any witch or wiccan would be proud to have this as part of their collection!!

I found the paper towel tutorial here

Dave Lowe Design

and the embossing idea here

The Prop and Armor Blog

Parts 1,and 2

Happy Halloween!