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We had a blast making these spooky spell books at the Sparks Library on Saturday. Even if you couldn’t make it, you can still create your own spooky accessory. These one-of-a-kind books are perfect for Halloween, Harry Potter parties, and keeping your potion recipes!
You will need:
An old cloth covered (hardcover) book
Paper towels (any kind will work)
Mod Podge or a mixture of 3 parts glue + 1 part water
Paint brush (1-2)
Glue stick
Photo from a magazine of an animal or human eye
Clear glass gem (you can find these in packs at craft stores)
Foam stickers
Paint (1 darker color and 1 lighter color)
Hot glue gun
Optional: hair dryer on cool setting
Step One:
Decorate your book with objects, stickers, hot glue, etc.
In our example, we added strips of glue on the spine to make stitching marks.
Step Two:
Measure enough paper towel to completely cover your book (make sure to leave extra around all the edges).
Crumple the towel a couple of times to get it really wrinkly and lay the paper towel on your work surface.
Step Three:
Position the book on the wrinkled paper towel to ensure the towel will cover the entire book.
Lightly brush a thin layer of your glue mixture or Mod Podge over the cover and spine of the book (you only need a small amount — you don’t want it to get too wet).
Use your hands to gently press the paper towel onto the cover, wrapping over the edges of the cover.
Step Four:
Using a paint brush, gently “pounce” or push the paper towel around your decorations to allow the detail to show through.
If your paper is too dry, you can use a little more glue mixture if necessary, but don’t saturate the paper. The towel will tear if the paper gets too wet, plus you need your book to be dry to paint it.
Step Five:
See how dry our book is? This is perfect, and those wrinkles are good!
Use a glue stick or a small amount of glue mixture to glue the picture of the eye anywhere on the book.
Get a helper if you need one to put a small amount of hot glue around the edges of the flat side the glass gem.
Careful, the glue is still hot. Place the flat side of the gem over the picture of the eye.
Step Six:
Use hot glue to build up eyelids around the gem.
Don’t worry — you can scrape away any extra that you don’t like after the glue cools.
Use a small amount of glue and some more crumpled paper towel to cover the glue and form the eyelids.
Step Seven:
Using the same pouncing technique, press dark paint all over the cover, spine and back of the book.
Don’t saturate the towel, and the wrinkles are perfect!
You may want to use a hair dryer on a cool setting if there are still wet spots.
The dark paint must be dry before moving onto the next step.
Step Eight
Using a “dry brush” technique, dip just the very tip of the paintbrush in a lighter paint color (yellow, white, gold, etc.). Drag the brush over a scrap of paper towel to remove most of the paint.
Lightly drag the paint brush over your book to get the details to pop out. Let the book dry thoroughly.
Congratulations!
You now have your own spooky spell book or potion book!
