Spooky Spell Book

Sometimes inspiration is very inconvenient. I was so proud of myself for finishing all my Halloween projects so early in the month. The costumes are ready, treats have been sent, decorations have been made, and then, at the last minute, I got this little nagging voice in my head prompted by a thick hard cover book I picked up at the dollar store. The voice would not listen to me when I said I was done with Halloween crafts, it insisted I get to work. Luckily it didn’t take me very long.

The hot pink cover of my dollar store book did not really say “Witch” to me, so I picked up some black vinyl I got out of the remnant bin and started to cover it. You could use any of your favorite glues, but for this project, I used artist’s gesso. Mainly because I had it on hand and you’ll need it a few steps from now. Glue your cover to the book, and wrap the ends towards the inside.

Cut away the extra vinyl from the inside, and cut slashes into the spine to create a flap that can be folded over the top of the book and glued to the inside cover. I cut off some of the corner so I had less to glue down. Fold the corner in, and then the flap over towards the inside so that you’re wrapping it neatly like a present.

For the vinyl on the spine, cut the extra off neatly, right next to the book.

Use more gesso to stick the first page of the book down to cover up your vinyl edges.

Open to the middle of the book and pick a page with a lot of uniform text on it. Roll a few pages towards the middle to make the edges curl.

Paint the whole thing with gesso. On the pages you’ll need to cover some of the type, but on the edges, that’s what will keep the pages stuck together so you can have the spell book perpetually open. Try to keep those curled edges from flattening.

Paint the edges of the book with gold acrylic paint, and paint the pages brown. I watered down the paint and then wiped it off to get a ragged, aged, look.

You can make up whatever spells you want to, but if you’d like to use mine just download them below, print them out, and glue them into the book. I printed them on vellum paper because I loved the old fashioned look of it, and used a spray adhesive to stick it in place.

I don’t know if I’ll ever have this displayed in a way where the cover is shown, but just in case, I did a little messy heat embossing for a beat up look.

When it was time to come up with the spells to include, I thought about what spells a witch would need to consult the most often.
True Love Spell
To Remove Warts
Just click on the link and hit print and you’re all set to make your own book full of spells. Maybe I should have included one to make inspiration come when it was more convenient for me.