Spooky Spell Book

Can you believe it's September already? I love fall, definitely my favorite, but... seriously... where did summer go? In preparation for the coming comforting season what better craft to make than a Spooky Spell Book for your holiday decorating or gift giving!
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​Supplies List:

• Hot Glue Gun
• Mod Podge
• Foam brush
• Unused book
• Creepy Crawlies

• Tissue Paper
• Paint for cover
• Paint for pages
• Paint for accents
• Raised embellishments

1. Let's get started. Grab your unused book and place your "raised embellishments" where you would like them to be. For this I used craft wood pieces. These can be found at any craft store, or of course, on Amazon. They're not high quality, just  simple little pieces. Don't glue anything down until you are sure everything is where you want it! 

2. Once you like where they are, go ahead and glue them down. I used Elmer's glue for this but you can also use a glue gun of course... it would be much faster too! 

3. Next we want to create our creepy title. I went simple and just went with "SPELLS" but you can switch it up and maybe do "HEXES", "CURSES", etc. I created my letters by just using the hot glue gun and "writing" the letters out. However, you could get wood letters and put them on the cover just like you did with the first pieces. Up to you. If you go with the glue technique, do NOT, use Elmer's glue..... awful! It will take forever to dry and will barely be raised - stick with the hot glue and work relatively fast. 

4. As you can see in the above image, tissue paper is your next step. You want to tear off chunks of tissue paper and roll them into little balls to make them nice and wrinkly. Then, unroll them and spread them on your cover using Mod Podge. I saw on Pinterest some people cover the entire thing, including the letters, but I decided not to go that route.

5. After the tissue paper layer is  dry, you can go ahead and paint over the entire thing. I actually used black chalk paint. We had some extra lying around from a previous project and I wanted to use it up. I was worried about coverage but it turned out perfectly! The picture shows it as I was painting the cover before it was completely dry.

6. Next, you can add your creepy crawlies! Ooo! It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do. I could not decide if I wanted to paint over them or not! Decisions, decisions. I decided the paint over option and was very happy I did. Glue your guys on with hot glue and they will stick great! Then just paint right over them as well. 

7. As your cover is drying, work on the sides of your book. Just FYI - I glued my front cover and back cover to the first and last pages to keep them down a little. Then I Mod Podged... yes, this is a word... over the exterior of the pages, making them all stick together (once this dries you could definitely pull it apart, it's not 100% secure). 

8. After the glue is dry, you can then paint over the exterior of the pages. I painted mine a neon green, super fun! But I think purple, red, and orange would also look awesome. I also took my brush from the black paint and lightly brushed over the green to give it a distressed look.

9. The last step is to add your accent color. I used a gold metallic paint but I think that silver or red would look pretty spooky too. I used such a small amount for this... like pea size! Lightly dab your foam brush into the paint, paint a little off onto a piece of scrap paper and then, very lightly, go over your book cover, hitting various high and low points. Do not try to cover the whole thing, unless you want to do that for some reason. Just lightly brush and you will give your spell book the perfect finishing touch! (p.s. don't forget the spine)

​Happy Fall Y'all!