Spell Books Halloween Craft

For Halloween, our daughter was always a witch.

Always!

Her eight-year-old daughter is following in her footsteps. She wants to be a witch, too.

Two of my grandsons love to ‘play’ Harry Potter.

So that means that this year they were really interested in my Halloween craft this year.

Spell books!

This craft goes along really well with the apothecary jar craft that we made last week.

While this craft took a bit of time to make (mainly waiting for glue and paint to dry), this Halloween craft is super easy and super fun.

How do I know it’s so fun? My grandson told me that it was the best craft ever!

It warms the cockles of my heart to know that they love the crafts that they do with me.

So, let’s get started.

Here’s a list of things that you need for this craft:

• Hardback book (from a yard sale or thrift store)
• Course grit sandpaper
• Black paint
• Silver paint
• Paint brush
• Bag of scary things (like skeletons, bats, spiders) from a dollar store
• Hot glue gun
• Adhesive-backed lettering

(Please disregard the items that are in the picture for the apothecary jars. I took only one picture of supplies for both crafts.)

First, pound the corners of the book on the counter. This is to make the book look old. (I pounded the corners on a couple of the books for my little grandkids who wouldn’t have the strength to do it.)

Next, sand the edges of the book to make it look even more distressed and old.

Glue on a couple of creepy things from your Halloween bag from the dollar store.

Then, paint the book black. (I used the ‘Pavement’ color because I didn’t want a bright shiny color. I wanted the book to look really old.)

Also paint over the the item from the dollar store that you glued on your book if that item is a color that you don’t like. (My bag had purple snakes, orange and white bugs and green and orange skeletons. My grandkids wanted BLACK creepy things!)

Put painter’s tape along the inside border of the cover. Paint the edge black. This is so the original color of the book doesn’t show.

Using the silver paint, lightly paint strokes going from the top of the book to the bottom. Lightly brush silver paint over the creepy things that you’ve glued on. The streaks make the book look even older and then it makes the creepy figures pop off the book.

If your book has a title page where you want to cover up the title, I’ve created a couple of titles for you to download and use. Print them up, cut them out, and glue over the title on the inside title page.

Also my grandkids had fun randomly gluing pictures of things like snakes, skulls, and skeletons throughout the book. Here are some pictures that you can use:

• black widow spider brain, skull, snake
• skeleton, tarantula, bat, bones of a human hand
• tombstone, rat, fly, witches

Last, put on a title for the book using an adhesive-backed lettering and you are done!

Here’s my ‘witchy’ granddaughter and her sister with their spell books (and apothecary jars).

Here are more grandkids with their spell books.

That  is how you make a basic spell book.

I have two variations that I want to share with you.

But before I talk about them, let me talk about the adhesive-backed lettering.

You’ll notice that on a couple of the books the lettering doesn’t show up. That’s because my grandkids used black lettering. Black lettering doesn’t show up on black paint.

I also had a silvery sparkly lettering and white lettering. Both of those work much better — in my opinion. (The grandkids who used black lettering WANTED black letters. So they were happy with how their book turned out . . .)

Now. For the variations.

I made a raised title plate for one of my book’s title on the cover.

Measure the width of your book. Subtract about one-and-a-half inches. Cut out a piece of cardboard that is that long and 2 inches wide. Glue that on the front of the book.

Add dobs of glue in the corners.

Get a section of a 2-ply paper towel. Pull it apart so you have just one layer.

Spread Mod Podge on the cover and place the paper towel on top. Gently press the towel down so that it sticks to the glue. You want to make sure that the pattern stays raised. This gives your book texture. Carefully brush Mod Podge on top.

Paint your book black. Paint the dobs of glue on the raised title plate silver. This is to make them look like brads.

See how the raise title plate looks? Look close so that you can see the texture.

This book is another example of a variation that you can do with your book.

I used the hot glue gun and made a spider web in the corner. Then I glued a spider on the web. Doesn’t that look cool?

Now. Lemme show you yet another variation for your spell book.

Cut a square out of craft foam. It should be an inch smaller all of the way around than the outer size of the book.

Measure an inch all the way around from the outside of the square and draw a line all the way around on the inside. Using an Xacto knife (a SHARP one) cut along the line making a ‘frame.’

Using the hot glue gun, glue the frame on the book. Add a dob of hot glue in the corners on the frame.

Using only one-ply of a section of paper towel, Mod Podge it onto the book making sure that you cover the frame, Gently press the towel down. Cover with Mod Podge.

Paint it black. Using silver paint, lightly paint strokes going from the top to the bottom over the book to make it look old. Paint the dobs of hot  glue silver.

Add a title using the adhesive-backed lettering.

Ta da! You’re finished!