This is a really, really fun Halloween project. I love making my own decorations, especially for Halloween.
Here is a quick tutorial on how I made these potion books.
They are decorated on the outside covers only. An actual potions recipe book is another craft all together.
Supplies needed.
Hardback books from thrift store.
Sandpaper,
Glue,
craft paint ( Ceramcoat Tangerine, Ceramcoat Violet Pearl, Folk Art Yellow Citron),
Scribbles 3D paint (light green)
sticker letters,
tissue paper lime green
distress ink walnut
Black StazOn
Pearl Ex Antique Silver
Matt Medium
Stars and moon stamps,
Strong coffee in spray bottle
Try to find books that do not have the embossed lettering on the spin or anywhere on cover. The raised lettering is hard to remove.
Get sandpaper and rough up the edges of the book and try to take out the title so old letters wont show through the paint.
Spray the inside pages with the strong coffee to make them look old and distressed. Let dry before moving on.
I was experimenting all through this project. I did something different for each of the books. The green Witchcraft book I used tissue paper and scribbles 3d paint. The purple Book of Potions I used a witch hat cut out, with stars and moons stamped all over. The orange book I painted a spider web on the front cover.
The tissue paper technique gives the book a leathery look.
Glue tissue paper directly to the surface of front and back covers with a thin glue /water mixture about half glue, half water.
Take the scribbles paint tube and draw a curly cue design around the edges of front cover. Let this dry for a few hours or even over night. The 3 D paint takes a long time to dry.
While the 3D paint is drying:
Paint the other books,
Draw a witch hat on poster board and cut it out.
Paint the witch hat black and set aside.
If you don't have a star and moon stamp make your own. I cut out a star and moon from craft foam and glued them onto wine corks...This is another fun project I got off Pinterest.
Paint a couple of layers of paint on each of the books before moving on to the distress inking layer.
The purple book I used black StazOn Ink and rubbed all over edges.
The Orange Book I swirled black paint and orange paint together and smeared with my fingertips before using a walnut stain distress ink.
The green book I used Pearl Ex antique silver /matt medium mixture and rubbed into the groves. (Love how this came out.)
Glue the witches hat down, stamp moon and stars, rub more black ink all over.
Paint spider web and spider with black ink pen.
I used left over sticker letters for most of my titles except for a few letters that were missing I had to hand draw these in.
Use what you have and experiment. You don't have to use the same colors I used and change up the cutouts, stamps and distressing products. The tissue paper and scribble paint together turns out really nice.
That's It. Have fun!