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Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Witch's Spell Book

Here's another Halloween project you can make for cheap - your own Spell book! I've been wanting to make one of these since last year and given what my costume is for my Halloween extravaganza at work, this was the perfect opportunity. I was originally going to do the witches' spell from Macbeth, but decided on these two spells because it fits better with my theme. Any guesses on who I'm going to be?



I started by making the two spell pages. I designed mine in Photoshop because that is my software of choice. The internet is such a beautiful thing when it comes to finding free stuff. I got the fonts for free from Dafont (my favorite resource for cool fonts). The skull is courtesy of The Graphics Fairy (love, love, love her free clipart) and the apple was from an artist on Deviant Art.

Anyway, I bought a book at Goodwill for $2. I brought it home and painted the edges with a reddish-brown watercolor (extra water) and tried to rough it up by curling the edges. I also used another brown acrylic paint to give it some dimension. Then I just roughly cut out the pages I had designed and spray mounted them on, working the edges into the curls. Lastly, I added a bookmark which is just a strip of black ribbon hot glued to the spine on the back.

The book is just meant as a display prop, not for people to go flipping through. Otherwise I would have covered the front and hand stained or painted every page, not just the sides. It was kind of fun messing up this book. I can't tell you how many times I've damaged books on accident (reading in the bathtub), but never on purpose! If I were to do another one, I was thinking of a different approach for the pages. Maybe dipping all the pages in coffee or tea and letting it dry out like that? If anybody tries this, let me know what your results were!



50 comments:

  1. I love it! I'm definitely going to try this. Great idea!

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  2. You made this? Wow....VERY talented! - Crystal

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  3. I love it! Are you going to be Maleficent?

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  4. I want to literally steal your book... I can't get enough of it! It's already on my "next year" Halloween craft list! Thanks for linking up @ SewWoodsy.blogspot.com!

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  5. Great idea. I love it and may have to "borrow" it.

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  6. Great project! I bought a Christmas book like this and it is gorgeous

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  7. This is such a cool Snow White's witch spell book! Definitely a keeper for Halloweens to come. May have to do this as a Halloween party project for my younger siblings I'm spending the day with this year. Very clever.

    www.tuckooandmoocow.etsy.com

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  8. This has to be one of the most creative Halloween crafts I've ever seen! That's so cool!

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  9. Love, love, love it! I might have to take a trip into work to see it all!

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  10. I LOVE this! I have been thinking of making one too, so now you have inspired me to DO it! Yours turned out so great!
    Please stop by and link this up to my Theme Party Thursday if you get a chance. :)
    Jami

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  11. Wow! This looks like something straight outta a catalog! Great Job! I love it!

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  12. This is very cool. Thanks for all the links to resources you used as well. That's very thoughtful, for a witch I mean.

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  13. This is such a show stopper! What a wonderful idea!

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  14. I can't wait to make this. It will go perfect with the spooky potion bottles I just finished.

    Good work, very creative and frugal!

    -dani

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  15. Excellent ! I did something similar with my art class a few years back but it was their own fairy tale book....love it ! Thanks for sharing !

    Lucy

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  16. I'm featuring this on my blog today!
    It is really amazing so I hope you don't mind!

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  17. I featured this on Sew Woodsy today & you also won the CSN gift certificate!

    http://sewwoodsy.blogspot.com/2010/10/friday-features-giveaway-winner.html

    Congrats & hope to see you back next week!

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  18. Congrats on your first Altered Book! Great job, prop or not!

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  19. I LOVE it!

    - Michelle @ Bunch of Craft

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  20. This is really Awesome! I think I'm going to use it for next year :)

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  21. I love this! I have been doing the same indoor decorations for several years now (with a few tweaks each year) but I think I am going to use this book as a jumping off point for a new look. Thanks!

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  22. This is absolutely fabulous!!! I must make one; DD will LOVE it! Thanks so much for the inspiration! :)

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  23. That is amazing! I'm already really behind on everything that I need to do before our Halloween party but I may have to add this to the list anyway. :) Thanks again for linking up!

    - Megan

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  24. This is fabulous! I totally want to try it! What a good idea. It's perfect for the middle of my coffee table. :)

    Jessica
    http://craftily-ever-after.blogspot.com

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  25. What a great idea! I have to give this a try next year. While junking at my favorite place (Goodwill) I found a few hard back books with "scary" titles like The First Vitcim, The Coffin Dancer and Black Widower and stacked them on my mantel and other misc Halloween decorations. I was pleased with the results...but your idea is awesome! Thanks for sharing.

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  26. This is fantastic!!! I definitely want to make one of these... very cool! Thanks for linking this up to Brag Monday.

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  27. This is just amazing. Love it!!!
    May I ask what fonts you used?? I adore this soooo much I am going to make a christmas book.
    Thanks for your creativity. :)
    dluvz2scrap@hotmail.com

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  28. I love this. My daughter was just asking for a spell book yesterday. You have come to my rescue. Thank you.

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  29. What a fablous 'Spell Book', thank you so much

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  30. Great job on your altered book-I might have to try it too. Thanks

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  31. Love the Spell Book. I have a few of my own but refer to them as my Book of Shadows but alas, they cannot be displayed. (sigh) If you try the tea you will have to soak the book edges for about 15-20 minutes. That is called a tea bath. The results you get are incredible & the pages will turn out looking authentic.

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  32. I did smoething similar years ago for my art piece on hamlet and I used teabags to stain the pages and they naturally curled by themselves and had that perfect mix match color of the pages. If you use regular teabags to get the ligther color and then if you use like a berry teabag it will give it a darkish brown tint.

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  33. I found you via Craftgawker, this is absolutely amazing! You've done an amazing job. I am going to try this method myself. I'm a new Follower!

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  34. Fantastic! I can't wait to do this. Thanks for sharing!

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  35. This looks incredible! Fantastic job :)
    -Maureen

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  36. I love your book! You did such a fantastic job!
    I would love to have one just like yours!!!
    Would you consider sharing the pages to be downloaded?
    Kindest regards,
    Jennifer

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  37. You were obviously the evil queen from Snow white.
    I made a book of my own based on your idea (saw it on Pinterest)
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/sevenmarie/6295435933
    Mine is obviously more Harry Potter themed but i thank you SO MUCH for the idea!!

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  38. Wow this looks great, Thanks for sharing.

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  39. This would be cute for a party menu! I think I may make one for my party table food!

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  40. Love it. Trying one this year. Would you pass on your pages. I am not good when it comes to designing on the computer. That would be great and look so much better than I could ever do

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  41. Would love to know the fonts used. awesome book. thanks!

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  42. What kind of paper did you print your pages on?

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  43. I love your book.....I use coffee and teabags to stain the pages but I also took a small torch and burned the edges of the paper, you can also use a lighter but be really careful, you only want to burn the edges. I also burned some holes in the pages so they looked like they had been in a fire

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  44. This looks amazing! Could you tell me where you got the filigree calligraphy that's behind the apple?

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  45. Which font did you use from dafont.com? They have so many but I can't find that one, and I absolutely love it!

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