For a run up for Halloween, I’m posting the book of magical things I made recently! I made it for a lucky little boy who has finally discovered Harry Potter. What better than a book full of magical and spooky things!
All books start with the pages. They start out clean and pretty and usually stay that way, but for this book, I had a different idea. I wanted it to be more worn in a aged, like any good book of magic.
And yes, I hand aged each page using my Tim Holtz Distress stamping inks. I rubbed them on the pages with a felt applicator all around the edges of the pages. Also I used glitter sprays dripped on the pages for some fun magical potion spills.
Then on to the binding.
A couple of progress pics, sewing the book block with tapes (the ribbon) for more strength; and the book almost ready for the covers!
For the spine, I used some imitation leather and painted it with some metallic pigments to make it look iridescent, just like how I imagine dragon skin would look like.
Unfortunately in my excitement to make the covers I forgot to pre-foil the title of the book on the spine-I was planning on using my Foil Quill tool on my Silhouette-so I had to get the title on the spine another way. I still used my cutting machine to cut a stencil and got out my Versa-Tool (a heat tool) to heat foil the title. It wasn’t as nice as I was thinking but it worked!
So here is the finished book!
The stained pages looked great and I was happy to use some of my metallic marbled paper on the inside of the covers, so cool!
I liked the keyhole, no elaborate locking mechanism, too much of a chance of being broken and/or loosing a key. This young man will have to use his imagination!
It was a fun project, I was needing to practice my binding, I hadn’t done a full hardbound book in a while and this was a great way to get back into it. I have some more ideas for books and I can’t wait to do some more binding, it’s just finding the time!
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