This is a spell book with various removable recipe and poem pages created by request for a craft swap to match a witch BOO't. It is similar to the one I made for Missing Willow a while back.
There is a moon with a spider on top of it on the front and a spider on the back. It is made using cereal box cardboard covered in tissue paper and painted over. The cutout designs on the front and back are something new I wanted to experiment with. I used nail polish remover to transfer b/w laser printouts of drawing I made in Adobe Illustrator to the covers.
I believe there were 32 pages in this book. All pages were printed on a laser printer and colored by hand with markers, colored pencils, and a white paint marker. I aged the pages with watercolor paints.
I took a small sampling of what is in our own family spellbook that I've been working on since before 2006. I wrote most of the poems myself, including the one above entitled "Stingy Jack" based on an Irish folk tale. The left page is a pumpkin carving ritual and directions for baking pumpkin seeds.
The page above is for preparing bugs for food and a couple recipes. This practice is known as "Entomophagy" and is common in some countries. I wrote the humorous poem bordering the instructions.
The above pages were created/included for my craft swap partner whose birthday happens to land on Nov. 2nd, which is the Mexican holiday "Dia de los Muertos", or "Day of the Dead". I wrote my own epitaph known as a "calavera", which is a holiday tradition. Sugar skulls are a very popular decoration in these festivities. So, I also added a couple recipes and instruction for making her own. I also included a page for a wonderful recipe (not pictured) for "Pan de Muerto", or Dead Bread, which is really good.
The pages are removable like some scrapbooks with a ribbon tying the pages into the cover. Right now there aren't a huge amount of pages in her book. But, I'm hoping she will make many more for it with her own recipes.
I'll be posting project #3 next up. It's a teensyny house for teensy living things.
17 comments:
Can you post a little more about your binding process? You said you used ribbon and the pages are removable, but how? Pictures please! :)
Sure. I'd be happy to. Actually there are better pics of the binding in the 1st spellbook I posted about. I hole punched the cover and pages and ran the ribbon through. If you need further instruction, just ask.
If the link above doesn't work try pasting this:
http://mieljolie.blogspot.com/2010/08/spell-book-with-removable-recipe-pages.html
Mieljolie
I absolutely love this book!!! It is obvious that you put alot of time and thought into it.
Thanks, BR.
Yes, it takes some time to make things like this. There are may steps involved. But, it's a labor of love as they say. Plus, it'd go much quicker if I didn't spend so much time planning and changing my mind constantly. :)
Mieljolie
This is fabulous. You inspire me!
Why, thank you, Marilyn.
As soon as all the Halloween craziness is at an end, maybe I'll be able to post our own spellbook. It's so sad looking at the moment. :)
Mieljolie
I love this book-great work as usual!! I hear you on changing your mind on things-ditto! I started one last year but abandoned it-now that I have seen this-I am motivated to hunt it down! In the black hole known as my craft room-I go in there to shop for stuff and drag it to my kitchen which is now my temporary studio and also getting out of control!
LOL! "go there to shop"... tee hee! :) I need to clean my craft room. My studio is the entire house! No room is safe. I setup wherever is convenient. Sometimes in more than one room on different projects! My family must love me to put up with it. :D
Get that book out and finish it!
Mieljolie
Can people buy your books? I'm wondering because you spell book looks fucking awesome :) I love it! If I can where do I get it :)
Can you buy your books? Cause there very fucking awesome :) so if so.. TELL ME WHERE :))
Hello, iMoMoreno3. Thanks for taking an interest in my spellbooks. The couple of books I've made for others were for craft swaps. Being created for fun, I've never intended on selling them. That being said, I'm not opposed to making you one.
If anyone is interested in owning one or starting their own, feel free to contact me by my email in my profile.
Mieljolie
I love your recipe books. My birthday is November 1 "all Saints Day" I believe. Do you have a you tube on making your spell books?
Thanks for stopping in to comment, dwaldenm. Sorry, I don't have any youtube video tutorials at the moment. My video skills are pretty limited. I may make a tutorial in the far future, but I've got a list of others to write first. But, if you have specific questions, I'm happy to answer them.
Mieljolie
I must confess that I've had your page bookmarked for quite some time just because of your Spell books! I thought it was about time I told you how much I love them. :) I also had a question about the pages inserted. (I skimmed the article but I don't think I saw the answer) I was just wondering what program you used to make your pages? And where you get your clip art/boarders from? Thanks!
Hello, Kaylee! Glad you decided to comment. :) I'm happy to answer your questions. I originally used Adobe Illustrator to lay out the individual pages. Then, I gathered the pages into InDesign, which is a publishing software, where I did some additional changes. The graphics are from various places. The majority of it is my own work. But, some were straight from the imagery included in Illustrator. Others were from free graphic sites and fonts. If there is any particular graphics you like, I can tell you more specifically where it's from. I do plan to make it all original art at some point. I've even started working on some of my own fonts. :)
Mieljolie
This is gorgeous and inspiring! I'm making a d&d "spellbook" for a holiday craft swap, and I'm totally emulating your process! (sounds better than stealing, doesn't it?)
Curious as to what size paper you are using, it kind of doesn't look like regular letter size, but I can't tell if it is f folded length or width wise, or if its just an artifact of the binding process (I'm going to guess the latter, since that would be the simplest way to be able to add paper...)
Hey, if it goes well, I'll do one for my real spellbook! Will take photos and send, too! :)
Hi, Magpie! Sorry to take so long to respond. Glad you are making spellbooks. This is a fun project! I'd like to find some time to get back to improving my own book. The paper I used was 8.5x11, but I believe I made it narrower on this one by tearing it down using a metal ruler edge to give it a more handmade paper look. I had to look up the exact dimensions, which are 5.5" x 10" with a 3/4 binding edge. So, the viewable page is 4.75".
I'd love to see your finished books!
Mieljolie
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