Halloween Spellbook Scrapbook

I’m not a fan of scrapbooking. In my post about our wedding scrapbook, I described scrapbooking as “condensed hoarding”. I find the entire process to be overwhelming – collecting the pictures and stickers, thinking of clever layouts and designs, and ugh! the time it takes to put everything together! However, occasionally, I come up with an idea that is too much fun to resist.

I’ve always wanted to make a spellbook for Halloween decorations, but I couldn’t see putting in all the effort for something that would just sit on a shelf and never be looked at. No matter how many fake potions or spells I put into the book, it would never be looked at. So what purpose could it serve? Why, a scrapbook, of course!

This project is incredibly simple. I bought an old medical dictionary off Etsy (you can also check eBay). I like the medical dictionary because it has pictures of plants, organisms, and the human body that add a level of legitimacy to the spellbook.

Additionally, I ordered and printed a number of fake spells and recipes from sellers on Etsy. There is a treasure trove of content like this on Etsy and the cost per printable is about $1-2 per design. Very affordable!

To start, I prepped my book surface with black acrylic paint. I knew I want to paper mache the book cover. Adding a few layers of black paint gave the glue a solid surface to adhere to.

For the paper, I used packing paper from an Amazon shipment. You can also use regular packing paper or brown paper bags. Age the paper by first ripping it into smaller, more manageable strips and crumpling the strips into balls. Flatten back out for use.

There are a number of methods to paper mache. I used regular white school glue and water for my project because I, inexplicably, have a few bottles sitting around. If you’d like the easy route, buy some Mod Podge.

Allow your cover to fully dry. I did two layers to make the cover appear extra thick and ancient. To speed the drying process, use a hair dryer or heat gun. Works like magic!

After my cover had fully dried, the color of the cover was a bit too uniform. I decided to add a little color and age spots with used tea leaves. I made some tea and kept the tea leaves. While the leaves were still damp, I rubbed them randomly all over the book. Check out the coloration!

Now the spellbook scrapbook was ready! I added a monogram to the cover with some rubber snakes. Inside, I filled the pages randomly with the printable recipes and spells I bought off Etsy. I printed pictures from last year’s Halloween and began to preserve all of our fun memories.

I created these small prompts to keep the tradition going. Can you imagine how fun these will be when we have kids?! Scroll to the bottom for the free printable.

One of the best things about a scrapbook is it’s a living project and doesn’t need to be completed in one sitting. Over the years, I will continue to add to the pages in small sittings, keeping the project overhead really low. I’m also looking forward to adding to the cover to make it spookier!

Of course, I have a printable for you!