~A Bitter Swallow~

  I got this idea from viewing these two sites:  Dave Lowe Design and Before After .

I have a few old books lying around here.  Weird, I know.    I wanted to try with a random hardback book I had, but also had my old "Earth, Air, Fire, & Water" book by Scott Cunningham that had pretty much been read to death.  After being thumbed through umpteen-thousand times by not only myself, but also my son, it was hanging on by just a few strands of old tape.  I was hoping maybe this could extend it's life a bit longer. 

You will need a book, a paper towel or two depending on the size of your book, water, paint brushes, Mod Podge, paint in at least 2 shades, a hot glue gun, various things to glue to the book.

My Scott Cunningham book I first strengthened up by hot gluing a discarded Pasta Roni box to it, painting it to cover the wording,  then proceeding with the rest of the steps.

Next.. add the design.  For Scott Cunningham's book, I just drew the wording on with hot glue and let it dry.  For the other hard-backed book I hot-glued on some little toys I found at Walmart (as per Before After's suggestion), cutting them to the design I wanted.  I straight up copied her design, since it was my first go and I just wanted to get the basic idea of what to do down before branching out with my own ideas.







This next part is the one I had some difficulty with.  You are to take one of your paper towels, dampen it, and then smoosh it into all the nooks and crannies, making sure to outline your designs well.  First (on the skeleton book) I Mod Podged the book first, then added the towel.  DON'T DO THAT. It was disastrous.   Eventually I got it all on there, but it was a huge pain in the rear, especially around so many little nooks and crannies!  

On Scott Cunningham's book, I used the idea of dampening the towel, laying it on, then Mod Podging over it.  That worked better, but still left me with a lot of air pockets to deal with.  I'm sure I was going a bit quicker than I was supposed to, but that's me for ya. 

The next attempt I make, I think I will have a dry paper towel, and then use a paint brush to moisten it into the cracks and crevices, and then Mod Podge over that. 

You want crinkles in there though.  Once dried and painted- that's what is going to give it that old cracked leather look.






The hardcover book I let dry before applying the first coat of paint, but the Scott Cunningham's book I used Dave Lowe's suggestion and painted right away.  Both worked out really well for me, and I could see how the end product would become. 

As you can see- I used black on the hardcover, and purple on Scott's.


Let them dry. 


If needed, apply a second coat.  I did not find that necessary.

Then, grab your accompanying paint.  I chose a silver metallic for both.  Using a dry brush and a light touch, apply the second paint.  The idea is to get all those raised edges, as well as highlighting the nooks and cranies.   I went a bit too heavy on the skeleton, though I am still overall pleased with the result.  I bought a new brush that you just kind of use to dab, and will try that one out next time. 

Otherwise, this is how they turned out:










You can really see how the silver picked up those cracks and made them stand out.   The paperback book I used is a bit water-wavy, but I'm hoping that changing the way I put the paper towel on there will help with that.  That, and having more brushes to use.  I was having to use the same paint brush, so it was still wet from being rinsed of paint.  That's more of my impatientness showing though.  I just stuck it under a few books for a night and it's more evened out now.

So there ya go. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, and have fun with it.