Halloween Skeleton Notebook

Firstly I'd like to give credit to the FaceBook page   Confessions Of Crafty Witches for the idea. This is fabulous fun and as easy as they make it out to be ( which can be rare in on-line projects!)

You'll need the following

A notebook
Flat plastic Halloween motifs  - or other things of course.
Cheap and nasty kitchen roll
Glue
Modge Podge
Black and brown  acrylic paint
Gold highlighting wax

 

 So I had a pink hard cover note book that had been lying around for a while. I'd painted it with white gesso for a project I had in mind a while ago but never quite got around to... It isn't necessary though. Had I not have done this it would have made no difference to the finished book.

The pink skeleton came from a pack of 10 for 99p from Wilkinsons. I trimmed off the small hanging loop at the top and stuck it down.in the middle.

 Next I covered it everything with a layer of Modge Podge and stuck a piece of kitchen roll/towel  over it. Mine was a real cheap budget one and as you can see the skeleton still shows through! This is perfect as you want it to cling tightly to the shape so you can still see all the details. I used a wooden coffee stirrer to push it down firmly. The thin kitchen paper will wrinkle and tear as you stick it down - doesn't matter at all. In fact you want it to look rough and uneven. f you are using thicker paper then try and use just one ply.


Once the whole book was covered I dried it off quickly using my craft heat gun. Otherwise leave it to dry overnight.

Once it was try it was time to paint it. The original instructions use black but as I wanted more of an old leather look I went for burnt umber darkened with some black. Work the paint in. The paper is quite absorbent so you'll use more than you think. Once it's dry go back and paint all the bits you missed ( or that might just be me!). Again I used the heat gun to speed this bit up.

Once completely dry it's time to bring the whole thing into 3D life.  I used Treasure Gold wax as I ad some already and just rubbed it into the raised parts of the skeleton motif and around the edges to give the effect of worn gilding.

And the finished item. The photograph doesn't do it justice at all. I will be adding a few further embellishments to it I think but the basic technique is ridiculously easy and I'm now eyeing up a few other things I can  do this with.

 I'll also not be so quick to discard those nasty flat plastic objects that fall out of cheap christmas crackers either!