I am up and about at last so I have set up my dining table for miniature book making.
Thanks to everyone who gave me links or advice about where to look for tutorials, I have looked through lots of them and have started with two methods that have come from blog reading and looking carefully at some of the beautiful books I already have in my collection.
The first method I have been working on is the creation of fake leather/dragon skin. This is what I have come up with from various sources.
I have torn strips of tissue paper very roughly.......
...... and then glued the strips in over laying each other. I used a PVA/water solution and just slapped it on in layers on a piece of card stock. I started with two sheets one I simply tore the tissue paper into strips and for the other sheet I crumpled the tissue paper and then tore it into strips for a more crumpled effect.
I let these sheets dry thoroughly and then coated with a layer of acrylic paint and two coats of a PVA wash which gave the textured paper a really nice gloss.
I will cut these sheets up into book covers tomorrow.
I also decided to see if I was better of using this method on pre-cut book covers as well as trying to see if I could texture the front covers with hidden charms and glue blobs.
Here you can see the different stages. As I have a lot of bookcases to fill a lot of the books will have wood centres.
On these covers I have layered the tissue over an owl charm and a spider charm. Can you also see the glue bobs on the spine? Definitely trying everything here!! Added one coat of acrylic paint.
Not sure how well this is working over the charms. You can just about see the spider underneath.
Using my finger I have lastly, worked in a coat of Rub n Buff which really seems to have brought the texturing alive. I will now be able to trim them down and add the pages for the inside.
By the time I trim it, fill with parchment pages and perhaps a spine label I think it might make a good topper for a pile of books.
The second method I have started with is much simpler but surprisingly time consuming.
I have printed off lots of complete book covers/jackets from Google images. Deciding that my Flourish and Blotts will include on its shelves lots of books that I have enjoyed with my children as well as those with a fantasy link.
I tried printing directly onto card stock which worked quite well and meant I could then glue directly onto the balsa 'pages' insert.
I also printed onto paper which I then glued onto card stock, allowed to dry and then put together.
They both seem to work out the same really.
I also cut up some wall paper and leather off cuts. The leather was a nightmare to cut. I used a craft knife, scissors and a Stanley knife but still ended up with very rough edges.
I have made the books in blocks of 3 and 5 as I think grouping the books will look much better on so much shelving.
The one thing this last couple of days has taught me is not to be too obsessive about all these books. I am going to concentrate on setting out lots of statement stacks and individual books around the whole shop.
Maybe one day it will be filled with individual, opening books that can all be read!! Not this year though!!
