Hocus Pocus Book DIY

It’s just a little bit of Hocus Pocus…

Follow me as I recreate the Book from Hocus Pocus!

To Celebrate Halloween 2018 I decided to DIY the Book from Hocus Pocus, and make it into a fun fake-book-candy-carrier. All of the materials I used are a combination of household items and easy-to-find hobby store supplies. This is the final result:

I loved making this and I can’t wait to show it off to all of the trick or treaters I see this year! To make your very own, just follow the steps below and summon the book in your very own home!

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Goth It Yourself: The Sanderson Sisters BOOK

Materials:

• 1 Faux Papercraft Book

  • (size of your choice, available at most local hobby and dollar stores)

• 1 Medium Kraft Paper Roll

• Brown Felt

  • (enough to cover book x2)

• 5 Pkg Sculpey Clay

• 1 Roll Cord/Twine/String

• 1 Medium Jar Mod Podge

• 2 Small Silver Metal Hinges

• Painters Tape

• Paint Brushes

  • (I reccommend a size 0 sable brush for details)

• Painters Tape or Masking Tape

• Clay Sculpting Tools

  • (available at most dollar stores)

• Large Curved Sewing Needle or Wool Sock Darning Needle

• Tacky Glue or White School Glue

• Paint

  • I used:

    • Liquitex Silver Metallic Acrylic Paint

    • FW Ink in the Color of Umber

    • White Acrylic Paint

    • Black Acrylic Paint

    • Red Acrylic Paint

    • Glossy Clear Laquer Varnish

    • Black and Grey Gesso

    • Clear Essie Diamond Strong Nail Polish Topcoat

How to Summon:

The book I started with was a discount Christmas item found at my local Dollar Store I scored for $5, which made this project’s skeleton a bit of a funny inside joke while creating it; Sorry, Santa.

The very first thing you want to do is start covering the book paper edge with painters tape or masking tape to preserve the area. If your book already has a paper edge like look here, Congratulations! You skipped a step! If your book however is the type that’s all cardboard or an old book from home, just remember to tape off all of the areas you want protected along the outer edge; All you will be decorating is the cover and outer edges of the book.

At this point it’s time to break out the Gesso and the Paint brush! The Gesso is going to act as a really good primer for your surface, so make sure to coat the book you are working on everywhere that you will be painting or decorating to act as a strong base. Let this dry completely before you begin to plan out the shapes of faux-skin patches for the book cover. You can draw the shapes directly onto the paint, and then trace it onto a piece of paper to use as a pattern piece to cut out the shape in the felt. You will want to make 4 or 5 (depending on the size of the book you chose) folded and glued strips of felt to embellish the outer spine of the book to appear more bulky and antique. Remember to leave about a 1/2” gap between the pieces of felt to make sewing the stitches/faux patches of skin together a lot easier later on.

Once you are happy with your pattern and have plotted it out on your book, reach for the tacky glue or white glue and cover the felt completely on one side in glue and stick it to the book. Felt is very spongy and this will take a long time to dry, The more glue you use the spongier and tackier the surface will be and the longer it will need to dry. I did this step one side at a time, letting each side dry overnight to be sure it adhered fully. This step is very important because the felt acts as the fat under the skin, to make sewing the stitches through easier, and to create a more realistic look later when you start to layer kraft paper over top to look like skin.

I used the time in between the felt drying to create the shapes I needed out of Sculpey clay to decorate to outer edges of the book cover. For the book Latch, I traced my hand on a piece of paper, drew a line everywhere there was a bend, and created the bone shapes for the back of the book. I then squished one of the small silver hinges into the clay, created the middle section, squished the other hinge into the clay, and created the monocle for the front cover. You want to make sure the clay gets in between the holes on the hinges so that when the Sculpey clay is baked the hinge is really stuck in there. The clay sculpting tools will come in very handy here, as will a great amount of patience. For the scale and metallic texture on the clay, I simply rolled the clay tools I had on their side to copy the rough texture into the clay. You can use any item and push it lightly into your shapes to create any texture you like before baking and painting the clay. Remember to always follow the directions on the clay package you have purchased, as different brands of clay require different cook times and temperatures, and it is easy to burn figures this delicate.

You will need to make:

• Four Identical Snakes tied in a knot for the outer edges of the book

• A skeleton Right-Hand small enough to fit your book’s back middle panel to secure the latch. Optional to bake this into the hinge or glue these three pieces together after onto the hinge.

• The Eyeball

• Two Snake Spine Columns

After your clay shapes have been baked and cooled, paint them with the Silver Liquitex paint all over, top and bottom, all edges. This paint dries quite quickly so it is easy to paint a side, wait, flip it, etc. I then used a little bit of the FW INK: Umbra mixed with water to make the metallic finishings look more old and beat up. The umbra will layer nicely from a yellowy brown to a deep brown depending on how heavy you layer and apply it. This is a great color for that old dirty antique look. Let these figures dry completely, and if you want, cover them in a glossy clear laquer varnish.

While the clay dries, It’s time to get back to the main body of the book. Use the Gesso to fill in all of the cracks along the book you have left open, so that the glue will tack down much easier. At this point it is safe to glue the eye into place upon the felt on your book. I used tape around the outer edges of the clay to taper the edge against the felt. Once you are happy with how secure the eye is, you can start to layer out the Paper Mache/Mod Podge onto the spine of the book, standing it upright so that this area does not stick to anything else as it dries. Cut strips of the Kraft paper and dip or brush on the Mod Podge and smooth it onto the surface of your book. Leave approximately a 1/2” edge of paper sticking out at the edges of the book cover to wrap around and finish the edges of the book later on. To get that wrinkly old skin look to your paper, crush the strips into a ball in your hands and them lay them out messily against the surface. Do this for 3-4 layers of paper and Mod Podge, and then use one large wrinkly piece to cover the entire area to look like one big piece of flesh. The layers you have wrinkled and created underneath create the base, and your final full sized strip gives it that unified look. Let the spine and gesso dry completely before moving onto the sides of the book.

This step is going to be messy. To create the eyelid, cut two small rectangles of paper and cover them in Mod Podge, with your hands fold this in half and cover the top and bottom sections of the eye, with the folded part against the eyeball, to create the appearance of an eyelid. You can use the clay tools from earlier while creating your faux-skin to push the paper down in between the cracks/gaps you left between the felt to really secure the paper against the surface, and create your 3D fleshy pieces. Leave a 1/2” overlap of paper along the edges while you layer your paper, and let each side cry completely before switching to the next so that the book does not glue itself to your crafting surface or ruin the texture of your faux skin.

When both sides have dried completely, run an edge line of glue along the inner edges of your book, and fold the paper over. Since the glue will take time to dry, the best thing to do is find some type of tool or weight to hold it in place. I found the best thing for this was either clothes pins or binder clips to run along the edge and pinch the folded paper over. When it is dry you can trim the edge along the inside with a knife or scissors to refine your inner edge.

I recommend leaving the clips for a minimum of two hours while the glue dries. You can use this time to paint the eyeball. For smaller details a Size 0 brush is your best bet. You can use this to create some veins in the eye and details in the colours and features of your eye. Rimming the outer edge red gives a very realistic look once glazed. Let your paint dry, and when you are sure there are no wet spots left, grab your clear nail polish, get a big old glob on the end, and drop it right onto the centre of your eye. Use the brush very lightly to push the clear gel into the eye corners, careful not to push down or you might smudge your paint job. This thick layer of clear nail polish gives your eye that final glossy look that makes it appear real.

To make sure your book is completely dry and ready for the next step, leave it in a dry room temperature area for 24 hours to air out completely. Prop it upright to ensure all edges have access to air.

Mix your FW Ink:Unbra with a small amount of water, and paint it all over your surface. The messier you do this the better the book will look when the layers of washed out ink have dried. You are going to do this over and over until you are happy with the leathery look of your faux skin book cover. Getting the ink into the gaps and cracks will helps to embellish them, and layering the ink messily will create the illusion of bruises and worn patches in the skin. This process dries fairly quickly, so paint a layer on each side, wait about 15 minutes, and repeat, until you have achieved a distressed look you are happy with.

Take your sewing needle and string and poke holes in the paper along the edges of your book, sewing in a scooping gesture along the edges. This process is a lot easier if you poke the holes first, and then sew through with the needle and string. Start from the outer edges, sew one line from edge to edge and then work your way in from the other ends from the outside in.

Finishing one long line at a time and then working in from the ends will help prevent your paper from tearing while you sew the panels together.

While sewing one side of the book at a time you can also use the tacky glue to attach your clay pieces to the book. If you want a more antique look to your string, you can soak it in any type of black tea for an hour to help tint the colour before sewing it into the paper.

There are many ways you can hold the front latch of the book closed. You can glue a magnet to either side to attach it, a button clasp, or even Velcro. I chose to glue a small dress hook to the back of the monacle, and sew a small loop into the stitching to loop it into to hold the clasp closed while the book is standing on its own.

The final and easiest step is to lay the book on a safe surface and use your laquer to varnish the entire book one side at a time, keeping your layers even and overlapping them only once the previous layer has dried completely.

Once you are satisfied with your final product, and your protective laquer has completely dried (I recommend leaving it in a dry place for up to 3 days after spraying final coat) you are ready to show off your book!

For a fun optional final touch, you can Mod Podge the “Life Potion” Spell from the Hocus Pocus Book in the Original Film to the inside cover, and use the basin for candy!

I hope you enjoyed this fun project as much as I did!

If you use these steps and create your own please send pictures to hello@lonewlf.com !

I would love to see your creations!

All Artwork Original and (c) Ashe Wolf, 2019