Every Harry Potter fan dreams of living in his magical world. You have read the books and seen the movies, but to experience it in the real world, you’ll need to make the trip to Universal Studio’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter. If travel isn’t on your agenda, perhaps you could bring a piece of Harry’s world into your own. You can’t be a wizard without a few enchanted books. Who could forget the ferocious monster book? Ever wondered if you could make one?

The moon and the stars must have aligned to make your wish come true with the discovery of this wooden book box, available through Michaels for $5.99. It’s the perfect size and thickness, and offers a strong foundation for building a monster book. As a bonus, there’s a secret compartment inside for storing your favorite spells (recipes), magic charms (office supplies), or wizardly collectibles.

How to Make a Monster Book Fit for a Wizard:

Supplies:
Wooden Book Box (9.75″ x 7.5″ x 2.88″)
Black Paint – brush on Acrylic or spray paint
Sharpie Metallic gold marker – medium point
Vampire Teeth
Faux fur
4) Packing peanuts
4) Glass marbles – orange
1) Bottle fabric paint – black
1) Bottle fabric paint – white
1) Leather or vinyl belt
Glue gun
Scissors
Paintbrush

Paint the box black, inside and out. This dark color will make a great contrasting background for the gold paint applied in the next step.

To create the appearance of gilded pages, draw horizontal lines along all three sides of the book, using a Sharpie metallic gold pen. Don’t worry about crooked lines. Pages in old books become crinkled and curled. Imperfect lines will provide an aged look.

The next step is attaching teeth. Center the mouth as shown. The large fangs are from Fire Mountain Gems, and the smaller teeth are actually clear quartz crystal chips, painted to match. To simplify this step, purchase vampire teeth at a Halloween store or Amazon.

Faux fur from JoAnn Arts & Crafts is the perfect color and texture for this monster. Cut the piece large enough to allow a hem on all four sides. Be sure the fur will not interfere with the operation of the hinges. Please note: the raw edges of fur shed like crazy. Once they are hemmed and attached to the book the shedding stops. (Yeah!)

The sides could be hand sewn, but these hems were made with a glue gun.

I decided this monster would have four eyes. To make the eye sockets, use four packing peanuts. Each peanut is pinched in half and glued to hold its shape. Glue the four together end to end as shown.

Paint the foam with black fabric paint. Use a toothpick to keep the paint off your fingers.

I found four orange glass marbles with red streaks resembling bloodshot eyes. Each was glued into the sockets, and outlined with white fabric paint. A white dot was added to each marble to give it that creepy glint in the eye appearance.

Attach the eyes to the fur, and then secure the fur on top of the box.

Last step: Wrap an old leather belt around the book to keep your monster under control.

Congratulations! You’re now the proud parent of your very own Monster Book. Be sure to keep it on a short leash because we all know how much it loves to shred – shoes, feet, paper – anything within reach. For decades, kids have been telling their teachers, “The dog ate my homework!” With a monster book as a pet, this excuse might actually be believed!

Do you have a favorite Harry Potter creature? Please share your thoughts in the comments section. Until next time…

Happy Crafting!