DIY Mod Podge and Tissue Paper Dragon Eye Book

Last week I shared how to transform old books into spellbooks for Halloween. This week, I wanted to share how I made this creepy jeweled dragon eye book! It's the perfect craft for Halloween, fantasy, and dragon lovers.

How to Make a Dragon Eye Book 

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While the boys wanted to upcycle their old books into spellbooks, I went another route to make a fantasy dragon book. I'm a big lover of all things magical and fantasy, so when I saw this gorgeous clay dragon's eye journal on Etsy, I knew I had to try to make my own version.

Materials Needed:

• Old Book
• Craft Paint (I used shades of green, blue, gold, yellow, orange, white, and black.)
• Paint Brush and Foam Brush
• Gift Wrap Tissue Paper (Or a Paper Towel)
• Mod Podge
• Scissors
• Pencil and Paper
• Hot Glue
• Optional: Gems

Let's Make a DIY Dragon Eye Book:

Note: This is a super fun craft, but it isn't a quick craft. The dragon book takes 2-3 days to make because you have to wait for Mod Podge and paint to dry. Also, if you have questions about the techniques used to make these books, you should watch these two YouTube tutorials. ( Christopher Hiedeman's video and Tina Le's video) They make spellbooks, but the technique of collaging is basically the same.

1. Plan out your design for your dragon eye book. You can use a pencil to draw on the book cover directly, or you can trace the book onto a piece of paper and sketch out your design on paper. 

2. Cut out the different parts of your design and trace them onto craft foam. Then, cut out and hot glue all your bits on!  

3. Time to wrap the book with tissue paper to make lovely crinkly details.

Using Mod Podge and a foam brush, paint a thin coat of glue onto the front and back cover of the book. Then, carefully cover the book with a piece of gift-wrap tissue, making sure to get all the nooks and crannies covered. I told my boys that the more wrinkles, the better. Wrinkles made the book look aged and it placed less pressure on all of us to make things perfect.

(Note: If you don't have gift wrap tissue, you can also use a paper towel that's been carefully split in half/wripped apart to make the paper towel thinner.)

4. After the Mod Podge dries (we waited overnight), get creative and paint your cover! 

I used a foam brush to cover my book in one coat of base paint (green.) Then, I scrunched up a paper towel and dabbed on a contrasting color (gold.) Then, I used other thinner paintbrushes to paint extra bits of detail (like repainting scars gold to make them really pop, painting shadows with black, and adding highlights with pure white.)

5. Wait for the paint to dry and then you have a dragon eye book!

Want to add extra fun details?

• Make a cutout inside to hide secret treasures! (We followed directions from this site.)

• Paint the edges with brown watercolor paint to make the book look even older.

• Hot glue on gems and jewels at the end to make your book really sparkle!

Hope you enjoyed this fun dragon craft. Happy creating and connecting!