DIY Monster Book of Monsters Journal From Harry Potter

It was my friends birthday soon, and I needed to make her a present. We both love reading and art, and love the Harry Potter series, so I decided to make the Monster Book of Monsters that is featured in The Prisoner of Azkaban.

Instead of just using lined or blank paper in this journal, I used homemade and found papers, so she could do art and scrapbook in it as well as writing. This book has many crazy and fun aspects to it, but I wanted it to also be usable, so this presented a logistical challenge for me. However, I feel that I created a design that is fully functional while also sticking with the original character of the book.

This project was really fun for me, and I hope it inspires you to create crazy and fun things as well.

Supplies

• 32 sheets of paper
• Embroidery thread
• Foam board
• Tan, brown, and white polymer clay
• Glass cabochons
• Acrylic paint
• Air dry clay
• Fur fabric
• Alcohol markers

Tools

• Scissors
• Ruler
• Needle
• Hot glue gun
• Clay tools
• Paintbrushes

Before you can begin to do anything else, you need to have a simple base book. You could buy this from the store, but I decided to make mine so the pages would be more unique. I used 32 sheets of paper that are all 5 by 6 inches when folded in half, some of them handmade, some patterned, and some blank, and separated them into groups of four to create eight signatures. I then bound these with embroidery thread into a text block using the kettle stitch, with an inch between each stitch, and a half an inch on each end.

To make the cover, I cut out two 5" by 6.5" rectangles from foam board I had used in an old project. I also cut out a 3/4" by 6.5" rectangle to use for the spine. I cut a random piece of card-stock paper so that it was one inch bigger than the foam board pieces when they were all laid out. I glued my foam board pieces onto the paper, about an eighth of an inch apart from each other. Then I cut the edges off of the paper to create a cleaner corner, then folded all of the edges of the paper over the foam board and glued them in place.

I finally added my text block to my cover by gluing the end-pages to the inside.

One of the most prominent features of Harry Potter's Monster Book of Monsters is the weird set of teeth jutting out of the front of the book, ready to bite any unsuspecting Hogwarts student.

Because this aspect is so important, I wanted to make my teeth resemble the original as closely as possible. After looking up several reference photos, I began to sculpt them in polymer clay.

To make the teeth, I took white clay and formed it into 14 small teardrop shapes. I baked these for around 5 minutes - just enough that they wouldn't get deformed when I attached them to the gums. I used tan clay for the gums, and after flattening a piece into a rectangle, I used a clay tool to create seven indentations on the smaller edge. I stuck seven of the teeth into these holes, and used a clay tool to smooth the seam. Finally, I created indented channels between the teeth going down the gums.

To make the tentacles, I took a little piece of tan polymer clay, and rolled it out into a long and skinny tear-drop shape. I then smushed the wider end of the dewdrop onto the edge of my book cover to create an indentation of that shape. I removed it from the book, and twisted it a little so it was curving, and not completely straight.

To create a suckers on the underside of the tentacle, I took a very small ball of clay, and used a even smaller round clay tool to indent the center of the circle while pressing it into the tentacle. Each tentacle had between one and three suckers.

I made around twenty tentacles for my book, but I did not use all of them.

I wanted my Monster Book of Monsters to be realistic-looking, and one of the key components of succeeding in this regard it to make the eyes life-like. To do this, I used glass cabochons, which are basically just little glass domes that have a flat backside. I used two that were about a centimeter big, and two more that were slightly smaller.

To begin, I used black acrylic paint to paint a cat-eye shaped pupil onto the back of each cabochon. Once this was fully dry, I painted a rim of dark red acrylic paint around the edge of the eye, then added a slightly lighter red in a ring inside the last. I repeated this using a darker orange, lighter orange, and yellow. By then the whole eye was colored, but the colors were in rings, and didn't look very natural. I used an exacto-knife to draw lines coming from the pupil to the edge all around the eye to blend the paint slightly, and also give the eyes a textured look.

To begin sculpting the little face that sits on top of the book, I rolled out a piece of brown polymer clay, and positioned the four eyes on it. I cut the piece of clay so that it was shaped like a trapezoid in front of and behind the eyes. I then added a small snake of clay below the eyes, and a large one behind them to keep them in place. I added another small snake on top of them to make the eyelids. I smoothed everything together, and added two teardrop-shaped indents in the front for the nostrils. To the back, I added a wedge of clay, and indented it to create channels between the eyes.

First of all, I used hot glue to attach all the baked polymer clay pieces to the book, its starting to look so good!

I wanted the tentacles to meld better with the cover of the book where the join would be visible, so I used play-dough to connect everything on the underside of the cover (I should have used air dry clay, but I did not have any on hand). I then cut out a big piece of fur fabric to cover the whole outside of the book - making sure to cut a hole where the face is. I hot glued this in place. Using sharp scissors, I trimmed the fur, especially around the face and edges of the book. I also glued little tufts of hair around the face, and other places where the transition between furred areas and not furred areas was ugly. Finally, I used dark brown and dark green alcohol markers to color the fur and give it more depth.

I painted the play-dough the same color as the tentacles, and added some extra pink in areas to make it look more fleshy. I painted the gums a gradient, starting at light pinkish-purple near the teeth, transitioning to reddish-pink, and then dark reddish-purple. I painted the face black, then dry-brushed on red and brown. I got some paint on the eyes, but I easily got it off by scraping them with an exacto-knife.

I absolutely love the finished result! It's the perfect mix of creepy and cute, and absolutely gives off Harry Potter vibes! This project probably took me about 15 hours, between making the paper for the journal, hand-binding it, and sculpting all of the aspects of the monster, but I think it was definitely worth it; I am sure my friend will love it!