Enchanted Retreat (book Nook)

Hi I'm a 14-year-old homeschooler, excited to have an opportunity to showcase my creation! As a book fanatic, I couldn't resist joining this competition. Introducing my latest creation - a enchanted library book nook! This project took me a whopping two months to complete, so don't be discouraged if it takes you a while. With this book nook, I'm bringing the world of books to life, showcasing the amazing portals into other worlds. Get ready to be transported to a magical place every time you look at it!

Cardboard

Chipboard

Scissors or Exacto knife

Ruler

Hot Glue

Hot Glue Gun

Something to write with

Mixed media paper (or watercolor paper)

Acrylic paint (or watercolor paint)

Mod Podge

Clay

Brown clay (or white clay and paint to dye it brown)

Two-part silicone

Popsicle sticks

Toothpicks

Two-part resin

Alcohol ink

Glow in the dark powder

Milliliter measuring cups

Plastic cups

String lights

Thin metal wire

Orange embroidery thread

Clear beads

Materials:

• Cardboard
• Chipboard
• Scissors or Exacto knife
• Ruler
• Hot glue
• Hot glue gun
• Something to write with
• lots of patience

Cut Cardboard as follows:

• Two 7 in by 6.5 in (I will refer to this as the back.)
• Twenty-Two 7 in by 0.5 in (depending on the number of shelves you want)
• Four 6.5 in by 0.5 in

Construction:

Glue two 7-inch by 0.5-inch together. Do this twice. Glue these to the 7-inch sides of the back (7-inch by 6.5-inch piece). Glue a 6.5-inch by 0.5-inch piece to each 6.5-inch side of the back. Finally think about how many shelves you want on your bookshelf. I went with 7 shelves. Mark even spaces on the back and glue your shelves on accordingly. This is the bookcase.

Adding the books:

For this step you're going to need a bunch of chipboard. In the video, I stole the chipboard from the back of books, but it is available to purchase. This is going to be your books. Cut the chipboard into rectangles. The width of each rectangle should be 0.5-inches, but the length depends on how large your shelves are. However, I made sure that all my rectangles weren't the same size to add variety.

When you are finished, use the remaining material to create another bookshelf. Follow the steps above.

Materials:

• Cardboard
• Hot glue
• Hot glue gun

Cut Cardboard as follows:

• 3.5in by 1.5in
• Four 2in by 1.5in
• Two 1.75in by 0.65in
• 3.5in by 2in
• Two 2in by 1.5in
• 2in by 0.5in

Construction:

Glue the 3.5-inch by 2-inch piece to the edge of the 3.5-inch by 1.5-inch piece. Glue the 2-inch by 1.5-inch pieces in the corner of the previous pieces. Glue another 2-inch by 1.5-inch piece 0.65-inch away from the previous one. Glue a 1.75-inch by 0.65-inch piece to the 2-inch by 1.5-inch pieces leaving a space at the bottom. Repeat this on the other side. The two 2-inch by 1.5-inch pieces are shelves. Decide how far apart you want the shelves to be and glue them in between the two sides. Finally, the 2-inch by 0.5-inch pieces are completely ornamental. Create a design and glue it above the shelves. Finally cover the exposed edges with paper as shown in the video.

Materials:

• Cardboard
• Mixed media paper (or watercolor paper)
• Acrylic paint (or watercolor paint)
• Hot glue
• Hot glue gun
• Mod Podge
• Scissors or Exacto knife

Cut cardboard as follows:

Refer to the first picture above. Draw an arch with a height of 3.5-inches and a width of 1.5-inches on cardboard. Draw another arch inside the center of the first one. The height of this arch should be 3-inches and the width should be 1 -inch. Cut out the second arch to create your first window frame. Repeat this so that you have two arch windows.

Next draw a rectangle with a height of 2-inches and a width of 3.5-inches on cardboard. Draw another rectangle with a height of 1.5-inches and a width of 3-inches in the center of the first rectangle. Cut out the second rectangle. This is your main arch window.

I painted the window frames brown, similar to the desk and the bookshelves.

Construction:

Trace the inside of each window on mixed media paper. Draw and paint your desired scene for each window. I wanted to make my windows look like stained glass however, the sky's the limit so be creative. The reference photos that I drew are posted above. I used watercolor paints to paint the windows and sealed it with Mod Podge. The Mod Podge was to seal the paint as well as give it a shiny coat. Finally, cut out your paintings. Leave paper around the edges of the painting so that you can glue it to the back of each window frame. Make three paintings, one to fit in each window frame.

Working with clay is a new experience for me so I may not be able to provide a full and detailed explanation.

Plant Pots

I made clay cylinders that were 0.5-inches tall and 0.25-inches wide. Then I used the end of a pencil to hollow out the inside of the cylinder. I show the process in the first picture above. As for painting the pots, I used a mixture of brown and orange paint.

I used multiple mediums for making the plants. I used wire, embroidery thread, crepe paper, paint and hot glue to create plants. There are reference photos above, use what you have and be creative.

Bowls

I made spheres that were approximately 0.5-inches and hollowed them like I did for the pots above. I mixed brown and gold paints to color the bowls.

Chests

I made rectangular prisms that were 0.5-inches long, 0.25-inches wide and 0.25-inches high. I painted the bottom half of it any color and the top half of it a dark brown.

Materials:

Clay

Brown clay (or white clay and paint to dye it brown)

Two-part silicone

Popsicle sticks

Toothpicks

Two-part Resin

Alcohol ink

Glow in the dark powder

Milliliter Measuring cups.

Plastic cups

Construction

Making the mold

Make clay cylinders that are around the size 0.5-inches by 0.25-inches wide. These may vary in size. The number of cylinders you make depends on how fast you want this process to go. I make 12 to speed up the process. Glue the top of each cylinder to a toothpick. Glue the toothpicks to popsicle sticks. The goal is to place the popsicle sticks on the rims of your cup and not have the cylinders touch the edges of bottom of the cup. I have pictures of the process listed above. Finally mix your two-part silicone and pour it in the cups. Make sure that the tops of the cylinders are not covered. When the silicone dries cut the mold from the cup and remove the cylinders, popsicle sticks and toothpicks. You have created a mold.

Making the potion bottles

Now mix your two-point resin. The amount of resin you mix depends on the number of molds you make. Mix the resin with any color you want. I chose blue for the first pour. As a bonus you can mix the resin with glow in the dark powder. Most glow in the dark kits come with a black light but you might have to purchase one separately. I repeated this process until I made about 50 bottles.

Decorating the potion bottles

Measure the height of a bottle and cut a strip of kraft paper that is shorter than the height. Wrap this around the bottle. You could go the extra mile and decorate the labels, but I didn't do this. Finally, I rolled brown clay into balls and attached it to the top of the bottle to act as a cork top. I repeated this process on a few more of the bottles and left the rest of them plain.

Materials:

• Cardboard

Cut Cardboard as follows:

• Two 11-inch high by 7-inch-wide rectangles
• A 11-inch high by 6-inch-wide rectangle
• Three 7-inch long by 6-inch-wide rectangles

Construction

Take one of the 7-inch long by 6-inch-wide rectangles. The smaller side of the rectangle is the front. Measure 2-inches on each side of it. Draw a line to the back of the rectangle from each 2-inch point. On the longer side measure 5 -inches. Draw a horizontal line from this point. The intersecting lines should create another rectangle with the dimensions 5-inches long by 2-inches wide. Cut this out. This is your second floor.

Painting

Materials:

• Glue
• Water
• Scrap paper.
• Paint (I used brown, gold and purple paint.)

Construction:

Mix glue and water. Use this to glue paper scraps to one side of each rectangle that you made except for the second floor and one of the 6-inch by 7-inch rectangles. When this dries, trim any excess paper that hangs from the sides. I painted this side a dark purple that I mixed with brown and gold. After this dried, I added darker streaks of brown. I painted the other side a brown that I mixed with gold. For the second floor I painted both sides this brown and gold mixture. For the last 6-inch by 7-inch rectangle that you saved above paint one side of it a darker brown. I added gold to the brown, but it was very little. This piece is the floor and since the rest of the room is so busy I decided to keep it simple. The bottom of this piece doesn't really matter since it's the base, so I painted it black.

Materials:

• Hot glue
• Hot glue gun
• Toothpicks
• Popsicle sticks
• Paint (I used gold)
• 
  

Cut Materials as follows:

Cut the ends of the toothpick to make it 1.5-inches. Repeat this 30 times. Cut three popsicle sticks so that they are two inches. Cut two popsicle sticks so that they are both 5-inches.

Construction

I painted all of the popsicle sticks and toothpicks gold. Glue the toothpicks to the front and inner edges of the second floor. I glued them about 0.5-inches apart and left some spaces empty so that it looked old and broken. Glue one of the 2-inch popsicle sticks on top of the toothpicks on either side on the front. Place the last 2-inch popsicle stick on the toothpicks in the back of the inner rectangle. Place the 5-inch popsicle sticks on the last two sided of the inner rectangles.

Materials:

• Exacto-knife
• ruler
• hot glue
• hot glue gun

Construction:

Windows add life to any building. It has the same affect in this project. Draw a line 7-inches from the bottom of 11-inch high by 6-inch-wide rectangle that you cut and painted above. This line shows where the second floor will be. The rectangle window goes on the bottom floor. I placed my window in the center about 2 1/2-inches high so that it is directly above the desk. I placed each arch window about 0.25-inches above the second-floor line and 1-inch from the edge on each side.

Poke a hole in the center about 2 inches from the bottom. This will come in use later.

Materials:

• Paper
• Paint
• Cardboard from step 7
• Hot glue
• Hot glue gun

Construction:

The base is the cardboard that you painted brown on one side and black on the other. Place it on a smooth surface black side down. Glue the cardboard with the windows to the 6-inch side of the base. The walls that you glued paper to, should face outwards.

Materials:

• Resin
• Alcohol ink
• Glow in the dark powder
• String lights with timer
• Clay
• Paint
• Hot glue
• Hot glue gun

Construction

Poke a hole in the center of the desk as far to the top as you possibly can. Poke another hole in the center of the top of the desk. Now get your clay. Roll the clay into a 0.5-inch ball. Hollow this ball out as I did in the pictures above. Since you are making a cauldron, sculpt two handles. I chose a simple handle but it's up to you. Before this dries, poke a hole into the bottom of the cauldron. When it dries, paint it. I chose to paint it black.

Now it's time to string your lights. Pull your light in the hole that you made in the wall in the last step. Then pull it through the back of the desk and the top of the desk. Finally put the light through the hole in the bottom of the cauldron. Hot glue it there.

Mix resin. I died it green with alcohol ink and added green glow in the dark powder. Pour this resin inside the cauldron and over the light. When it dries, glue the cauldron to the top of the desk. The lights on this string light are pretty far apart so the only light that shows is in the cauldron. If your lights are closer together use black tape to cover it up.

I decorated the desk with the plant pots that I made, potion bottles and stacks of paper. BE CREATIVE!!!!

When you are done decorating, glue the desk to the back wall.

Bookshelf

As for decorating the bookshelf, add potion bottles plants and chests that you made above. Glue the bookshelves to each 7-inch side of the main structure.

Materials:

• Clay
• Resin
• 2 Part silicone
• String lights
• Wire
• Alcohol ink
• Glow in the dark powder
• Orange embroidery thread
• Clear beads

Construction:

Roll three clay balls. Make one of them 0.5-inches and the other two 0.25-inches. Use the same strategy that you used for the potion bottles to make molds with the balls. Poke a hole in the center of the roof 2.5-inches from the top of it. The roof is the final 7-inch by 6-inch rectangle. Pull one of your string lights through the hole and drop one of the LEDs into one of the spere molds. Mix resin. I dyed the resin yellow and added white glow in the dark powder. Pour this into each sphere mold. Make sure that the light in one of the molds doesn't touch the sides.

After you demold the spheres glue the wire from the string light in place. Decide how low you want it to hang. Glue wires to the other spheres hand hang them from the ceiling. String beads on orange embroidery thread and hang them from the ceiling.

Materials:

• Chipboard
• Paint
• ALOT OF TIME

Construction:

Cut a 4.5 inch by 3-inch rectangle from your chipboard. Now find a design. I drew inspiration from a purple Persian rug. Draw and paint your design. Feel free to use other materials such as string to create texture. Have fun!

Glue the second floor on top of the bookshelves. Glue the roof on the walls and the rug in front of the desk. Poke a hole in the top back corner under the second floor. Pull string lights through the hole and glue them under the second floor. Use the lights to light up the windows. Glue the lights around the back of the windows. Paint a sheet of paper the same color as the purple on the walls and use it to cover the lights on the back. Paint another sheet of paper the same color as the outside wall. Cut it into strips and use it to cover the edges. Glue the battery packs from the lights to the back of the book nook. Add picture frames, plants, etc. to decorate it. Make it your own and have fun!