# Dragon Book How To



## Bascombe (May 18, 2010)

I made a dragon book for my wife's display for this coming Halloween, this weekend. She wants to have the entry way of our house done as a "witches library/workshop" I documented the process and crafted a tutorial for it and have posted it on my blog.










http://bascombemania.blogspot.com/p/tutorials.html

Enjoy. I had fun making it.


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## Vlad (Aug 2, 2005)

Very nice


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## madmomma (Jul 1, 2009)

I love this. Would look great with my other books and potion set up. Any idea what the total cost of materials was?


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## trishaanne (Aug 20, 2005)

Very nice!!!


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## Bascombe (May 18, 2010)

I'll do my best, Madmomma, some of it I'll assume you have being that you are a self respecting haunter... but the specialty stuff I'll try to reconstruct.

book from thrift store-$4.00 (our local thrift store thinks it's a department store)
Craft foam-4 sheets @99 Cents per-$4.00
Illustration board-could just as easily be a scrap of single layer cardboard (not corrugated)-no cost
substrate-Jaxsan is expensive, I got mine as a free sample at a convention. I'd suggest getting some Vicryl or some other mastic at a paint store. One time cost will be expensive, but you will coat foam tombstones with it from now on and use every drop on other projects.
green on green oops paint-I expect you already have that. (I used spray paint because I already had that. The color is what's important, not the form of the paint)
Glossy Wood Tone Design Master Spray Paint-$8.00- This is expensive as well, but you will use every drop on other projects as well. I never go anywhere (figuratively) without it.

Basically, if you don't have any of the materials beforehand, this could be a spendy project, but everything you buy for it, you will use on other projects and be glad you had it.

Hope that helps


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## fick209 (Aug 31, 2009)

That looks great, and a very nice detailed how-to. Excellent work!


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## Bascombe (May 18, 2010)

oops, I forgot about the metal leaf...

Metal leaf adhesive-about 6 bucks-there's enough in the jar to do ten hundred million billion books, by the way.

Metal leaf-also about 9 bucks, comes in many colors. I use imitation gold, imitation silver, imitation copper. each package of the stuff I buy has 25 sheets. I used 1 and a half sheets for this project because I wasn't careful... I could have used only one easily.

I'll assume you already have gold spray paint for the gilding of the pages


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## nixie (Sep 17, 2008)

Wow! That's a beautiful book! Great how-to as well, I may have to try this.


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## RavenLunatic (Jan 3, 2006)

awesome!! i think i have found inspiration at last


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## kprimm (Mar 14, 2009)

Awesome looking book and a very nicely done how-to.You did a great job on this.


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## madmomma (Jul 1, 2009)

Thanks for the info Bascombe. The cost can be justified because most of the items can easily be used for many other projects. This is definitely going on my "to do 4 Halloween" project list!


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## Bascombe (May 18, 2010)

Madmomma, in my opinion, the substrate (Jaxsan, ViCryl, or other mastic) and the Design Master Glossy Wood Tone are the absolutely essential ingredients. I haven't tried "Monster Mud" on a book, but it might work. I fear it would be too thick or too brittle. I will investigate to see if there's a cheaper mastic. It really does make the difference in the project (and many other projects)


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## Bascombe (May 18, 2010)

_thank you, everyone for your kind words. I've never done a tutorial before, so I was kind of hanging it all out on this one. Didn't know how it would be received. Thanks again._


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## typoagain (Feb 27, 2012)

Bascombe said:


> Madmomma, in my opinion, the substrate (Jaxsan, ViCryl, or other mastic) and the Design Master Glossy Wood Tone are the absolutely essential ingredients. I haven't tried "Monster Mud" on a book, but it might work. I fear it would be too thick or too brittle. I will investigate to see if there's a cheaper mastic. It really does make the difference in the project (and many other projects)


I can only find the substrates you suggest available locally in large sizes. That would mean an $85 outlay for what would be a ten year supply for me.

Any suggestions?

I bought some Glidden Gripper the other day and was thinking about trying that. However I fear that it will not be very flexible when it dries.


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## fontgeek (Jul 24, 2006)

You might consider different materials, or even going at it in a different method.
PB Hard Coat works great, while the following shows it being used on HDU (high density urethane foam, also great material to work with) it can be used on other surfaces too.
http://www.precisionboard.com/pb-hard-coat/
As to other methods, you might look at using something simple like the cardboard from cereal boxes or boxes from cases of soda or beer, and cut out the scales, either singly or in rows with the scales almost separated from each other, and using either hot glue, white glue, or maybe paper mache paste to adhere the "scales" to the book cover. You could use hot glue to create the oval border around the book title.

I like the how to, the only thing I would change in it is to layout your "Title" block first, that will let you see the exact layout size and shape you will need. As it was kind of already noted in the how to, all letters aren't the same width, so counting the letters in a word may not give you the actual center, but printing out the block of text at the desired size will let you cut it out with the desired surrounding/negative space and fold it in half to find the center. If you have a graphics program (Illustrator, Draw, etc.) you can easily find the center of the block of text.


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## Pumpkin5 (Aug 8, 2010)

:jol:Oh Bascombe, the book is fantastic....and I love the tutorial....very easy to follow instructions! Thanks so much for sharing this. Your creativity knows no bounds...the gold leaf, the painting techniques....so inspiring!


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## BioHazardCustoms (Aug 5, 2009)

Very nice work, and a good tutorial, too!


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## Lilly (Jun 13, 2006)

looks great.. was wondering if it was writable inside..for guests to sign..ahh I had to check and see what kind of book ,seems it is a reg book huh.


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## Bascombe (May 18, 2010)

Typoagain, the substrates that I use, I use on everything, just about. I've corpsed full skeletons and a bunch of skulls. I use it when I do the books, I use it on medieval ossuaries. It is one of the things in my arsenal that I would not like to be without. I use it on the skull and bones style of corpsing. The thing about the substrates that is so good as opposed to the vinyl carpet glue is that it's water based and dries quickly without the smell. I corpsed a skull mask with the carpet adhesive three years ago and it still stinks. If you get the vicryl or the jaxan, you will use it and use it and use it. Good stuff. Basically Jaxan is just a rubberized roofing agent. Maybe you can find a waterbased substitute for that at Home Depot.

Lilly, I did mine on a thrift store book with text. If you did it on a sketchbook, it would be blank and you could have guests sign it. No problem.

Thanks BioHazard and Pumpkin 5. 

I've taken a long hiatus from the forum, but I will get back on the horse here fairly soon.


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## Lilly (Jun 13, 2006)

Yup I used a sketch book type for mine when I made it. 
Ill have to check that Jaxan out, tx


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## Shadow Panther (Apr 5, 2013)

I like the look of the book-can't wait to add one to my library-thank you for the how to


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## circe257 (Sep 29, 2013)

I love this! Thank you so much for sharing it.


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## divinedragon7 (May 29, 2009)

I love how the dragon scales came out, amazing


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