Mini-Book First Try

While working on my Mini Matchbook cabinet, I was intrigued by Laura Carson's Apothecary Tutorial from last Halloween. I thought I might like to make one, especially after finding some tiny glass bottles at the local Dollar Store.

This weekend I tried my hand at one of the mini-books she demonstrated. Using everything else I hand in my stash, here's my first attempt. The book's front and back covers are created first using heavy chipboard, wrapped in patterned paper. Then the spine is made from a double thickness of paper and I thought it would look even better by inserting two pieces of thick cord in between them to create some authentic spine ridges. After gluing I used my bone folder to define those ridges.

Here's the front of my book, with Spellbinder's die-cut chipboard embellishments, along with an old key, spider charm and tassel (inked and distressed with alcohol inks and Distress Stain).

A closer look at the spine, with more chipboard embellishments cut on my Cuttlebug and painted with Tim Holtz's pewter Distress Stain.

The back of the book, with the same paper as the front and a charm used to hold the ribbon closure.

A peek inside....

Oh, yeah, it's not really a book! It's a mini-apothecary! Since I didn't have an Altoids tin, I used a square tin I had on hand (that staples came in).

Okay, enough teasing, here's what's inside:

My mini-witches' potion book! And I mean mini - it measures a mere 4.5" tall and 4" wide; the bottles range from 1.5" to 2" tall. The first bottle has a black candle with wax dripping down the sides. The second bottle is filled with a fine white glitter, the skull and crossbones bottle was dyed with yellow alcohol ink and the last tall bottle was dyed with purple alcohol ink (all by Ranger) and has some rub-on swirls decorating the front. (I hand drew the cat and poison symbols since I didn't have tiny labels.)

A black crow sits on top with an old scroll (potion recipes, I guess) tied with a ribbon. Looks like the set hasn't been used in awhile; there's a spider in that web! (Made with some wire and a dot of Glossy Accents for the body).

Before attaching the tin to the back cover, I stained it with more alcohol inks (green and purple) and lined the sides (inside and out) with lace again dyed to match. The back of the tin has some patterned paper of skulls that has a wash of pewter Distress Stain, so depending on what angle you look at it, the skulls seem to appear and disappear.

This sure was a lot of fun to make; now I need to get a few things together to make something like Laura's large Pretty Potions and Poisons Apothecary shelf... at least I already have the black cat!

Thank you again Laura, for the great tutorials and inspiration!