I Ruined My Books?!?! - Painting My Book Edges (My Experience)
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I wanted to expand my blog, more than reviews, and do a lot of fun bookish activities as well. And I thought I'd try out this new trend going around in the book community: painting your book edges.
Sprayed edges is a new thing going around with publishers, (I believe) starting with Six of Crows' beautiful black sprayed edges. And I'm guessing this trend started because of that.
I really liked the idea of painting book edges yourself, because I feel like you can add your own little twists to your book. I mean, Six of Crows is beautiful, but because it's a publishers choice that the edges are black, everyone owns the same style. Painting it yourself gives your book it's own little twist.
When this trend first started going around, I thought it'd be fun but I'm not that artistic. I always say I am, but let's be honest, I'm not that artsy. So I decided to put it on the back burner and just admire people's photos from afar.
That was until I saw littlewolfreads on Instagram's copy of IT that she painting red and I thought it was absolutely brilliant. Me being IT obsessed, grabbed paint right away and decided to paint not one, but eight of my books.
Today, I wanted to share a bit of my experience with you guys and how it ended up turning out.
I ended up going to the dollar store with my mom and picked up 6 paints and a pack of paint brushes for about $10, which is incredibly inexpensive for those who want to give this DIY yourself.
I picked up a pack of 5 paint brushes for $1.25 but I only ended up using the two biggest brushes just to save the painting process. But, obviously, I did have to wash them repeatedly throughout painting the 8 books. Thankfully, my dad already had painters tape in the garage so I didn't have to buy any, but I did use a fair amount of tape. I think I finished at least half of the roll above.
I picked up 6 different colours of acrylic paint: red, blue, yellow, black, purple and pink. If you're wondering why didn't I just get the primary colours, alongside white and black and just mixed colours; I didn't think of that until after I made my purchase. It was a last minute thing, and I honestly didn't think it through.
I used the painters tape to tape around the edges of the book and around the edges of the spine as well so the book itself wouldn't get paint on it. I also used a couple of heavy books to keep the book shut and the paged intact, so the paint wouldn't seep through.
I then started to paint around the edges of each of the books, and after the paint was dry, took apart each page individually - because they were stuck together from the paint.
My advice when painting is edges is to take your time as use little paint as possible. It's such a pain to take the pages apart if theres too much paint on the book.
Like I said earlier, I painted 8 of my books and I do love how well they turned out, even though there were some flaws. I wanted to show you guys how they turned out, and talk a little bit about my experience.
So the main reason why I wanted to paint my pages was because I saw littlewolfreads on Instagram do this to her copy of IT, and me being IT obsessed, I was 10000000% on board. This was the first book that I painted the edges for and I think it turned out the best. There are a little bit of missed edges, but honestly, you can't really tell unless you really look at the book. In person, it looks just as amazing and the colour is so vibrant.
I used the painters tape to tape around the edges of the book and around the edges of the spine as well so the book itself wouldn't get paint on it. I also used a couple of heavy books to keep the book shut and the paged intact, so the paint wouldn't seep through.
I then started to paint around the edges of each of the books, and after the paint was dry, took apart each page individually - because they were stuck together from the paint.
My advice when painting is edges is to take your time as use little paint as possible. It's such a pain to take the pages apart if theres too much paint on the book.
Like I said earlier, I painted 8 of my books and I do love how well they turned out, even though there were some flaws. I wanted to show you guys how they turned out, and talk a little bit about my experience.
So the main reason why I wanted to paint my pages was because I saw littlewolfreads on Instagram do this to her copy of IT, and me being IT obsessed, I was 10000000% on board. This was the first book that I painted the edges for and I think it turned out the best. There are a little bit of missed edges, but honestly, you can't really tell unless you really look at the book. In person, it looks just as amazing and the colour is so vibrant.
So my sister wanted to try out painting the edges and I was totally cool with the help, so she painted City of Bones for me. I think she did a pretty good job. There's a bit of white patches around the corners but honestly, I think it seems to be a re-occurring thing with most of my books; even the ones I painted. I think it's a little harder to get to the edges because you don't see much from the tape. That's also a heads up for those who want to try this out.
I'm a huge Shadowhunters fan (Shadowhunters trash is what I consider it because I am definitely obsessed lol) so I decided to paint the edges of the first books of each series. I'm really thinking of painting The Red Scrolls of Magic red because I think that will look nice and once Chain of Gold comes out, I'll do the same.
I think all three look amazing; Lady Midnight was the only one I really had a problem with. I think it's because it was the last book I did (so far), it was almost midnight and I put way too much paint. It was really hard to take the pages apart from each other and some started to rip which is why it looks a little frail. But otherwise, I love it!
I decided to paint the edges of a couple of my favourite books, so obviously I painted Every Last Word, a book that changed my life and was so relatable for me, especially when I was first diagnosed with OCD, and my two other favourite books: Throne of Glass (which I am obsessed with the series!) and Nevernight!
Nevernight did turn out a little harsh and I think it was because of the same reason as Lady Midnight: bad lighting and too much paint. But overall, I loved how each of these books turned out!
I am so obsessed with these, I want to do it with all of my other favourite books!
The one thing I tell everyone when they want to try it, is that the process is so relaxing. I put on The Act, which is the show about Gypsy Rose Blanchard and binged watched it with my boyfriend. And when he left to watch Endgame, I finished a movie and a couple of episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine without realizing the time!
If the day were longer, I definitely would've painted the edges of more books! My only "problem" with this who DIY is how tedious it is to take apart each of the pages once the paint dries. But if you're watching something good, or listening to a good audiobook, it makes it well worth it!
If you want to see more updates on different book projects, follow me on Instagram! I changed my @ to terrifyinglyfictional!
What do you guys think of this new book community trend? Do you think it's dumb, or cool? Have you tried it out? Let me know in the comments section below or on Instagram!
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