Make Spooky Gold Leaf Book Covers for Halloween
Halloween is one of those holidays where you can have fun making creative spooky decor, by using what you already have on hand, like book covers that can be removed once the season is over. It’s soooo easy to make spooky gold leaf book covers for Halloween and this is a fun idea and would make a fun mantel or bookshelf display.If you’ve never gold leafed before, this is an easy way to dip your toes in the water! You’ll find it’s easy to do and you’ll want to keep gold leafing everything!

You’ll need a few supplies to get started on your gold leafing project: Books you already have on hand, black construction paper, gold lead adhesive stamp pad, gold leaf and a soft brush.

Spooky book covers are and easy Halloween craft project that can be made in under an hour! For a variation on this project, try silver or bronze leafing!
Start the project by fitting the paper to be a book cover. Fold the paper over the book to make sure you have cut the right size and and then fingers up and down the spine with the paper on to get some indentations of where the spine is. This will help you to know where to place your stamps. I prefer to wing it and I like a more random stamp placement. If you like something more lined up and exact, use a ruler and pencil lines to mark out the bottom of there the letters are.

Stamp the stamp on the gold leaf adhesive stamp pad, which is pretty much a tacky glue for the gold leafing to adhere to. I used some vintage stamps I have for a more vintage look. If you can’t find as gold leaf adhesive stamp pad, you can make one by using a foam brush and adding some adhesive on it and then patting it on the stamp.

It’s important to clean the stamps right away (especially with vintage stamps!) so the sizing doesn’t ruin your stamps. Otherwise, they’ll be sticky forever. Stamp your entire word on the book cover spine at the same time so it all cures evenly.
Want to gold leaf more? See how to use gold leaf to upcycle empty wine bottles

This is the important step, after the glue cures to a tacky, sticky consistency (about 30 minutes), carefully place the gold leafing on top of where you stamps. If you haven’t worked with gold leaf before, it’s almost like trying to place air, and it’s better to kind of “float” it on. The one trick I did find was to take a clean, dry finger and pat down gently, yet firmly over the area where the sizing is under the gold leaf to make sure it adheres well enough.

Use a super soft brush and a circular motion to wipe away the excess gold leaf. I brush mine into a box to use the “scraps” for other projects. You will find that the gold leaf over the adhesive sticks to the page and the rest of it brushes off.
Want more Handmade Halloween decor ideas? Make these spooky decoupaged glass bottles with lace

You’ll end up with nice and sparkly letters. I then taped my paper to the books so I can remove it and store them at the end of the holiday.

It’s such an easy DIY to make spooky gold leaf book covers for Halloween. You can so this for any holiday, and even create some fun book stacks, such as with this stamped book display stack.

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