How to make a Book Of Shadows

I have been asked on quite a few occasions how to make a Book Of Shadows or BOS for short.

Well this depends really how elaborate you want your BOS to be?
There are many different BOS that you can purchase and some are really stunning, but for me personally I prefer to make my own I think by designing and making your own book you are placing all of your energies into it.

So how did I make mine?
Well I actually have more then one BOS I actually have three! I filled up one of my books so I continued with another one and also another one! So how did I make them?

I started out with a normal A4 ring binder I then found a lovely piece of leather which was lovely and soft and cut it to size of the ring binder allowing a couple of inches extra so I could fold around the sides of the ring binder so it was neat. I used normal glue to attach the leather to the binder and allowed it to dry. I then decorated the front of my BOS with personal things that meant something to me, of course one of the designs is a pentagram. Inside my BOS I added lots of lined A4 paper and also made sections for what I wanted to be inside the BOS. For example I used a stronger piece of cardboard and wrote Herbs on the front in fancy writing and placed the cardboard inside a plastic sleeve and then added the lined paper after that. I did the same for all the other sections that I wanted. 

To give you an idea inside mine some of my sections are spells, the different Sabbats, the moon phases for current year, correspondence tables, the Gods and Goddesses who I follow so things like that, you can of course add sections or remove them or choose whatever sections you would like. We are all different and our BOS is personal to us so added the sections that are important to you.

I then made a beautiful page marker I actually made mine out of a silk purple thread I am not sure to be honest what you call this thread a friend of mine her mother used to make beautiful crocheted lacy table cloths from this thread and my friend gave some to me, I will try and find out if I can what this thread is called.
For the book marker I measured the length I wanted, I wanted it to hang a little way below the size of the book I then took three long strands and platted them together so it was strong, I then made the little dangling tassels for the end I simply found the length I wanted and took many single pieces of thread and cut them to the required length and then knotted them to the platted strands and attached it to the top of my BOS so it hangs down the centre and I can move the book mark to wherever I want it to be when I am working with the BOS.

Altogether it took me around a couple of hours to make my first BOS and I confess it is my pride and joy! Once I filled up one I started on another and made the fronts in a similar way. This maybe the right place to suggest buying a bigger A4 binder then I did!! You can purchase bigger folders then I did, at first I only brought the normal school size type binder but of course these days you can purchase more office type ones which may be better that way you don't keep filling them up like I did!!

If you want a few ideas for the front of your BOS just Google Book of Shadows and go to images there are lots of designs out there and you may well be able to copy a few different things you like for your BOS but I am sure like me once you get started you will have your own ideas and they are fun and easy enough to make yourself.