Tutorial: Covering Composition Books with Mod Podge

Since baby girl’s birthday theme was traditional (Korean), I wanted to include lots of Korean goodies in their goodie bags. I started with Craypas (aka oil pastels) and composition books (which are not very Korean. haha). Then lil sis, as she loves to stress me out , suggested covering them. There’s tons of tutorials on the web but here’s what I did and what I discovered during the process.

• Composition books

• Decorative scrapbook paper. I found that the best ones were the slightly thicker papers…but not as thick as cardstock. You could feel they were sturdier and less flimsy. Those papers were perfect! No air bubbles and glued on smoothly.

• Mod Podge

• Sponge brush

• Bone folder or other tool to help smooth out air bubbles.

• Xacto knife

Lightly coat the book with Mod Podge up to the black binding. Coat the paper lightly as well.

Place the paper on top of the book using the black binding as a guideline.

Smooth out any air bubbles using your bone folder/tool. Put aside to dry.

I turned them over and placed another book on top to ensure that the paper stuck to the edges of the cover.

Once dry, take your xacto knife and carefully trim the paper along the edges of the book. Then you are ready for the next side. Repeat the steps above.

I wanted to seal the edge, specifically where the scrapbook paper meets the black binding tape just to ensure that the entire edge was glued down. So I brushed a light coat of Mod Podge on top. My first batch, I sealed the entire surface. Mistake! The books kept sticking together even after they had completely dried. So the next batch, I just sealed the area where the black binding and scrapbook paper met, which did the trick!

Another thing I was worried about was that the covers would warp/curl. And while they did slightly, I also discovered that the ones I hadn’t covered did the same. I blame it on the heat!

Yes, all the lil things I worry about and at the end of the day, I’m sure the kids did not carefully examine the books Overall, I’m happy with the final outcome and they sure did look better than the original cover! So much you can do with Mod Podge. I’ll show you what else I did once I get the pictures back from the photographer.

big sis