Hey all! So today I’m going to share with you all my newest hobby to try lol, painting book edges!

It’s something I’ve wanted to try my hand at for a while just so I can maybe paint a book or two that I really enjoy that doesn’t have a special edition or anything. I used this guide from Noura

Attempt #1

I used a book that was on my tbr pile that I finally read after YEARS, and I had bought it out a thrift store, one I wouldn’t mind donating before I painted it, or, if needed, throwing away if I ruined it completely.

Luckily I did not ruin it, I say luckily but it was really Noura’s instructions that kept me from messing up to the point of no return lol.

This book was harder than I thought because it turns out super floppy paperbacks are a pain in the ass to keep hold of while painting.

So, if it seems a bit chaotic, it is, it was a first attempt, not a win, not a fail, just an ‘I did it.’

I did really like using that color though, and was pleased and confident enough to try it again.

Once more I looked toward my donations pile to try attempts 2 & 3, so let’s see if I got any better trying it the next time around.

Attempts 2 & 3

It was a huge win for me! For this attempt I used a sponge brush instead of one of my regular paintbrushes.

The first few pages were the title pages and such and I had taped them back to keep them from leaking onto other pages, so in this one and the first attempt it seems like I forget them, I didn’t.

I then wanted to try a little starburst stencil so I used it on my scifi novel I painted, so here’s my third attempt:

Even though I had used washi tape to hold down the stencil, it was not a great stencil and even using my hands to hold it down, I was unable to get the paint to cover the edges of the stencil without worrying about painting outside the edges of it, so, it was a bit of a fail, but I plan to try a different kind of stencil the next time I’m brave enough for that, but I did like the edges with the blue metallic paint, so there’s that for a win!

Overall I was super pleased to try this and now I feel confident enough that I can FINALLY grab a copy of Wilder Girls here and paint the edges pink to match the title for our UK edition. I’m excited! I know they don’t look great but I am pleased lol, and I’m no artist lol.

So, what do you all think? Are you just like ‘omg why did you do this?’

Would you ever try to paint your own edges?