Make a Brick Book for the Garden
Today's project is a fun one if you're thinking of getting your garden ready! It isn't too hard to do either.
All you need for this project is a brick and some paint. You can use paint sticks or paint and a brush!
These bricks are adorable and will look amazing in your garden!
Take a look...
I will start out by saying that this is not my idea. Pinterest has pages and pages of brick book ideas and it's hard to know who first came up with it!
Today I am giving it a try.
Here are the supplies you'll need to make a book brick:
- a brick, doesn't matter if it's old and tattered
- craft paint and a brush or
- permanent paint pens
- Sharpie fine point marker
- Gold permanent paint pen
- Dark wax
I began by finding a brick in my yard. To be truthful the first brick I looked for was the most perfect brick I could find. This brick is more chippy and worn.
Guess what, it doesn't matter. The older chipped bricks make the most authentic looking old books.
It's up to you, I did both. You're going to want to wash your brick in the hose before you start.
I began by painting 3 sides of the chippy brick white. The white two short sides and one long side will be the book pages. The other long side will be the binding.
Once the white paint dried I picked another color for the book jacket. I chose a dark blue craft paint. I painted the front and back of the book as well as the binding.
I chose the dark blue craft paint for this book because I'm going for an aged look when it is finished.
I painted the binding about 1/8 of an inch into the white paint to make it look like the jacket was thick from the top.
When the blue book cover dried, I added lines and dots and fields of color on the spine.
When my book jacket color was dry I added a title. This book is titled "LOVE" written by "Who".
Get it? Who wrote the book of Love? 😆
Finally, I used a dark wax to age the book all over the cover, on some of the pages and in the corners especially.
The best part is it doesn't have to be perfect to look cute in the garden!
The second brick I decorated was a more perfect brick with a lot of sandy texture. I did all the same things to this book using green paint and light green fields on the spine for the title.
I used the gold paint pen and a light green paint pen to give the binding details. Lines, dots and a field of green for the title. This time I made straighter page lines with a straight edge.
On the front of the "book" I painted a couple fields of light green for the title and the author. I also trimmed the front of the book with a gold paint pen and a straight edge to outline the front of the book.
The two books look very different but go together nicely!
I'm stacking my books in the rock garden so they will be discovered by my grandchildren. It is such an unexpected decoration in an otherwise neutral setting.
Another great place to display these brick books is in the bookshelf as book ends to your real books!
Please pin for later --->>
I hope you like these fun books and you'll give it a try!
Here is a great post on garden junk ideas to decorate you outdoor space!
