# The Monster Book of Monsters



## Katster (Jan 27, 2013)

This is for Pumpkinpie aka Dawn:







Monster Book of Monsters Tutorial

First do your homework and find lots of reference pictures to look at while making your book. You will need to find a large book, both in size and in thickness. The reason being if you don’t get it large enough you won’t have room for the lettering as well as the eyes and in thickness you need room for your teeth and all those tentacle looking things. You will need some kids molding clay I found mine at wall mart called Foamie molding clay and Crayola also makes the same product.







You will need fake fur, mine is my sons furry hat I cut apart as I couldn’t find any at the fabric store that had a variation of colors in it and they wanted $40.00 per yard. I actually have 2 types of fur, the fur on the bottom is longer than the fur on the top and is solid black (just a piece of fun fur from wall mart). For the teeth I found a rubber mask at the dollar store that I loved the teeth on and cut it up. But you can make them out of the molding clay to get it more like the Harry Potter one.
Ok get your book and your molding clay. Flip your book upside down as you are going to work on the bottom first because you will need to flip it and you don’t want to squish your eyes if you did the top first. Also work on a garbage bag to protect your surface as you will have to flip this while working on it and it will stick to the surface, so the plastic bag you can just peel it off when you flip it back over to dry. This type of molding clay is great as it sticks to itself as you mold. Grab a large piece of the molding clay and stretch it out over the bottom of the book covering about ½ of it. Extend it over all 3 edges (not the spine) right to the pages and make the edges thicker so it you have something to stick the tentacles onto. Now pull small hunks off and shape all your tentacles as you see in your reference photos, front ones are longer and get shorter towards the back, just make the bottoms one for now. Flip your book over on the plastic so the top side is up and attach your bottom tentacles to the clay that you molded up towards the pages of the book. Oh a reminder cover your unused clay with a piece of plastic when your not using it so it doesn’t start to dry out on you. With little balls of clay rolled out into tiny snakes shape them into little circles and attach to tentacle, these are the little sucker things. Look at your photo! You are done this part now flip it back upside down and let it dry for 3 days.
Now you are ready to start the top. Once again stretch out a fair amount of clay to cover most of the book. You will have to go back farther with the clay this time so there will be clay for your eyes to stick to. Push the clay back about 2/3 of the way toward the spine of the book. Once again make the clay thicker towards the edges but don’t go over the edges for the top part. I liked the edges showing so you can see it is a real book. Also I made a raised area with the clay in the nose area. It will be covered with fur but in that area the fur is trimmed back to expose the raised nose area. Make your upper tentacles now and attach I slid mine under the clay, between it and the book. Now would be a good time to put on whatever teeth you decided on. Mine that I got from the rubber mask were hot glued. Next is the eyes, I chose to mold mine from the clay but you can buy store bought ones. Once you have them in place get some clay and make a thin snake and form it around the bottom of the eyes forming the bottom eyelid. Take a bigger piece and form a flat thin piece probably about the size of your hand and drape it over the top of the eyes making one upper eyelid. Make your tongue, mold the clay around some wire so you can make it as long as you want without it snapping off. Squish it in between the pages of the book where you want it to be, you will be hot gluing it in position once it dries for a more secure fit. Ok now that is done you have to let that dry for 3 days.
Take the tongue out from between the pages and glue it in position. Have a look on both top and bottom to make sure your clay has adhered to the book if not now is the time to add some glue to those areas don't worry about the look as your fur will be covering it. Now you want to paint everything as in your photos. I also put a sealer on the paint and put 3 coats on the eyes to make them glossier than the rest. Hot glue or use fabric glue to stick your fur on in patches as you don’t want it too neat. It is a monster after all. The bottom fur is trimmed short up to an inch of the edges and glued right side up to the book so the longer fur can be seen between the tentacles. Don’t forget to put fur on the spine. Now take some small scissors and cut some of the fur back on the top in small patches and in the nose area to make it look scruffier.
For the lettering I used some fake leather (pleather) and painted it on with gold paint 2 coats. Trimmed the fur back where the lettering will go for better adhesion and hot glue the lettering on. You are now done! I hope this tutorial works for you as it was difficult for me to put into words without the photos of the steps I took while making him. My next project I will definitely take pictures of the progress from start to finish!














P.S. Thanks Dawn for helping me to get this posted! If you have any questions just message me I am just a click away!


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## pumpkinpie (Jul 9, 2011)

Omg... You did an amazing job, both on your book and your tutorial. I can't wait to do mine (I just hope it turns out even half as good as yours). Again thank you so much for taking the time and going through all the trouble to write this up....Youre AMAZING!!! 

I'm going to post a link to it on my Harry Potter thread so everyone can make sure to see it  

Here's my link http://www.halloweenforum.com/party-ideas-experiences-recipes/124330-deathly-hallows-2013-a.html


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## Passi (Jan 31, 2013)

That looks absolutely fantastic!


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## crazy xmas (Dec 30, 2008)

Very nice work!


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## Katster (Jan 27, 2013)

Thanks guys! My next project for Harry Potter yard is a little more daunting! I am doing a tombstone for Dumbledore with a big paper mache Phoenix bird (Fawke) on the top and painted to look like it is part of the tombstone. This time I am taking pics of the process. I appreciate the kind words as it gives me inspiration to do more even if I have no idea what I am doing!


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## broevil (Jun 23, 2011)

That is FANTASTIC!!!!


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## kelsey (Jul 16, 2008)

Very Nice~~


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## stormygirl84 (Sep 4, 2009)

Holy cow, that is creepy! Amazing job!


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## scarybella (Aug 4, 2010)

very cool...I bet you had fun making that


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## the wee hag (Oct 29, 2011)

unbelievable! truly amazing and thanks for sharing!!


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