Bring the nature indoors by creating your own pretty birch bark painted decorative books to display on your shelf.
Hand Painted Book Covers
Inspired by pictures of stacked books decor I saw online, I headed to the thrift store and picked up a box full of hard cover books for less than $5. Painting book covers was a brand new crafting experience. Book covers make for a great surface to paint on, they are smooth, flat and easily paintable.
There is something very special about birch trees that we are drawn to. We’ve used cut birch branches in a few of our crafts over the years, like this hollowed out birch bark votive holder; Christmas garland; Winter window wreath; and to make this rustic birdhouse centerpiece.
Birch Candle Holder 
Birch Barck Votive Holder 
Birch Slice Ornaments 
Birch Bark Garland 
Window Wreath with Winter Greens 
Rustic Birdhouse Centerpiece
Materials Needed:
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- Americana Acrylics in Soft Black; Neutral Gray; Whispering Turquoise or this Turquoise Blue; White Wash
- Decoart Americana Duraclear Satin Varnish
- 5 hardcover books in varying heights and widths
- Paintbrush, ¾” flat and fine tip
- Painter’s Tape, ¾” wide
- Utility Knife
A Few Tips To Get You Started
- Allow paint to fully dry before applying another coat of paint or changing colors.
- For more coverage, add another coat of paint.
How To Make Birch Park Decorative Books
Preparing the Hard Cover Books
Remove the paper sleeves from all the hard cover books and paint the hard covers in Whispering Turquoise.
Stack the books in the order they will be displayed on your bookshelf.
Using a paintbrush, paint the book spines in White Wash and then paint half of the front cover of the first book in White Wash as well.
Next, align the books so the spines are flush and lay the books down horizontally for easier painting.
Creating the birch tree design with painter’s tape
Begin to place pieces of tape along the book spines to block out the birch branches. First, place a piece of painter’s tape on a diagonal over top of the first book’s spine. Wrap it around the front of the book as well.
Apply a second piece of tape overlapping the first to make the birch branch thicker.
Move on to the second book and apply a piece of tape along the entire length of the spine.
Position the next piece of tape on a diagonal overlapping the third and fourth books. Thicken the birch branch by adding a parallel piece of tape.
Continue with the fourth and fifth books by adding tape as shown.
Using a utility knife, cut the tape joining the books, taking care not to cut the hardcovers.
Separate the books keeping note of the order from one to five.
Painting the birch bark design
Paint over the taped spines in Whispering Turquoise covering all white painted areas.
Peel away the painter’s tape.
Touch up any rough edges with a fine tip paint brush in White Wash paint.
Using a smaller flat brush, mix White Wash with a bit of Neutral Gray and apply it along the birch branches. Work one branch at time keeping note of which branches are layered in behind or in front of each other.
Using a fine tip paint brush, apply irregular neutral gray dashes along the lengths of each branch.
Continue working one branch at a time.
Finishing Touches
Using a fine tip paint brush, apply smaller irregular soft black dashes over top of the neutral gray marks and continue working one branch at a time.
Using a large flat brush, apply Duraclear Satin Varnish over top of the painted hard covers. Be sure to allow enough time to dry before displaying them on a bookshelf.
This project originally appeared on DecoArt’s project gallery
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Birch Bark Painted Decorative Books
Materials
- Americana Acrylics in Soft Black, Neutral Gray, Whispering Turquoise, White Wash
- Decoart Americana Duraclear Satin Varnish
- 5 hardcover books in varying heights and widths
- Paintbrush ¾” flat
- Paintbrush fine tip
- Painter’s Tape ¾” wide
- Utility Knife
Instructions
- Remove the paper sleeves from all the hard cover books.
- Paint the hard covers in Whispering Turquoise.
- Paint the book spines in White Wash. Paint half of the front cover of the first book in White Wash as well.
- Align the books so the spines are flush and lay the books down horizontally.
- Begin to place pieces of tape along the book spines to block out the birch branches. Position some of the pieces of tape on a diagonal while others keep straight in varying widths.
- Using a utility knife, cut the tape joining the books, taking care not to cut the hardcovers.
- Separate the books keeping note of the order of the books.
- Paint over the taped spines in Whispering Turquoise covering all white painted areas.
- Peel away the painter’s tape.
- Using a smaller flat brush, mix White Wash with a bit of Neutral Gray and apply it along the birch branches.
- Using a fine tip paint brush, apply irregular neutral gray dashes along the lengths of each branch.
- Using a fine tip paint brush, apply smaller irregular soft black dashes over top of the neutral gray marks.
- Using a large flat brush, apply Duraclear Satin Varnish over top of the painted hard covers.