I cleaned the outside of the book and then rubbed it with a black wash by diluting some black acrylic paint in water until it was pretty thin and runny, then painting it all over the book. Before it dried, I wiped the whole book with a paper towel, removing the black from the higher sections but leaving it in the low points and corners. This accents all the fabulous detail on the book cover and really makes it pop.
I covered up the old gold lettering on the front and the spine with a thicker layer of black acrylic paint.
I added some book corners I found on Amazon. I used some strong pliers and also some E6000 to secure the corners.
To finish off the cover, I glued on a 3D printed Auryn symbol, from the Neverending Story movie. This feels so appropriate. I also cut a vinyl auryn sticker on my Cricut vinyl cutter and fixed it to the spine, using some extra glue to be sure it stays stuck.
I wanted to soften the transition between the book and the screen, so I decided to add a metallic leafy filigree sticker. This artwork was made in Midjourney and I converted it to a cuttable file in Photoshop, then uploaded it to the Cricut Design Space to cut it out on my vinyl cutter.
Here's a link to my project in case you want to use this artwork with your Cricut. The project contains the leaf border, a small Auryn for the spine, and a template of the screen size cutout.
I traced out the screen dimensions using a paper template, then carefully cut through the page so the screen shows through.
I made sure everything lined up to my satisfaction, then glued this title page to the edge of the touch screen using E6000 glue. This paper is a little bit brittle, so take some time and be sure to get this right the first time if you can.
The screen is held in place by this page. I didn't secure it down inside the book, because I will probably need to access the USB ports or SD card at some point, so I didn't want to make it permanent. If you're making this for a kid, it might be a good idea to glue this top page down to the book once you're sure you're happy with the setup.
To highlight the NeoPixel indicator light, I used a small ring from my scrapbooking drawer filled with UV resin. The resin cures in minutes when you shine a blacklight on it and does a great job of pulling the light up into a dome so it diffuses and refracts in a magical way.
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