I have been trying to make the final photos of my DIY projects more appealing to the eye. To do this I have been making some props to go with my photos.  A while ago I decorated some books in a steampunk style to enhance my photos. And I have recently been asked how I made them.  So I wanted to share with you the method I used to make these steampunk books.

I have used waterslide paper on wood in the past with great success.  It is very quick and easy to use, and you have perfect images every time. I had no idea if it would work on the books but I wanted to give it a try.  It did not work perfectly but I will show you where mine went wrong so you can learn from my mistakes.

How to make Steampunk Prop Books

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Find Suitable books

The most suitable books to use are hardcover books with a paper surface.  The books with the plastic coating will prevent the image from sticking. And as I found out books with embossed writing will not work either because the writing will show through the paint.

Paint the books

Start, by painting the cover white, this will allow your image to show up better once applied.  I used white chalk paint to do this, but in hindsight, gesso or acrylic paint would have been cheaper. Because these are just photography props I only decorated the covers.

Find suitable images

I went onto the internet and google free stock image to use.  There are a few sites that will allow you to use their photos for free.  But be careful to check the requirements of use.  Not all images are free for commercial use and some require attribution to the creator.  These were the images I downloaded to use. Once you have your images you can print them onto the waterslide paper using a regular inkjet printer.

Seal the images

Once the images are printed they will need a few minutes for the ink to dry. When the surface is dry you can spray the surface with some clear acrylic spray.  This will seal in the ink and prevent it from washing off once the paper is put into water. Leave the spray to dry, which is only a few minutes in hot weather.

Trim the image to fit the cover of the book and the spine. This is where I made a mistake, the image needs to be a few millimetres smaller than the cover. Or 1 cm bigger so the images can be folded over and seal on the inside of the book.  This will allow the image to be sealed onto the book with the acrylic spray at the end.

Transfer the images

Add a small amount of water into a sink, you only need enough to cover the paper. The paper will roll up instantly when added to the water.  This is ok and normal.

Gently unroll that paper so it sits flat in the water.  This step only takes about 15 – 20 seconds, you will be able to see the image through the paper when it is ready.

Transferring the image to the book

Remove the waterslide paper from the water.  Using our nail or anything sharp lift up one of the corners.

Line up the corner with the corner of the book and then start pulling out the white backing paper. It literally does what it says on the box.  It slides off the paper onto the book.

To get a good seal you can use a felt scraper or credit card and gently smooth the image onto the book.  This will remove any bubbles or water trapped under the film.

I left the waterslide paper to dry onto the book before adding another coat of clear acrylic.

This method is so easy to do, you could make props for all your different themes. You can see in the image below, the top right corner did not seal.  It was not a major problem, I just added some acrylic spray and pushed the corner back down.

And that was my steampunk books completed.  I have used them in a few of my projects and they look awesome. The camera you see below is also one of the photography props that I made.

The steampunk camera was made from cardboard and a cooldrink can and given a steampunk makeover.

If you are a steampunk fan, this Steampunk Christmas tree my be just up your street.

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