THE NARNIA BOOK NOOK (THE WHO WHAT NOW?)
WHAT THE HELL IS A BOOK NOOK?
I had no idea either. It’s a secret of the deep craft network, the online tutors and Etsy-ers who have beautiful imaginations and a lot of skill. A book nook is a miniature world in a book-shaped box, that you insert between books to create a nook! I’m still not sure how I stumbled across it, but I wanted to get M something special for her first christmas, somehow I ended up in an Etsy rabbit hole and decided this was the perfect present. A peek inside Narnia, a nightlight, something she won’t appreciate till she’s much older and it’ll probably be broken by then, but hey, it felt right.
HOW DO YOU GET ONE?
One thing, they are EXPENSIVE, and nothing is as special as a thing that you make so…great idea! Craft your very own book nook nightlight with no prior experience and do it with a baby to look after. HA HA HA. But I did it, it wasn’t that hard, but it did take some time. Here is how.
BOOK NOOK HOW TO:
If your baby is not in nursery/you have a job/actually, just anyone, give yourself a good month to get this done.
THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT YOUR WORLD TO BE
I chose Narnia because it’s magical/wintery/not too hard. Harry Potter is another popular option.BUY A BOOK NOOK BASE
don’t bother making one, unless you are a carpenter. I got mine on Etsy, here, there are plenty of sizes to choose from.SIMPLIFY THE DESIGN
I sketched mine out on paper first, decided on the simplest elements:
BACKGROUND (scoured the internet, printed a winter palace image onto paper, glued it in)
SNOWY GROUND (You can get shapeable fluffy snow paper here, who knew?)
SNOWY TREES (Amazon and miniature railroad websites are your friend. I bought green trees then I got MODELLING SNOW from here, dabbed it on the trees, let it dry, voila.
LAMP POST (Again, miniatures websites, Amazon or Etsy will help you out.
NIGHTLIGHT OR NO?
That is the question. Making it light up is undoubtedly much more difficult, but much more special too. There are plenty of light up mini lamppost options out there with battery packs that you can wire outside the book nook. I went for a mini circuit board from this seller which let me have more control over where to put the switch etc. Complicated but worth it.
FINISHING TOUCHES
Since your book nook will be between books, I’m not sure if anyone bothers with the outside so much, but I wanted to make it unique, so I mocked up a Narnia book cover and gave it a Marlies spin. Welcome to The Chronicles Of Marnia.
DID SHE LIKE IT?
She barely looks at it. Yet. But it felt lovely to give her something her mama made, and it really does make the whole room feel quite magical when it turns on at night. GOOD LUCK
