Eggshell Notebook {from Inside-Out Design}

 Hi, I'm Brooke from Inside-Out Design and I'm so excited to be a guest today!

Lately I've been having kind of a thing with eggshells; I've discovered eggshell veneering and now I'm wanting to do it to everything I can get my hands on. 

Today it's a book. 

Books are one of my favorite things to decorate with and I thought that one with an eggshell mosaic cover would be really pretty. 

I could have used any book, but I wanted one in a bright color so that the color would show through in the lines between the pieces of egg shell. I found this little bright blue notepad at Target:

For this project I already had some egg shell pieces left over from a previous project, but if you're starting from scratch you'll need to hard boil some eggs (amount depending on the size of your item- for this project I'm guestimating 2-3 eggs). After you've peeled them let the shells lay out on the counter for a half hour or so to dry out. Then go back and peel off that thin membrane that's stuck to the insides of the shells. 

{Lemme just say this step sucks- very tedious!}

That layer starts out almost translucent but once it's dried out will be white and kind of papery. If it's left on your shells they won't break up right and pieces of it may show at the edges of your shell fragments and not look very nice. So it's gotta go. 

Next it's time to glue, and plain Elmer's works great- but it can be pretty much anything that dries clear and that you can spread across your item before applying the eggshells (so you don't want something like hot glue, that stays really raised and won't spread out.)

Here is my notebook with a section of shells glued down:

I've found it easiest to cover a small area in glue, then fill it in with the egg shell fragments. Once all the glue in that section is covered, I move over to the next area and repeat the process. It helps to have your egg shells separated into two containers- one for larger pieces and one for tiny pieces. It makes looking for the perfect size "filler" for those tiny spaces a lot quicker since the little pieces all tend to migrate to the bottom of the bowl. 

After I had the whole cover covered (haha) I went over it with two layers of mod podge and let it dry over night. 

If you have a good, glossy Mod Podge then you can probably be done at this point (or maybe just with one more layer.) My Mod Podge is actually homemade though, and dries in a matte finish. I wanted my book cover to be glossy and I also wanted to make sure the egg shells weren't going to go anywhere, so I finished it off with a layer of polycrylic sealer. 

Here it is finished:

I love that this little book is now so unique and has tons of texture.

Thanks so much Holly & Nat for having me !! 

Thank you Brooke, this is such a great idea. {And it's perfect timing with all of those leftover eggs from Easter!} You guys must go check out her outstanding design sense and the projects she's done in her home... it is beautiful! Brooke was one of our very first blog friends, and we love her :)

Brooke's eggshell notebook is one of the amazing handmade gifts included in our Giveaway Package. If you haven't entered yet, don't procrastinate any longer :) We'll see you tomorrow for the last guest post in our "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" series... Sierra from the Blue Robin Cottage has something really special to share!

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