Updated photos of spell book pages from my Stregheria

This is a very long process, thank you for being patient! 

My blog was marked as spam by Pinterest so I have to start over again : )

A collection of my hand-drawn/written spell book pages.
Most of these spells/tips/information on all-things-witchy came from Pinterest.
I altered some ideas and added ingredients to the spells/sachets.
And there are [MANY] errors that give it "character".
I've been working on the spell book for over two years (summer 2018) and will keep updating the spell pages as they are completed.

*Might sell this book and start over...because who doesn't have 2+ years of free time?! Kidding, but I still might sell this book and other mini versions of it (another project) in the future.

Currently on page 116 of 146

All of the pages are named so if you're having a hard time finding that Pin on Pinterest just search for it by the Pin name (ctrl+F). 

I also made the photos extra large so it would be easier for you to read. 

 

Title page

Behind the title page is my (empty) table of contents. 

I plan on filling this in when I complete the book. 

Also you can see how the marker bled through on the title page, 

I switched up the marker (half way through) but this caused me to want to fill out the pages before I bind the book the next round!

**I had planned on writing on both of the front and back pages but after starting to write with various markers and pens I noticed they bled through the other side.
If you wish to write on both sides try sticking with a school marker (my sheet above in brown marker didn't bleed through). 

The Pagan Calendar; I messed up the orginal page when I was drawing the icons, so I cut out a circle in scrap paper and glued it on top. 

Types of Witches 

The 13 Witches Runes 

The 13 Witches Runes 

The 13 Witches Runes 

Witches Tools 

Kitchen Witchery

=

Magical Uses for Household Herbs 

Poisonous Herbs

The Pentagram

Also a nice example of the wear & tear my book as endured, see the watermark on "Air".

Here's an example of how I used scrap paper to cover up my mistakes:

From my old blog "And I messed up (not just once)

When I was drawing out the Pentagram I messed up one the bottom left leg and tried to fix it by adding a criss-cross design to all the legs...ugh

After a couple of days I decided I just couldn't live with it anymore!

So I cut out a circle from my extra dyed paper stash and used a glue stick to cover it up." 

   

Pentagram

Finding Feathers

Moon phases

Moon Magic Throughout the Year 

Moon Magic: During a Cycle

Crystal Uses

The Healing Power of Crystals

Pendulum Magic

Pendulum Tips & Map 

Pendulum Tips & Map 

Pendulum Tips & Map 

Recharge Yourself with Crystals 

Incense Correspondences 

The Meaning of Incense Smoke

Candle Colors: What they mean 

Candle Magic Omens

Palm Reading

Palm Reading

Healing Hand

Chakra

Chakra

Blocked Chakra

Tarot table of card meanings

Tarot Birth Card

Five Tarot Tricks

Here's the start to my different tarot spreads:

Good Morning Spread - when you need to wake up with clarity 

Life Advice Spread  

Are They the ONE? Spread

Full Moon Spread Present Life Explained by Past Life Spread 

Present Life Explained by Past Life Spread 

Present Life Explained by Past Life Spread 

Bad Feeling Spread

Should They be Trusted? Spread

Whispers of Your Ancestors Spread

Deathly Hallows Spread 

The start of my Witchy Tips

Mint oil for LUCK

Walnut Magic

Egg Magic

Bay Leaves

Basil Magic

Lemongrass Magic

Rosemary Magic

Protection Sachet

I have to retake this photo, I didn't realize the bay leaf was covering the word, excuse me!

Chili Pepper Magic

Almond Magic

Pine Branch Magic

Rice Magic

Potatoe Magic

Seaweed Magic

Lemon Juice Magic

Anointing Candles 

Dressing Candles

Thyme Magic

Toilet Paper Magic

Sugar Magic

Mint Sprig Magic

Prosperity Magic BEST DONE ON THURSDAYS! 

The start on my section of: Making Sachets & Jars
Protection Jar

Anti-Anxiety Jar

No More Nightmares Jar

Making Sachets & Jars:

Prosperity Jar

Creativity Jar

Motivation Jar

Making Sachets & Jars:

Vehicle Protection Sachet

Door Protection Sachet

Smudging & Plant Pairings 

Magical Properties of Trees & Greenery 

Magical Properties of Trees & Greenery 

Cedar

Oak

Birch 

Ash

Magical Properties of Trees & Greenery 

Pine 

Willow

Ivy 

Elder

How to enchant your pen

Use this to when writing in your spellbook for an extra umph of magic!

The start of my Spells section

Good Times in the Day to Perform Spells

Best Days of the Week for Spells & Rituals 

Spells: To Calm & Center Your Emotions 
I pasted over a scrap piece of paper to re-do the title of this spel, I unfortunately used the wrong shade of paper and it is noticeable. BUT I made many mistakes in this book and pasted over it with similar scrap paper and it was barley noticeable, so improvements! 

Spells: To Improve Psychic Vision 

Spells: To Find a New House

Spells: Home Protection

Spells: Chant for Peace of Mind

Spells: Cleansing Chant

Spells: Sleep Spell

Spells: To Dream of your Soulmate

Spells: Dream Chant 

Spells: Moon Cycle 

Spells: Full Moon Wish
Full Moon Enchantment

Spells: Full Moon Wish & Blessing

Spells: New Moon Wishing 

Moon Spell Cookies
Healing Moon Chant

Spells: Jewelry Enchantment 

Spells: Protective Cat Charm

Spells: Lost Objects

Spells: Return a Lost Cat 

Spells: Four Corners Home Blessing

Spells: Broom

House Blessing

Spells: Release 

Spells: Break-up Cleansing
To End Unwanted Romantic Feelings

Spells: To Heal Heartbreak 

Spells: To Bind a Bully

Spells: To Bind and Heal a Painful Memory

Spells: To Release Negative Energy 

Spells: Banishing Someone

Spells: Depression Banishing 

Spells: To Gain Forgiveness 

Spells: White Magick Revenge 

Spells: Instant Karma 

Spells: To Reveal an Unseen Enemy  

This is the last page I have created, hopefully I can create more in a short amount of time!

I also started an index for the last few pages to help me find what I am searching for. 

Once the book is done I'll transfer the list onto the spellbook page. 

Last Page

A quote from Terry Pratchett

This passage resonates a deep power in me, it teaches me to be strong and do not fear others as they should fear me!

House painting

Painting my double shot-gun style house

Look at how pretty she is. 

I use trace paper for most drawings when I need to be accurate.
 I laid down my computer screen and found a nice photo of my place on google maps.
The canvases were purchased at Dollar Tree *which is where most of my small project canvases are bought from - most of the time they have a nice selection*
I used two 6x8 inch canvases. 

                                                                   First in pencil

                     Initially I painted a day time background but then decided for a darker blue 

                           background with one of the best night time features: the MOON. 

All finished. For the smaller details on the black iron fence and screen door I used a 

black fine tip permanent marker. 

Did you notice my signature stamp and the year in the bottom right corner...yup I painted this in 2018 but finally posted it in 2020. Shocked? I wouldn't be. Ha.

On display and off center. 

DIY: A Question & Answer Journal for 3 years

 I recently discovered a book where you fill out a question a day for 5 years or shorter/longer depending on the type of book.

I liked the idea, was about to purchase it for $10.99 and then said NOPE, I can make that. 

I found cheap journals at Walmart in September 2019 (after back to school season).

The original price was $6.99 and I bought 2 for $1.50 each.

Each journal has 192 pages. 

At first I though they meant 192 pages of paper and I figured that meant 384 total pages of paper (front & back).

I was wrong.

So initially I was going to make this a five year journal but with the pages being shortened I fit 2 questions per page and made this a 3 year journal. 

Lesson: map out (sticky note) your pages before you start your project!

Materials:

• Journal
• Scissors or paper cutter guillotine 
• Glue stick or adhesive spray
• Markers
• Handy-dandy print out pages of questions or make your own!

Here are my questions. I will also attach a Google document so it will be easier to change up the questions to your personality.

Legend: because my questions are tailored to my personality you might want to change it

• Yellow highlight: personal questions tailored to me
• Green highlight: these questions are for holidays/events & you might want to keep them in place so they line up correctly. 
• Purple highlight: my birthday question, you might want to move this to your b-day. 
• Blue highlight: also questions that should stay at that number since it is referenced in the first cover page.
• Extra question ideas at the bottom to replace my personal ones. 

House Blessing/Smudge Box DIY

 

My very good friend and old roommate Kristina bought a new place and wanted to 

cleanse her house of any odd spirits and negativity. 

She found a smudge box on Amazon for $25.93 and asked if I thought

what it offered was worth the price. 

The package includes:

• 1 natural Abalone shell
• 1 wooden display stand (to hold shell)
• 1 gray feather (states its traditional for smudging)
• 1 Kokopelli good luck key-chain
• 2 White Sage sticks
• 3 Palo Santo sticks 

Even though the smudge kit may come at a moderate price 

(especially when you think about purchasing all of these items separately it adds up!), 

Kristina preferred a more authentic kit that I could put together in New Orleans, 

known for its witchcraft, Voodoo, and Hoodoo. 

So I went shopping in my altar supply box at home and in the French Quarter.

The items I did not have on hand I searched through many stores for the best price.

I went to the usual places I frequent like Hex, Nola Rock Co.,

& The Artists Market & Bead shop all on Decatur & Barracks St. 

I found some new places like Conjure, Voodoo Authentica, & Boutique Du Vampyre. 

There are many more places that sell the necessary supplies but on this 

day I ventured to these stores:

Here are the items I made or bought in the French Quarter:

• 1 White Sage stick - $4 (Voodoo Authentica)
• 1 Palo Santo stick - $2 (Conjure)
• 1 Mystifying Mints Ouija tin - $5.43 (Reverend Zombie's House)
• 1 Selenite wand - bought for $5 which was almost a foot long so I cut it in half (very easy to do) = $2.50 (Nola Rock Co. on Royal)
• 1 black Tourmaline - rough cut $2 (Nola Rock Co. on Decatur)
• 1 clear Quartz - rough cut $2 (Royal Street Stones)
• 1 black small altar candle - $1 (previously bought in Salem 2018)
• 1 brown small altar candle - given as a gift 
• 3 white tea light candles with herbs & crystals added (on hand)
• Bay leaf sachet - bought previously on Amazon 
• Feather stick with added stones/thread - found feathers 
• Full Moon incense cone sachet - previously bought at Walmart 40ct for $2 & came with metal cone stand 
• 4 Four Corners jars - glass jars with metal screw tops bought a 12pk  for $6+ at Michaels (with a 40% coupon) 
• Rice - $0.78 1 lb at Walmart
• Sea Salt - Hain 21oz. $1.78 at Walmart  
• Dried Lavender - 5 sachets $1.90 from Wish
• Dried Sage - from my garden $3+ for the plant at Lowes 
• Black & yellow wax - from a Halloween tea light candle - 8pk probably $1 
• 1 Match book - caught during one of many Mardi Gras parades 2019
• A handful of Salem rocks from Collins Cove bay 2018 
• Red Brick dust bag - homemade from a brick found under my house
• Cardboard Day of the Dead skull shaped box - held candles, matchbook, & rocks; Dollar Tree
• Cardboard rectangle box with magnetic closing lid - held all supplies; Dollar General $2

Total: Around $22 NOT including the Four Corners jars since I made multiple sets (3).

I wrapped most of these items in tissue paper, luckily I received a wonderful deep brown 
tissue paper from one of my purchases that day & used it on most of the pieces.  

Salem rocks, a matchbook, & three white tea candles inside the skull shaped box:

• The white tea candles were placed in an old sauce pot with enough water added to not exceed the side of the candle tin & heated to boiling. 
• Once most of the wax melted I turned off the stove & let the wax cool somewhere between translucent & opaque wax. 
• Then added dried lavender, wild yellow flowers, bay leaf pieces, & clear quartz chips (same chips as the ones on the feather stick). 
• Once the wax hardened, I wrapped each in tissue paper, also hoping they won't melt when shipped.

Altar candles - each candle color has a meaning, the colors I included are black & brown & are perfect for home blessings. Light these candles while performing the Four Corners home blessing or during smudging:

• black - safety, protection, banish negativity, pride, & shape shifting
• brown - home blessing, pets, animals, stability, locating lost items

The selenite wand is used in conjunction with the black tourmaline stone for home protection:

• Selenite (white/clear): good luck, protection, removes energy blocks, & powerful intuition stone & physic awareness. It brings a very protective, yet calming and angelic energy into your home to promote a peaceful space. Selenite crystals also have the ability to quickly unblock any stagnant or stale energy, 
• Black Tourmaline: protection against negativity = repels & blocks, transforms negative energy into positive. The powerful minerals absorb electromagnetic radiation, which makes it excellent for placing near computers and other electronics. One of the most powerful and effective crystals for anxiety, you'll feel instantly calm and relaxed by holding a stone in each hand.
• When combined: Selenite greatly magnifies the energy of anything that is placed upon it - Black Tourmaline; this makes a powerhouse protection combo. They have slightly different energy frequencies. Look at Black Tourmaline as the protective shield and Selenite as the guardian angel for your home.

Bay leaf sachet & it's uses:

• For protection, good fortune, success, strength, purification, healing & psychic powers, 
• Write a question on the bay leaf, burn it in an open flame, if it crackles & burns brightly the outcome will be positive, if it refuses to burn or smokes the outcome is negative. 
• Place a leaf under your pillow to induce prophetic dreams, also place between the bottom sheet & your mattress to attract luck while sleeping & a good night's rest. 
• Place one in each corner of your home to protect all that dwell there.
• Carry in your pocket to protect yourself against black magic.

The Mystifying Mints Ouija tin: the mints inside are the shape of a planchette (ouija eye) and are quite tasty (I have a tin for myself). Once the tin is empty, use it to place the smoldering Palo Santo or Sage stick in so you'll have a free hand to use the feather stick to waft the smoke into high ceilings. Be careful the hot tin does not burn you. Maybe use a pot holder!

Smudging: 

• Smudge sticks are used in ceremonies and rituals involving smudging, a practice that involves the burning of certain herbs (white sage, desert sage, cedar, lavender, palo santo sticks, etc.) to create a cleansing smoke bath, which is then used to purify anything from people to ritual and ceremonial space, to tools and objects. Sacred to many cultures, particularly Native Americans. 
• Sage are burned in smudging ceremonies to drive out evil spirits, negative thoughts and feelings, and to keep negative entities away from areas in which ceremonies take place.
• White sage is very common, also called salvia apiana, grown in parts of Mexico & California. Can be burned as incense sticks, tied up bundles, or individual dried leaves. Sage has a very strong potent odor similar to earthy tones & mint. 
• Palo Santo: translates to "Holy wood"  best when used for deep healing and clearing energy. Its benefits include relieving the symptoms of headaches, inflammation, emotional trauma, stress, colds and much more. Palo Santo has a citrus- like scent.

The feather stick contains one seagull tail feather (found in the sand in Long Beach, MS) 

and one blue jay tail feather (found in my backyard).

*I determined the origin of each other feather here*

The blue jay feather was hot glued at the base of the seagull feather, I added a metal Rune bead to 

the base and wrapped tan thread around the shaft.

Before I finished wrapping the end I glued on pink and green threads (with added quartz crystals) 

to the shaft and then wrapped the rest of the tan thread around it, finished the end with hot glue for security. 

The labels were cut from a brown paper bag that I received while shopping.
I made a simple outline tag, added fancy font with a black ballpoint pen, & used an 
X-acto knife to cut an X to string the cord through.
Simply tied the label around each wrapped item. 

All wrapped up

I added a rolled up instruction sheet to the box with all of the items included and their purpose. 

This photo was taken before I added instructions on using the red brick dust and the brown candle.

The sheet was made out of the same brown paper bag that was used for the labels. 

Front of instruction sheet

Back of instruction sheet

Everything fit nicely in a cardboard box approximately 8"x5"
After I laid everything down I added crumpled tissue paper to fit in the empty 
spaces so the items would not move around during shipping.
Also I plan on updating this when I hear back from Kristina to see if the wax & candles 
melted by the time it arrived in Orlando from New Orleans. Hopefully the tissue paper helped!

July Birthday Presents: Paintings

Well I moved out of my hometown a couple of years ago so sending gifts 

usually means selecting something from Amazon Prime

since the shipping is included but sometimes gifts from online feels impersonal. 

Dollar Tree sells multiple sizes in white canvas (not much bigger than a book).

They conveniently weigh nothing so it only cost about $1 to send each gift. 

Kristina's birthday gift

I don't think I have ever painted anything for Kristina that wasn't a skull or skeleton. 

She always receives an annually late skeleton christmas gift (see past posts)

White background, black skull outline I found online, & black

arrow stamps that I made out of a bent paperclip. 

Black skull outline & paperclip stamps

Elizabeth's birthday gift

We both share a love for all things Harry Potter 

and this painting has been on my list for some time.

 I researched a couple of youtube videos on Starry Hogwarts to paint my base. 

I like how it turned out but there's always room for improvement. 

Starry Night at Hogwarts 

DIY Herb Drying Pentagram Rack

Supplies:

• Sticks (find them in your backyard)
• Cotton twine (Dollar Tree)
• Something to hang it on: I had a black v-style shelf bracket (don't know the real name) from a previous buy, I believe less than $2. 

The sticks I used were about 20" long. It took my three tries searching in the backyard to find the perfect combo.

I ended up with extra sticks which is what I used for the photo diagram.

Align the sticks in a star position and have them interchange/overlap.

Tie the twine around once, wrap the twine as much as you prefer, and then tie the end and cut the string at the knot.

For the hanging strings, measure out 4-6 strings at equal length (approximately 18 inches) for each point of the star. 

Tie the 4-6 strings together at the end of each star and when finished with all 5 points tie all together towards the middle.

And hang!

Add your herbs!

I used the same Dollar Tree twine to tie the ends of my herbs to dry

On the far left point is dried basil and on the far right point is fresh basil, approximately 2 weeks from fresh to dry (brittle) 

UPDATE: DIY Spellbook Tea-dyed pages

Well I am starting over on my Stregheria....

The funny [not really] thing is I haven't even completed the first spellbook,

but I decided about half way through that I would make a new one

WITH LESS MISTAKES.

So a lesson I have learned while writing in the first book is that I should not have binded the book (sew in the pages) until I was finished with the artwork/spell writing.

I like to trace beautiful artwork or tough fonts onto the pages from my desktop screen (taken off the stand) but this has proven to be difficult when the book is bound. 

SO, I am starting over. 

Drawing out the pages first then binding the book after.

If I mess up on a page I can throw it out and start over instead of keeping the crappy page in the book or ripping it out (which is not an option in my mind). 

Also I'll be making a new type of cover, not with paper mache but with faux leather from a thrift store.... we'll get to that in a year or two 😁. 

The first step is to dye the spellbook pages with black tea BUT

this time I'm adding in a little extra to the water:

• 9 black tea bags (at first 5 tea bags weren't dark enough) 
• 2 chamomile tea bags - for health, peace, luck, money, reversing hexes, & purification 
• Handful of loose dried lavender - for love, purification, clarity of thought, visions, & wishes   
• 8-10 bay leaves - for protection, psychic powers, divination, success, granting wishes & good fortune
• Handful of dried sage - for protection, peace, sacred purification, & consecrating magical tools  

Heat the water to just before boiling & steep the herbs for 20 minutes.

Look at that steam

Set-up your kitchen factory and follow the steps from the previous DIY project (because I don't want to photograph the whole process again 😊) (make sure the tea water is cool)

*Be gentle with the pages when dipping them because they will tear easily

**Dip the page once & hang, once it has dried (about 40 minutes), dip the page again for a darker color

***I bet the tea is drinkable (before factory processed paper was added) but let's just go ahead & state: DON'T DRINK THE WATER!