How to Make a Harry Potter Library: Printable Wizard-Themed Book Covers and How to Use Them

Author:
Adele Jeunette
Updated date:
Apr 22, 2020

Adele has been a youth librarian for 20 years. She has learned lots about making crafts easy and inexpensive.

Printable Wizard-Themed Book Covers: These would make good decor for Hogwarts Library for a Harry Potter party.

When I was casting about for a way to decorate some bookshelves to look like the Hogwarts Library, I came across a site that included printable spines you could put on old books to make them look like they came from a wizarding library.

They are great for books that you want to shelve with the spine facing out, but I found myself wondering if I could do the same with books that I wanted to display with the cover facing out.

I came up with a way to do it using a regular 8.5” x 11” piece of paper. I thought I’d share them with you so that you can make your own wizarding library books. Consider combining them with the spines I linked to above for a book that looks magical from any angle.

Items Needed

Color printouts of book covers listed below
Old hardback books
Washi tape or masking tape (I found that the washi tape I bought on sale at a craft store didn’t really stick that well. The Scotch Expressions Masking Tape held much better. You can get it in a variety of colors and patterns.)
Scissors
Transparent tape

Some of the things you will need to make these wizard-themed books. Printouts of the book covers, a hardback books, washi tape (or colored masking tape).

1. Print Out Book Covers

I put an index photo just below so that you can see what kind of book covers are available. If you want to get them, you'll need to scroll down a bit and you will see the link to a pdf document that has a printable copy of each of the covers shown below.

You may use them for personal or educational use. Commercial use is prohibited.

Photo Index of Wizard Book Covers

Here are most of the wizard-themed book covers you can find on this site. I've added covers for guides to mermaids, centaurs, and castles as a bonus. Just keep scrolling down and you will see them.

Link For Printable Wizard-Themed Book Covers

Here is the link: Printable Wizard-Themed Book Covers

It's in pdf form. If you just want a few of the book covers, be sure to set your printer to print just those pages.

2. Take the Dust Cover Off Your Hardcover Book

You can use these wizard-themed book covers on almost any size book you want, but I find they work best on a book between 9 and 10 inches tall and between 1 and 1.5 inches thick. You can use books you have around the house. Since the covers are put on with washi tape, you can peel it right off after your wizard event and have your book back good as new. If you want to keep the books around longer, you can look for inexpensive hardbacks at thrift stores or used book sales, like the ones libraries have.

Take the original dust jacket off your book. You will be replacing it with one of these printable wizard-themed dust jackets.

3. Mark the Size of Your Book on the New Book Cover

Put the book cover you printed out face down on your surface and use a pencil to mark the top and bottom of your book. Roughly center the book lengthwise on the paper.

Mark where the top and bottom of the book are to give you guidelines for folding.

4. Fold the Top and Bottom of the Paper

Keeping your printout face down, fold down from the top and up from the bottom so that your “dust jacket” fits the size of the book.

Fold the top and bottom and run your fingers along the fold to give it a good crease.

5. Place the Cover on the Book and Fold It Around the Front

Keep your printed book cover face down and place the book on top of it. Make sure the edges of the paper are lined up with the edges of the book. Open the front cover of the book and fold just a little of your paper cover around it.

Fold the paper cover about 1/4 inch around the front hardback cover of your book.

6. Use a Couple of Pieces of Transparent Tape To Anchor the Folded Cover in Place

I’ve found that fastening the cover down with a couple of pieces of clear tape makes it much easier to position the washi or masking tape you will use next.

Put a little transparent tape to hold the cover in place so that you can put the washi or masking tape over it.

7. Place the Washi or Making Tape Along the Length of the Cover

If you can find tape in a complementary cover or pattern, it can make the cover look like it was supposed to be there all along.

Place the washi or masking tape along the inside cover and trim the edges with scissors.

8. Wrap the Cover Over the Front and Around the Spine, Fasten With Washi or Masking Tape

Now that you have your wizard-themed book cover secured on the inside of the front cover of the book, wrap the paper cover around the front and spine of the book and fasten it in the back. The paper won't cover the whole back of the book, but if you display the book face out, it won’t matter what the back looks like. Just as you did on the front inside cover, you can anchor the paper with transparent tape, and then put the washi or masking tape over it.

Wrap your wizard-themed cover around the front and spine of the book, and then tape it on the back.

Here are a couple of old hardback books turned into wizarding books using the printable covers from this article.

Printable Wizard-Themed Book Covers

I put these on the bookshelves to decorate a “Hogwarts Library” section during a recent Harry Potter party. They gave a nice ambiance to the spot. I’ve included a few books about the dark arts so that you can put them in a “Restricted Section” if you like.

I've includes pictures of each of the covers below. If you'd like to make your covers a different size than 8.5" X 11", you may right-click and copy the photo and paste it in a publishing program to resize. The resolution will just not be as sharp as the pdf documents which you can get by clicking the orange link above.

Feasts from the Forest without Poisoning Your Guests

How to Win Over Wizards and Influence Witches

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the Dark Arts

Guide to the Best Castles of the Wizarding World

Books with wizard-themed book covers displayed on bookshelf

Enjoy Your Wizarding Event and Decor

I hope you enjoy using these wizard-themed book covers. I’ve made them quick printables so that they are easy to use. Remember, the link to the pdf file is above. Look for the clickable orange words just after the visual index near the top of this article.

Happy wizarding!