Night light glow in the dark book tutorial

I came up with this idea the other day after reading Bean one of her favorite bedtime story books. Or, maybe I was talking about it, I can’t remember. The point is, I’m a genius and this is the best idea ever. My husband’s mom handed down this book (pictured below) to Bean when she was just a baby and I fell in love with it immediately.

First of all, it’s a rogue library book that never made it back. Second of all, I grew up watching Muppet Babies. Third of all, it GLOWS! I went searching online for more like it but didn’t find any. Then I had THE idea of all good ideas. Hello, they make glow in the dark paint. Why don’t I just make my own?

I picked up some glow in the dark paint at Joann’s and a cheap board book. I entertained the idea of using glow in the dark puffy paint but was afraid it would cover the design underneath too much. This is what the paint looked like after a few thick coats of wet paint.

This is what it looks like dry. I ended up doing about 2 generously thick coats for each page. I randomly selected areas I wanted to make “glow”. This was a shape book, so I tried to stick along the lines of highlighting the different shapes. If you’re second guessing just how effective the paint is, here it is in action…

Excuse the blurs, Daddy and Bean were rocking as they read and I didn’t want to interrupt. It worked better than I expected! Here’s a little hint that we used on the Muppet Babies book and this one to really make it glow: put the book directly under a lamp or light source to charge up the paint so that it glows really bright. Read a page, charge it, then turn the lamp off and watch it glow.

We have a winner! She loved it and I was so happy with how easy the project was and how well it turned out. Now, what else can I make glow in the dark…