This Instructable is a Magic Spell Book. Flip through the pages and they are blank, but say the magic word and when you flip through the pages again, they are magically printed with spells. Yes, this is an an actual magic trick that you can perform live for your friends. How cool is that?

Credit:
This Instructable is inspired by the "Svengali Book" magic trick found on page 352 of the "Mark Wilson Course in Magic". I made some modifications to insure that the secret to this trick would not be given away during performance.

Step 1: What You Will Need:

You will need the following:

Download the following 2 files
- Magic Spell Book - Spell Pages.pdf (Link below)
- Magic Spell Book - Cover.pdf (Link below)
A printer for printing all the pages and the cover
18 sheets of printer paper (These will be blank)
16 sheets of additional printer paper (on which to print the spell pages)
Two sheets of Parchment Cover Stock for the front and back covers (Or any other specialty stock paper that is heavier and stiffer than regular printer paper)
Paper Cutter
Stapler
A sliding plastic binding (Can be bought with clear cellophane report covers)
Ruler for measurig
Pencil for making marks for cutting

Step 2: Download and Print Your Pages

If you haven't done so yet, download your pages and print them on your printer:

Magic Spell Book - Spell Pages.pdf (Link below)
Magic Spell Book - Cover.pdf (Link below)

Print the Spell pages to 16 sheets of printer paper.

Print the Spell Book Cover to one of the sheets of Parchment specialty cover stock. The other sheet will be the back cover of the book.

There will be one extra sheet of printer paper. Set it aside. It will be set used in Step 6.

Step 3: Trim Your Blank Pages

This magic trick works because some of the pages are trimmed at the top corners while others are trimmed at the bottom corners.

Start with the 17 blank pages you still have left.

Take 1 of the 17 of the blank pages. Measure 3/16 inches across from the top right corner and make a mark. Then measure 3 inches down the right side of the page from the top and make another mark. Use your pencil to make a light line connecting the two marks.

Place this page back on top of the other 16 pages and line them all up.

Then carefully line up the line you drew with the edge of your paper cutter and cut through all 17 pages. It will be a bit difficult, but it can be done. This will make it so that all 17 pages have the same cut corner.

Step 4: Trim Your Spell Pages

Take 8 of the printed spell pages and turn them face down. You are going to trim these pages like you did with the blank pages before, but on the bottom right corner.

Take one sheet from this pile and measure 3/16 inches from the bottom right corner and mark it with your pencil. Then measure 3 inches up from the bottom right corner and mark it, then use your ruler to connect the marks, making your trim line.

Use your paper cutter to trim along the line you just made. REMEMBER: Check to make sure you are trimming these sheets FACE down!

Step 5: Continuing to Trim Your Spell Pages

Take one of the 8 remaining printed spell pages, keep it face up, and mark the upper right corner for trimming as you did in step 3. Place that back on top of your other stack of 7 spell pages and use the paper cutter to trim those corners. REMEMBER: These pages are FACE UP when you trim them.

Step 6: Assembling the Pages

You are now ready to assemble the pages.

You should now have the following:

A printed front cover and blank back cover
A stack of 9 blank pages trimmed at the top right corner
A stack of 8 blank pages trimmed at the bottom right corner
A stack of 8 printed spell pages trimmed at the bottom right corner
A stack of 8 printed spell pages trimmed at the top right corner.

The easiest way to assemble your pages is to place everything on a table in the following fashion:

Stack 1 = The stack of 9 BLANK pages with the trimmed corner on the UPPER LEFT
Stack 2 = The stack of 8 BLANK pages with the trimmed corner on the BOTTOM LEFT
Stack 3 = The stack of 8 PRINTED spell pages FACE UP with the trimmed corner on the BOTTOM LEFT
Stack 4 = The stack of 8 PRINTED spell pages FACE DOWN with the trimmed corner on the TOP RIGHT

Start by placing one page from Stack 1 in front of you.

Then place one page from each stack in front of you in order, starting with Stack 1. (Stack 1, Stack 2, Stack 3, then Stack 4 ).

Repeat this, placing the pages in order on top of each other from Stacks 1, 2, 3, and 4 until all of the pages from each of the stacks are gone.

What you have now is the book in order from the bottom to the top. Add the one blank sheet of printer paper to the top of this stack and then flip it over from left to right. Now, place the printed cover on the top and the back cover on the bottom of the stack. All the pages should be in order from top to bottom.

Step 7: Binding the Pages

In total we now have 36 pages, including the front and back covers.

The pages should be in order from top to bottom. If you turn through each page, you will see that it starts off with 1 blank page, then 2 more blank pages, then 2 printed pages, 2 blank pages, 2 printed pages, 2 blank pages, etc. The printing on the printed pages should be aligned correctly.

Make sure that all the pages are square along the left edge. This will be the spine of the book. It is important that all the pages are squared along this edge and that no edges are sticking out along the top, right or bottom edges. This will insure that the book will work correctly during performance.

Once the pages are all squared up, use a heavy duty stapler and staple the left edge of the book near near the top, bottom and in the middle, about 3/8 in from the left edge.

After the left edge has been stapled, slide the plastic binding onto the spine.

Step 8: Your Spell Book Is Complete - Go Forth and Amaze Your Friends!

You now have a completed Magic Spell Book. Next, you have to learn how to use it.

Step 9: How to Perform the Magic Spell Book

Now this is the really cool part! You get to learn how to perform this trick for your friends.

Explain to your friends that all students were given a spell book during your first year at Wizarding School, but when you received your copy, it had no spells in it. The pages were completely blank. As you explain this, hold the book by the spine with your right hand. With you left hand flip through the pages at the TOP corner of the book and you will see all the pages are blank. (This is because of the pages we trimmed at the top corners)

Close the book and explain that your assignment when you got the book was to figure out the magic word in order to see all the spells. Tell everyone that you tried many different magic spells until you finally found out that it was YOUR magic word (Mine is, "Bazinga!") You say the magic word and then, with your left hand, flip through the pages at the BOTTOM corner of the book. Now everyone will see that all the pages are printed with magic spells. (This is because of the pages we trimmed at the bottom corners)

The key on performing this is not to bring attention to the fact that your hand is in two different positions as you page through the book each time. The way to do that is to take a little bit of time between when you show the blank pages and when you show them printed so your audience will not notice where your hand was. This the moment when you should explain how you tried many different spells, but none of them worked. Then you position your hand at the bottom and page through and nobody will even notice.

Have fun with this trick and remember that the first rule of magic is NOT to reveal the secret to your audience.

Check out my video as well to see how this trick is performed.

FINAL NOTE: I made this book with a Harry Potter theme, but it can be made using any theme you wish. You can print out your own pages and cover art and still cut the pages as described. Be creative and have fun with this.

I hope you enjoy making and performing this trick.

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