Creating a Book Of Shadows and a Grimoire

 Sage Garden notebook by Creative Papers Online

So what is a Book of Shadows? A Book of Shadows is your personal collection of information relevant to your personal experience with Wicca/Paganism/Magick. Think of it as a journal filled with your experiences in relation to your spirituality. In mine, I write about times when I've sent energy out into the world (positive and negative), Altar set-ups I've used, my experiences in using various candles or certain incenses etc. This is very different from a Grimoire, which is a book of referential information like the Magickal correspondences of Herbs or Aromatherapy, or like diagrams of the proper way to oil candles for magickal use. So let's examine the creation of the Magickal Grimoire and the Book of Shadows.
A Book of Shadows is typically hand-written-- it doesn't HAVE to be that way, but it is supposed to be very personal to you, so it

makes sense to write everything in it by hand. Any kind of blank book will do, lined or filled with empty pages, but it is preferred to use a hard-bound book as they will last much longer.  This will be a sacred part of your spirituality, so dedicating the book is a must. Just write a short poem or ritual into the front cover of the book, blessing it, something to the effect of, "I dedicate this book for my spiritual enlightenment to 'enter deity here', so mote it be." The notebook pictured to the right is like mine: handmade paper, handmade hard-bound cover, very earthy. I've linked the website where you can purchase these sort of hand-made notebooks and journals-- just click the image. It used to be that I would only buy books with blank pages for my BOS (I like to doodle on the pages when I'm thinking about what to write), but it seems that these days, if I see one that just sort of calls to me, that's going to be my next BOS.
So what should you put into it? What should your content be? Pretty much anything you want: spells, rituals, dreams, notes about your spiritual journey-- all of these are things you can write about in your BOS. I also record notes about esbat/sabbat celebrations, the interpretations I got from tarot spreads, and interesting horoscopes. If you need inspiration, CollegeWicca.com has some great pages of information you can copy into your BOS.

 Morrigan Book of Shadows Leather Blank Book Ox Blood Red

I use my grimoire as strictly a place to note reference material. Magickal correspondences of colors, candles, herbs, etc can be entered into your grimoire along with a dream dictionary, information about moon phases, uses of the various altar tools, creating amulets and talismans, citing tarot spreads you have used, information about your astrological sign and natal birth chart, medicinal uses of herbs, etc.  You can make your own Grimoire using a book-binding kit or you can make one out of a scrapbook-- either way, you should  have a hard-bound book with lots of room and pages, so you can decorate them to your liking, and have room to glue bits if herbs you find for your herbology notes. Your grimoire should be a constant process-- every time you find a new piece of information, put it in your grimoire. The more information you have in it from books you have read or more experienced Witches you know, the better of a grimoire you can make. A book blessing is also appropriate with a grimoire, and in it I would also recommend creating a table of contents so that you can easily look up information in yours.