Altered Books

It can be really fun to create art inside a book!! If you love to collect old books, you may be familiar with the aesthetic of holding, opening, and smelling an old book.. there is just something special about it. 

This week for Demo, Bekah was the demonstrator! She showed some ideas for altering books and shared her take.. what wonderful ideas!! 

There are SO MANY different concepts to consider when you alter a book... Here are some ideas!! 

Use an X-acto Knife and a cutting mat to create unique cuts into old pages... back the final page with a solid piece of decorative paper to create a nice focal point. You can add findings to hide throughout your book... like hidden keys or old stamps or fun pieces of art you may have collected.. 

You can also take an old canvas book and tear open the front of the canvas and add in handmade papers!!! 

Pictured below, you can see how the book is torn open in the middle with textured paper added. Then, add ink to bring out the texture and add in a Dragon Eye. In the sample below, you can see the molten-lava looking medium.. that is hot glue with Composition Gold Leaf applied to the hot glue... what a cool effect!! 

Sometimes in old books there might be water stains... in this idea you can see how we used the water stains to start a doodle!! Just go where your mind takes you... add in collage and decorative papers to make the journal more expressive of your ideas!! 

You can re-cover your old books to make them look WAY more exciting!! 

• Add Charms or Metal findings!! 
• Create new and unusual bookmarks!
• Add decorative and handmade papers to make your book more fun!! 

You can use inks to colorize backgrounds and then use an X-acto Knife to cut out designs and overlay them so you can see the ink behind it... 

Doodle on your book pages and then use an X-acto Knife to cut out your designs!! Use Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive  to glue layers of paper together to add dimension to your altered book.. 

Now, I have to share this AMAZING idea that Bekah came up with!! 

Bekah has used powerful female figures to inspire her art recently.. and her ideas are just AMAZING!! 

She used the book I Am Malala and traced the cover of the book onto tracing paper 

Then, Bekah used the tracing to create bold areas to lay out where she would be cutting her book 

Using her design on tracing paper, Bekah created a stencil from a sheet of Acetate.

In the SAME BOOK that she took the portrait design from, she created her Altered Book.
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She traced out areas with a pencil. She then glued some pages together with Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive and used an X-acto Knife to cut out the chunks of paper where she traced. 

Then, Bekah took Nuvo Blending Sponges and added ink to the page behind the portrait. She applied Distress Ink, Walnut Stain ink to the entire page. 

​When the page is turned, the portrait really stands out!! 

Next, Bekah took the same stencil and Nuvo Mousse. She used 3 colors of Mousse: Aubergine (purple), Black Ash (grey), and Toasted Almond (ivory). 

To make a skin tone, she used her palette knife on a silicone craft mat and added a few particles of  Jupiter Color Burst and a TINY BIT of Toasted Almond Nuvo Mousse. The ivory tones of the Toasted Almond Mousse mixed with the orange tones of the Jupiter Color Burst make a beautiful skin tone. 

Then Bekah used the Aubergine for Malala's scarf and the Black Ash for her hair and eyes.

She used the same book as the cutting above, just used a different grouping of pages farther in the book

I love how Bekah used the same theme for her art as the book.. it really just ties it all together!!

What beautiful and clever ideas, Bekah!!



Next week is Thanksgiving, we will have NO DEMO!! 
Join us for the following week's Demo as we explore the world of Paper Lanterns!!