Altered books are a really great project to do with friends, children or alone. There is no right or wrong way to make them.
Have you ever gone to one of those out of the way country boutique type stores? The kind where every direction you look in has something interesting to look at. This is the same idea for your altered book.
The country store didn’t get to that way in an hour or two, it took many layers and that is one of the essential elements for altered books.
They are about contrast, textures and layers feeding the eye. This is not the medium to use for the structured design pages with perfectly matched embellishments all in a row.
The first thing to do is come up with a theme. It can be very general or specific. You choose. It can be about an event or person. It can be about an emotion or relationship. It is all your choice.
As an example, we will use doing an altered book all about your mother. Think of it in turns of going into an attic and exploring the different stages of life through the papers, photos, clothing, etc.
Once you have your theme picked out, go to any place that sells old books and look for a hardback book that has character. It should be about 300 pages more or less. The dimensions of the book are totally up to you. Don't panic, you are not going to do 300 pages worth of scrap booking.
- As you are working your way through the book, wherever you want to include thickness, remove the next 5 – 10 pages to allow for the depth.
- You can cut off part of a page, fold a page over and attach with an embellishment or glue pages together for thickness and strength.
- You can add bits of newspaper for texture or a relevant story.
- You can create a pocket by adhering three sides of two adjacent pages to each other or by creating a pocket on different material and adding it into the book.
- Use bits of fabric from a wedding, christening outfit or any special event.
- Scan any old photos to preserve them onto your computer. You can print copies and age them with tea and coffee grounds. You can be comfortable altering the photo knowing the original is preserved. Even use colored pencils to black and white photos.
- Add ribbons or bows
- Paint all or part of a page.
- Use markers, colored pencils, and buttons with loop closures.
The only problem with doing it as a group project is deciding who get to keep the finished project.
