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Grace Grits and Gardening - Altered Book How To

Grace Grits and Gardening – Altered Book Project

I started working on an altered book several months ago. You can read about it HERE. Since then, I work on it sporadically, often clipping out pictures or jotting down ideas for future pages. Sometimes I actually sit down with my Mod Podge and work for hours. Time has a way of disappearing when I work on my altered book…

I thought I’d let you see a few of my latest pages.

I made two pages from the Christmas cards I received. I love love love the holidays and wanted to have a section in my book devoted to Christmas.

For the next page (below) I cut Christmas cards into circles. As you can see I did it freehanded. The edges aren’t neat and perfect. They don’t need to be. I like the idea of having my cute neighbor kids’ faces in my book.

Below is my “Me” page (front and back). I’m still working on this one. Or maybe it’s finished. I’m not sure.

I also added a calendar insert to my altered book to make it practical as well as inspirational. This year I am planning out my blog posts and other writing three months in advance. As you can see, I change my mind a lot, but I do feel more organized.

I’m working on a few other pages in the garden and kitchen sections of my altered book, but I’ll show you those later.

Grace Grits and Gardening

P.S. I have an Altered Book board on Pinterest. Take a look at the possibilities.

“I dream my painting and I paint my dream.”
― Vincent van Gogh

I know it’s sinful to deface a book. But, if you think about it, an altered book is recycling a volume that no longer has value to a reader. And yes, there are out-of-date books no longer read such as Encyclopedias or textbooks on antiquated subjects.

This was my first attempt at making an altered book. I am in no way an artist or paper crafter. (Yes, a disclaimer.) I forged straight into the project with minimal research to see where my mind would take me without prompting. As the basis for my altered book, I used an old Better Homes and Garden binder purchased at a flea market. The original book was filled with loose-leaf pages about landscaping and gardening which tied into my Grace Grits and Gardening theme (not that the original book needs a tie-in). My goal was to update the original book, allowing a portion of the old to blend with the new.

My supplies included a few pieces of scrapbook paper, four dated magazines, Mod Podge, Gesso and scissors.

Here is the before picture of the original book.

Original book

Here are a few of the ‘before’ pages from the book.

I added Gesso which makes the individual pages stronger and ready for embellishment.

For this page, I cut a heart shape into about twenty pages, then glued the pages together to make one thick page. I coated the front and back in Mod Podge to stiffen, added words and paint, then added a picture to the back so that it showed through the heart cutout. A 3-D page…

glue individual pages together

add words and paint

3-D heart page

Several of my pages drying…

The after cover. Some of the original artwork and lettering still peeps through.

After

Over time, I plan to add many more pages, including blank pages for journaling and additional decoration such as buttons, pictures, fabric. This is definitely a work in process. Maybe I’ll post more on this project later.

Have you ever made an altered book or art journal?

talya

Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

How to Make an Altered Book (part two)

How to Make an Altered Book

Food. Farm. Garden. Life.