Interesting article on altered books...

23 years ago

Ready to start an altered book or art journal? Here's how to do it.

Suggested supplies to choose from:

Â 1 blank art journal or printed book

Â Paints: watercolors, acrylics, Jacquard brand translucent colors, artists' inks.

Â Applicators: brushes, sponges, toothpicks.

Â Pens: Pilot V Ball or other roller ball pen, paint pens, squeeze paints, archival markers, photo tinting markers, colored pencils.

Â Papers and fabrics: card stock, tags, bingo cards, vellum, ticket stubs, newsprint, magazine clippings, stamps, fabric scraps, colored threads, ribbons.

Â Scissors, hole punch, craft knife, cutting mat.

Â Adhesives: UHU or Avery brand glue stick, white craft glue, mono-adhesive double-sided tape.

Â Photos: instant camera photos, laser color or black-and-white copies, postcards, drawings.

Â Embellishments: lace, hankies, charms, beads, alphabet beads, minibottles, screen, grommets, tassels, wire, dried flowers.

Directions: Because many pages are thin and your work may be heavy, you may want to adhere two pages before working on them. Next, I prefer to create the backgrounds for several page spreads in advance. Begin by dripping or brushing on color and let dry. Taking one page spread at a time, come up with a theme. Don't glue anything until you have rotated the items you are using to find a look you like. Create one focal point in the design to avoid its being too busy. If you are not into collage art, paint or draw pictures.

Tips: If using a blank book, you may need to remove some of the pages from the back of the book to ensure that the cover will close. To hold small items, glue an envelope to a page in the back. Feel free to let your designs extend beyond the pages by attaching foldout panels or sliding cards. Tear edges off the pages for a textured effect. Use your craft knife to cut out shapes, frames and pockets. If you have trouble getting started, begin by making lists in your book that you can add layers to. The ideal book is one with a good balance of color, design and balance. Don't be afraid to try a new technique or color scheme. Start with a theme that will come easy for you: Spiritual, self-expression, travel, family history, gardening, pop culture, music, movies, etc. Look at thrift stores or used book sales for unwanted but eye appealing cookbooks, kids books, textbooks, old dictionaries. Choose ones that are made from heavy paper and will work well with a variety of mediums. Don't feel you have to decorate every single page, choose random pages that comes with interesting photos or words that you can build a theme around.

And if that's not enough, see her stuff for inspiration at

http://www.craftychica.homestead.com/

Enjoy!

Here is a link that might be useful: Kathy Cano-Murillo

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (4)

rosie_ga
23 years ago
Thanks for the info......will read with coffee in the AM so hopefully I can retain it. I bought several blank books and board books today. Have to decide exactly what theme I want them to have. I think the board books will work out great because the paper won't wrinkle so much with a harder background.
alison
22 years ago
Has anyone done this kind of altered book? I'm thinking of starting one, round-robin style, with a couple of friends. You know, do a section, and mail it to someone else, who has 2-3 weeks to do something and pass it along.

I suppose you should agree on a general theme before you start. And let everyone know in advance, so they can start accumulating things they might want to use.

Are there any other things I should think of in advance?

(Thanks for the links taunial -- it's a great start!)
Related Discussions
Interesting article about a cherry tree
Q
Comments (2)
"Of course, there is the possibility that exposure to stronger cosmic rays accelerated the process of sprouting and overall growth," she said. Of course, the more plausible explanation is that genetics of the parent tree were altered by the pollen with which the seed was fertilized, not altered by cosmic rays. Silly story.
...See More
interesting article about garden books
Q
Comments (2)
I hardly buy any book full price either - love Amazon, Abe Books, etc. Plus I love antique gardening books (some I found on that auction website). Ying, do you know about the Chinese garden being installed at the Huntington Library & Gardens? There is no estimated finish date - it's open when they're done, LOL. I'm sure you can see some of the plans on their website. I'm very excited about it.
...See More
Books/Articles on clematis pollen compatibility
Q
Comments (2)
Miguel, I asked that same question in the past few years for the same reasons. What I seem to remember was that the montanas and the atragenes don't seem to cross with the other types. Grey-Wilson's subgenus Cheiropsis, section Montanae seems to be a closed loop in terms of crossing from what I've been able to find (the Hull database shows no crosses outside of it, though there are crosses within it, such as C. chrysocoma x C. montana var rubens). Likewise, the his Atragene subgenus seems to be closed as well, crosses I can find only exist within it (fauriei x sibirica, etc.). I've not troubled myself with some of the subgenuses since they're not hardy here (like Meclatis), but there are plenty of examples on the web, in the Hull database and in other places of crosses among the large Flammula and Viorna subgenera. The Tubulosae subgenus crosses with itself, and there are successful crosses with the Flammula subgenus (x jouiniana is C. heracleifolia var. davidiana x C. vitalba, for example). I have a large list of less obvious successfl crosses I've found evidence of (fusca x lanuginosa, for example). If you'd like the list, email me and I'll send it to you. I think the person who told me about montanas and atragenes not crossing out of their own subgenus might have been Paul over in Gardenbuddies. Let us know what crosses you do come up with, though!
...See More
Interesting article about effect of social media
Q
Comments (11)
I was thinking this morning about how to reduce the polarization. I have no idea how to deal with the social media issue, but I think that the structure of our two party system and the electoral college contribute to polarization. I think that ranked choice voting would be a good first step. Think of a primary with 15 or 20 candidates, which we had in this election and in 2016. You tend to have a lot of candidates in the middle of the field and a few that are farther to the left of right. The middle-of-road vote gets split among a bunch of candidates, which gives the more extreme candidates an opening, even though collectively the middle-of-the-field candidates have more support. In ranked choice voting, you choose your 1st choice candidate, 2nd choice, etc. When they tally the votes, they do it in rounds. After the 1st round, they eliminate the candidate with the lowest number of 1st choice votes. The vote of anyone who listed that candidate as their first choice gets reallocated to their second choice candidate. The votes are retallied and the last place candidate is again dropped. Repeat, until you run out of rankings (I think I've only had to rank up to 5 candidates, even when the field was larger). I hesitate to use concrete examples for fear of setting off censorship. But if you are voting on 3 candidates, who we will call Left, Middle, and Right (though within a party primary, one of those would be "center), and the people who like the Left candidate put Middle as their second choice, and people who like the right candidate put Middle as their second choice, then the candidate in the middle will get the nomination. The primaries are a good place to start (especially since it is purely up to the parties). But what if we went further, and used it in the general election? And what if the Electoral College used ranked-choice voting (that would definitely take a constitutional amendment)? I think with that change you could have more than two major parties, and the ranking would push the final choice toward the middle. I think. I'm obviously ready for some serious reform.
...See More
gardengardengardenga
22 years ago
How would a round robin work...would you just have your friends add to the book and then at the end you would get the book back and just keep it? Put it on the web? Share it?
Lia_SC
22 years ago
hi, I just posted about ABs on the Craft & Dec page (post about going away gift). I'm in a round robin right now. Each participant passes their book to the same person after a certain length of time (1 month in our case). Each time we get another book, we work in it and send it on to that same person. Eventually our books come back to us. We formed a yahoo group just for sharing about our progress, and to post pictures.
And yes, I think the main thing is to have a theme.
I was really scared to take part in one of these, but now I highly recommend a round robin. I've also heard of "Tip Ins" --a kind of swap where others send pages or spreads that you "tip in" to your book. You can attach the pages directly to other pages, or cut off existing pages leaving only a tab, and glue the tip-in to that.

Interesting article on altered books...

Comments (4)

rosie_ga

alison

Related Discussions

gardengardengardenga

Lia_SC

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US