Making Altered Books

Above is a section of my first Altered Book which has been glued, stamped, painted, and sewn to make a fun little piece of art. As you may know, space ships are an often explored theme in my artwork.

I've been thinking about Altered Books today. I used to teach (or rather, guide) troubled teens to make them, and I'm thinking about doing that again. Unless you've seen or heard of them before, I am sure you have a few questions, the first being, "What the heck is an Altered Book?"

Simply put, an altered book is a book that has been changed (altered) in a variety of ways, to serve any variety of purposes.

An altered book is a book of endless possibilities. It is a good project for young and old, and can be a private thing or it can be done in groups. It can be as funky or as serious as the creator wants it to be. It can be a journal, a scrapbook, and sometimes even therapy!

Use a hard cover book that you don't mind permanently altering. For myself, I like love stories and old dictionaries because I like including the words and sentences in my art. For kids, I often use Reader's Digest hard cover story collections which are easy to find for cheap at Goodwill. Pages are glued, cut, folded, sewn, stamped, painted, and other things inserted into the book to make it personal.

Page 1 of my first Altered Book

The first step is to tear out small groups of pages here and there, because as you begin the altering process, the book will get thicker and thicker.

Next, glue several pages together. If you are troubled by wrinkled pages, use a popsicle stick or ruler to smooth the pages out. You're going to have to work very hard at this...and if it bothers you a whole lot, you may want to find some other project to do, instead!

You may sew, staple, or use eyelets and run ribbon or string around the edges of each decorated page.

These pages have a hand outline which has been painted, glued and written in. Some words were painted over and wiped down. Images on vellum were glued.

Layering antique lace, old buttons, a black and white photo, and an old calender, along with gauze...

This is a peek-a-boo page, where I cut out a part of one page to reveal a portion of the next page.

Look on the internet for other sources and ideas on making Altered Books. The book I used most was Altered Books Workshop, by Bev Brazelton. I also found the following books to be inspiring:

New Directions in Altered Books by Gabe Cyr
The Decorated Journal by Gwen Diehn
Altered Books 101 by Beth Cote

A few things you'll need or want to gather before starting:
book
scissors
glue
needles
string, thread, floss, yarn, etc.
glitters, powders, stains
stamps and stamp pads
bits of lace, cloth or old clothing
paints and paintbrushes
pens
photo copies
anything else that suits your fancy

The making of altered books is a journey you won't finish in a day, or probably even in a week. The purpose is personal; it's all up to you.

So my best advice is this:
Enjoy!