The Altered Book

This is a reworking of a project I started a few years ago. It was my first attempt at doing an altered book but I was also very new to the mixed media and journaling scene so perhaps I bit off slightly more than I could chew. I really wasn't happy with anything I had done in this book so I put it away. I didn't  really want to throw it away but felt i could go back to it at a later date when I felt a little more confident in what I was doing.

Anyway, I think it worked.
The first photo you see is the cover. This was done using crumpled and wrinkled tissue paper, stuck down with pva glue then covered with a layer of white Gesso. I then coloured it with acrylic paint mixed with matt medium to blend the colours as I wanted an old worn look. I added a couple of hinges cut from a Tim Holtz die, as well as a little square frame to act a book plate, these were then weathered and dry brushed over to give them a slightly rusty look. The little square is some stamp board which was coloured with Distress Ins and then stamped. I punched a whole, added an eyelet and some old wired ribbon I had in my stash to wrap the book and keep it closed, as this was my frist  altered book I didn't realise how bulky it would become. If I do another one I will look into trying out bookbinding so the will lie flat and close properly.

The inside cover was created by randomly dabbing distress paint for the background as well as using a stencil I created myself, this was also a first attempt so I wanted a pretty basic one.

This double page spread was fully reworked as the original was just awful!! I painted over the whole thing with a coat of white gesso and then when dry, I proceeded to experiment with collage and some stamping. I used up bits and pieces from other projects, left over scraps, some die cuts and some experiments from previous project while attending college. There's also some random stamping and the whole thing was finished off with some distress inks. This page is actually my favourite from the whole book. I just had so much fun with this one and i'm really pleased with the way this turned out.

This page feels a little 'odd' and out of place as this doesn't seem to fit with what I was trying to achieve with the book, but you know what, it still kind of worked so I kept in there. The background was created using two sheets of the same patterned paper only n different colours. Sprayed over them with some spray inks and then randomly stencilled using a Seth Apter stencil. The lady is a magazine cutting which was doodles over. used a white Uniball Sygno  pen to add detail and highlight the writing.

This page I did not do anything to. It was an experiment in creating backgrounds and using colours I don't normally use so I left it alone as I quite liked it. A gesso background with lots of brush strokes, Acrylic paint randomly applied and blended. The letters were created by drawing round plastic templates  then coloured using Aquamarkers.Again I used a white Uniball Sygno pen for highlighting.

This another fully  reworked page and it's done using Seth Apter products. These were a purchaseni made a few months ago and never got the chance to properly try them out. There are lots of layers in this piece but sadly the photo really doesn't show them up very well. I used his signature colour paint by PaperArtsy for the background, started off roughly applying the dark colour first, then filled in the gaps with the other colours, Using a dirty brush I then randomly stenciled over the page. I also used a background stamp which I then embossed with silver embossing powder. I had cut the die cuts from an old piece of paper that I had used to alter other embellishments and thought it fitted well with the grungy theme. I then just highlighted a few things on the page with a Uniball Sygno white pen! I really like this page as I do like lots of different layers and textures!

This was another page that was left alone, I only needed to highlight the images and die cuts to give it some depth as it looked very flat. A magazine clipping of a giant pocket watch and some die cuts from Tim Holtz dies. The small pocket watch is a rubber stamp from The Artistic Stamper.

This was anther completely reworked page and again another experiment in collage. It was difficult to cover the layers underneath so it needed something fairly random cover it. Again using two different main colours and again, they seem to be blue and brown! This whole page has a very 'Robert Rauschenberg' feel to it! {he is one of my favourite artists actually}. Again just some random bits and pieces of left overs from other projects as well as some corrugated card, over a background of acrylic inks. I added some random stamping to finish it off using stamps from The Artistic Stamper. Quite pleased with this page as I had no idea how it would turn out let alone what I wanted to do!

This page was another completely reworked page and was a ton of fun! The background for this piece is...believe it or not....baby wipes!!! I go through these things by the bucket load! I use them for just about everything in my art work. These were used for blending acrylic paint and gesso so were quite hard, that made them easier to stick down. I used pva glue for that and just left them to dry. I tired stamping over the top and it worked to an extent but was very faded as I only used a Memento inkpad. The rest of the pieces are collage and are cut outs from experiments with encaustic wax art.

Now this is where we come to the previously unworked part of the book. This book is a really old book and was purchased from a charity shop for the princely sum of 10 pence! The pages are very yellow and a little brittle in places and do not like water very well. Thankfully the left hand page of this spread was very thick as I had used collage baby wipes on the previous page and knew the ink wouldn't bleed through. I used Dylusions spray inks on these pages with Visible Image stamps. Quite simple and because the pages were very yellowed the colours weren't as vibrant.

Because I had used spray inks straight to paper on the pages before they bled through on the left hand page so I had to have a think on how to to disguise it. I decided on using some torn pages from an old thesaurus I have. Covered them with white gesso and then dried off. I used the Harlequin Rose stamp set from Chocolate Baroque for these pages. I stamped the main harlequin rose onto a separate piece of paper with a Versafine black inkpad then coloured it using Inktense pencils. Grunged it up a bit using Distress inks then stuck the whole thing down onto the page. The images on the right hand page are direct to page and again coloured using Inktense pencils. A bit different and grungy loom to an otherwise very ornate set f stamps!

This is another page I feel is out of place in this book but again I left it in. I was having a really tough day and just needed to art, couldn' fave doing something big so just went for it in this wee book! Was mainly an experiment with textured gesso, acrylic paint and matt medium. I had created this gorgeous background but had no idea what I was going to do from there! Seeing as how I was feeling pretty miserable, frustrated and 'caged' I went with that. I roughly painted a tree, used the caged bird die from Tim Holtz and a Uniball Sygno white pen for the writing. Not one of my favourites to be honest but again it works.

This page is one of my favourites. All very grungy and eclectic, just like me. This was a 'no thinking' page and was an exercise in using up bit from the I'll-put-this-in-this-wee-box-because-it-will-come-in-handy-for-something-box! Bits of old lace, chipboard shapes, paper flowers, die cuts, paperclips and old scrabble letters. lots of layers of random stamping, some scribbled journaling and some distress inks to finish off. Had a lot of fun with page.

This was one of those pages that went a little wrong. I had just bought some Distress Oxide inkpads and was experimenting with them. As the paper in this book is really old and yellow the colours didn't show up too bright. I had also tried stamping something direct to the page but because the pages were so lumpy from previous pages the stamp didn't turn out right, I had a rummage through my stash and found some seriously old handmade paper cards that I didn't really like so I decided to tear them up and cover over the messy stamping. Ads the paper was handmade it didn't take the watercolour pens very well as the boy and girl are supposed to be sitting on red hearts. Those images are the Tim Holtz paper dolls (ancestors). I tuck some paper flowers and some old lace down the side to make the image look less like it was just stuck there and more like it was art of the page. I added a couple of torn pieces of paper, some phrases from the Tim Holtz small talk phrase pad and some paper flowers and embellishments to finish off. Love the vintage feel to this page though.

I had an absolute blast creating this page! I just love these stamps from the Artistic Stamper!
This page took a wee bit of time as it was quite involved. I used the Ranger Distress inks on the background and then randomly stamped over the background. The jars on the left hand page are stamped onto separate card, cut out, coloured using distress inks then embossed with clear embossing powder, highlights were added using promarkers and a blending pen. The light bulb was stamped, coloured using distress inks and then overstamped with a background stamp from The Artistic Stamper. The two jars on the right hand page are just stamped and coloured using inktense pencils. I added a couple of phrases from the Tim Holtz small talk phrase pad and a few embellishments to finish off.

And now onto the final page and the 'niche'! I had no idea what I was going to put in this cut out to be honest but seeing as the book was looking very eclectic I decided to go with that.
I used some texture paste through Tim Holtz alphabet stencil and then let dry, painted over with acrylic paint and matt medium to blend. I then added some butterfly stamps to fill in the gaps. I used uploads of bits and pieces and small embellishments i had lying around on my craft desk. Old lace, broken jewellery, paper flowers, mini playing cards scrabble tiles, as well as another image from the Tim Holtz paper dolls ancestors pack, and, a chipboard pocket watch from the Artistic Stamper.

And that is the end ....... or is it?

I honestly thins post took longer to read than the book!!! BUT I will definitely be doing another one of these at some point in time. I am so glad I went back to this project and took another look at it as I really enjoyed this one. Sometimes it pays to take a step back once in a while!

If you have lasted this long then I thank you from the bottom of my heart for having the patience to read my ramblings on how I created this project.

Thanks for dropping by,

Take care

Jackie x