Melissa's Studio

Welcome Back to Melissa’s Studio

Fun with Altered Books

Are you familiar with Altered Books? The idea is to find a book with nice thick pages, one that you don’t mind, um, altering. (Some would say ‘ruining’.) I went to a thrift store and looked until I found “Impressions of Love”, a counted cross stitch instruction and demonstration book. Since I have less than no interest in counted cross stitch, but HUGE interest in Love, it was perfect.

I usually prepare four to six pages at a time with the first step, which is laying on a thin glaze of either watercolor or liquid metallic acrylic ink. This way, the text may still be slightly seen. If the page is too obnoxious, just paint over it with opaque watercolor or acrylic paint. The following steps are, for me, pretty seat-of-the-pants stuff. I just start doodling and let each step suggest the next.

Since my theme for this book is love, so far it’s fairly much what you would expect: hearts and flowers. I promise to loosen up as I progress through the book. Right now I’m having so much fun with paint, glue, glitter, beads, collage, wax resist, gel pens, Sharpies, stamp pads for texture, puffy fabric paint and Painty Pens.

You should try this. It’s so freeing and relaxing. Perhaps start with a children’s book. They often have thicker paper and fewer pages so you don’t feel overly committed. For more ideas, visit your library. There are quite a few Altered Book Books with all kinds of approaches. Have fun!

Melissa