Altered Book Journal

Today I would like to share my Altered Book Journal, I love making these and they are so useful for so many things. I have made recipe books from them, used them as journals, and used them as a place to just play with new materials and mediums.

I look for books with a sewn in binding but if I can't find that then I have ways to reinforce the binding which I will talk about later. 

This is a work in progress and I will share pages occasionally.

Here is the cover, it has been painted with acrylic paint and then the edges have been inked with black to give it a vintage look.

 First of all, I usually look over my pages to see if there are any images I want to keep and use in my journal, as you can see I liked the rooster. This image will be incorporated into this page when I work more on the journal.  I then try to take out every other page and glue two pages together to make the pages stronger, many times children's book pages are not very heavy and don't do well with wet mediums unless they are doubled. I also will use masking tape over the spine on both pages to reinforce the spine if it is not sewn in.

Next, gesso over the pages and then add bits of tissue paper or other thin papers to cover each page. I use discarded tissue paper, old patterns, old phone book pages, maps, and lots more. I then use watercolor or water-downed acrylic and bits of ephemera to the pages, letting them dry between each coat.

Stencils and other mediums can be used on the pages.

Hope you enjoy looking at my altered book journal and create one of your own.