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Wednesday 30 November 2011

Altered Book (posted by Judith)

When Glenda sent me the new Country Views stamp set, I fell in love with the little folly stamp on the plate, and wanted to make this a focal point of a project. I have made altered books before, and decided to make one for a Design Team piece.

Now for those of you that are horrified at my alteration of a good book, I will tell you where I get my books from! I buy my books from charity shops, so the proceeds always go to a good cause, and I choose books that have seen a better life, and have therefore outlived their usefulness.

Once I had cut a circle in the front cover of my book with my trusty Tim Holtz Tonic scissors, I painted the book first with gesso, then a couple of coats of acrylic paint. I mixed the colour myself, using a couple of colours, to achieve the shade that I wanted. I then dry brushed a darker colour around the edges. I embossed one if the fabulous new Texture stamps onto the book with gold embossing powder. I tore a loose circle shape out of the first few pages, creating a niche, and then stamped the folly stamp onto a spare piece of card. I coloured the image with Polychromos pencils, and blended the colours, adding extra shading where necessary. I then inked around the image with Distress Inks, before fixing the card into the book.

I wanted to add some flowers, and was undecided as to which colour to use, so I looked at a colour wheel for inspiration. The opposite colour to the zingy green that I had chosen for my book, was a lovely plummy pink colour, so I went with that, and added some ribbon in a similar shade as the closure for the book. I stamped and cut out some leaves from the 'Woodland Dreams' stamp plate to go with the flowers, as I love the leaf on this stamp plate, it is a firm favourite of mine. I also added the sentiment from the same stamp plate.


These stamps are so much fun to work with, and I really enjoyed creating this project. Keep checking back to see what the other members of the Design Team have come up with over the next few days. Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

9 comments:

  1. Another fabulous project from you - I really like the idea of altered books especially as they are usually well past their working lives when people chop them about. I really must have a go some day.

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  2. This is just gorgeous. Gorgeous colours and I must have those new textured stamps! xx

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  3. Judith, this is gorgeous. The new stamps are all on my wish list for next month, only a couple of days to wait until I can order them. After I've got Christmas out of the way I must go looking for a book that I can alter.

    Sue x

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  4. This is terrific Judtih. I love your use of the colour wheel to help with the colour for the flowers & the gentle colours of the Polychromos pencils. Since I sell books I know what can happen when a book is past its prime & I thoroughly endorse any creative use of any part of it. I rescued a dictionary from my husband which would have ended up in a skip otherwise. It was falling apart but now has a new lease of life as paper for artwork.
    Paula (PEP)

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  5. Love this Judith and your use your use of stamps and colours what a great use of a book past it's prime. Suexxx

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