How To: Alter a Book, part one

This is a repost of a tutorial I posted on my personal blog in late 2008...

Altering a boardbook - preparing the surface...

You will need:

• A board book (the kind intended to be chewed on by toddlers)
• Sandpaper (maybe)
• A Sharp craft knife
• A cutting mat
• A bone folder (or a popsicle stick or old teaspoon)
• Paper for collage (scrapbooking paper, wrapping paper, pages torn out of other books...)
• A Gluestick (or découpage gel - this is generally better, but a bit messy. I used a gluestick for this project because I wanted to be able to draw on the paper after and it's easier to keep track of where the glue from the gluestick's going...)
  

Start by carefully peeling off the glossy printed top layer of paper. Try to remove as little of the bookboard as possible. You could sand the gloss off, but I find the paper-peeling far more satisfying.



The naked book and a selection of papers...



A note before starting to apply the papers - I am an extremely messy worker, and like to cover the cover of the book last, so that I don't get glue all over it.
Apply copious amounts of gluestick - make sure you cover the entire surface with glue - otherwise you get air pockets and/or the paper may peel off.



NOTE: If you are using découpage gel - paper expands when it's wet, so get the entire piece wet and it will all expand at the same rate - then when you paste it down it's easier to avoid wrinkles.

Place the paper over top of your page and burnish it. Start at the centre of the page and (pushing down hard) work your way to the edges. I often have a little bit of glue ooze out - try not to get any on your burnishing tool. Skip this step if you are using gel.
You can use a fancy-schmancy bone folder for this, but as mine was covered in polymer clay at the time, I used a clean popsicle stick.




Wait for your glue to dry then flip the book over and trim the excess paper from the back with a SHARP blade.
(A sharp knife is a safe knife)



I sometimes hang the book over the edge of the table to get to the fiddly bits near the spine.



The first covered page....


If the paper you want to use is smaller than the page, use two pieces. Glue one down as usual, but don't trim the paper yet.



Tear a thin strip off one edge of the second piece. If you don't want any white (the paper's core) showing, make sure that you pull the part of the paper that you want to use towards you (if you do want the white tear to show, pull it away from you).



Apply lots of glue and overlap the torn edge.
You can do this with lots of bits of paper if you want your base to be all collagey and stuff...



The re-covered book, ready for scribbling in....


...and Princess Aurora? The story in this boardbook was terrible. I felt no guilt at all in tearing it up...


XoX

Alana

Visual Diaries, Journaling Creativity, Getting it on paper...

Sketch books...

Journaling...

Visual dairies...

Every article I've come across regarding creativity bang on about these things being essential.

And by large they're right.

In order to live a creative life you need to first let go of the notion that you can only create when the  muse' or 'inspiration' hits ("I can only draw when I'm inspired"). Don't wait for things to strike you; pick one thing each day and then write about it or do a drawing from it. In this way, you'll train yourself to look at the world with a creative eye.

But if you've never keep a dairy or sketchbook - how do you start?

Step One: find a book that you like.

You could use:

• A pretty album designed specially for the purpose
• A lined school exercise book
• A spiral bound sketchbook
• A novel with gessoed-over pages
• A board book (peel off the laminated layer of paper)
• Loose pages that you've bound together

The only prerequisite is that it should be something that you like the size of and that you are comfortable with.

Step two: Scribble all over one page...Draw, doodle, write the name of your one true love surrounded with hearts - whatever - but MARK that fresh, clean paper as soon as you can. Get it out of the way - make that perfect book imperfect.

I ALWAYS feel guilty when I do this; a blank book is a beautiful thing, full of potential. It could contain ANYTHING. How dare I sully it with my pathetic scribblings...?

This impulse not to draw all over it is Artists Block - the entire purpose of keeping a sketchbook is to help you break out of this type of thinking..

You are not obligated to create fantastic art inside a sketchbook - just as you don't have to show anyone your personal dairy.

Step three: If you THINK you can't draw (and that is a WHOLE other topic - and one I'm very passionate about...) but want to draw in your book - then DRAW IN YOUR BOOK.

If you feel that your appalling spelling means that you will never be able to write, but want to write in your book - then WRITE IN YOUR BOOK.

If you want to glue things in there - WHO CARES if cutting and pasting is something done in kindergarten - then GLUE STUFF IN YOUR BOOK.

• Make notes
• Write lists
• Draw stars and circles and faces
• Thumbprint doodles
• Sketch your kitty
• Ask a small child for a suggestion of what to draw - and draw the first thing they suggest!
• Try writing some bad poetry!
• Collect pictures of haircuts you'd like to try
• Write your favorite quotes and illustrate them
• GET A GLITTER PEN!
• Write affirmations and goals
• Compose letters to fairy tale characters
• DRAW fairy tale characters

Basically, go nuts!

These books are meant to be records of your thoughts, of things that catch your eye, things you are trying to work out. My sketchbooks are eclectic, messy affairs - drawings interspersed with lists and diagrams for my day job. Watercolour paintings and Sharpie pen scratchings. Pencil studies and schematics for dolls. Character designs and Scrapbooking layout plans. Concepts for jewellery and balancing my budget. Pasted in print-outs of designs and toys that I love. No ryhme or reason to the order that these things appear in these books (but I'm working on that! Honest!).

A journal is for YOU! It is your rambling feelings on paper and whether those thoughts are drawn, written or cut'n'pasted from magazines does not matter. Just get them out.

---
Alana
xox