Have you got an old book that you bought for altering, but never got around to doing? Me, too. It was making me feel guilty, so I decided to work on it.
So I sat down at my workstation and looked at the book, flipped through the pages, and looked at it some more. No wonder I'd never tackled a book like this before (although I've altered a couple of board books - much less intimidating, fewer pages!) This was scary!
After a couple of days staring at the darn thing, I was starting to get frustrated.
"This is ridiculous," I thought, "do something."
So I cut some 12x12 papers into 6x6 squares and started adhering them randomly throughout the book. "Ah ha!" I realized, "I could just keep on like this, slapping stuff I like into the book, until I think I'm done!"
So I've been using up all those HOTP cut out books I bought because they turned me on - but had never used. And I've been doing techniques - stamping, heat embossing, painting, decoupage. I've looked up song lyrics in the web, and scribbled them in the book - on the empty pages behind illustrations, in the margins, and over the text of the book. And I've distressed a CD with Staz-on and alcohol inks.
One thing I recommend is to make your niches first. I decided late in the project to add another one, and couldn't find a large hunk of un-altered pages to cut and stick together. So my second niche is a little small - niches in other books make fun of it. Don't forget to look at the cut-out parts of the pages - they had great pictures I tore out and decopaged back into the book.
Another caveat - vellum doesn't decoupage well. Although it looks kinda cool all crinkly and bubbly with all the corners sticking up.
Something I didn't find out until later is that you should rip out whole sections of the book before you start, so the book doesn't end up too fat to close when you're done.
So if you have an old book that's making you feel guilty - just go for it. Throw things into the book randomly. I promise, eventually it'll look really cool.
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