How to make an altered book


Altering books is a new crafting craze that's perfectly suited to do with kids. It's fun, creative, great for toddlers to adults, and best of all it can be done for next to nothing.

What are altered books? Altered books are unloved, discarded books that are turned into works of art. They can be part scrapbook, part journal, part canvas, part mad experiment. They are typically made of hardcover books like old dictionaries or encyclopedias, out of date textbooks or old novels. Anything can be used, though. Anything goes in altered books. Some things that people do to the pages include: There are no rules for altered books, other than to make sure that the book you use is okay to alter. Make it very clear to the kids that this is their altered book and it is never okay to write in or alter any book without permission.

Here are some helpful hints when getting started:
We go through periods where we work in our altered books every day. Sometimes Victoria and I sit at the kitchen table and do ours late at night when everyone else is sleeping. It's one of our favorite ways to spend time together.

My altered book contains letters to Jack before he was born, collages of words that were my goals for 2003, recipes and photos from magazines, paintings, sayings that I liked, collages of clippings of projects I want to try, lists of which roses I planted where, torn wrapping paper collages, magic marker art pages, poems and more. It gives me the creative outlet of scrapbooking without the pressure for perfection-- or cost.

Here are some sites with examples and ideas if you want to see more.
http://www.creativeartspaceforkids.org/childrens_art/kids_art_gallery/ALtered-Books/
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/7131/91378
http://www.alteredbookartists.com/
And here are some pages from some of our altered books if you want to peek.


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All works on this site Alicia Bayer unless otherwise noted.
Don't take it - that would be rude.