Hi everyone, today I would like to share another altered book journal project with you all. I wanted to try out a square journal but I didn’t want to invest a lot of money in an “official” journal before I knew if I liked the size.
Step 1:
That is why I looked for a square book in the book closets with free books in my neighbourhood until I found this Paddington one (I only found children’s books in a square format). It’s 16x16 cm in size with a sturdy cover and what I especially liked is that each page has a white frame (instead of entirely covered pages) which made altering the book super easy.
When you choose a book to make an art journal from you better make sure that the signatures of the book are bound and not glued in, this will make the book so much sturdier. Normally I start by taking out some of the pages but this book is very thin so I felt that wasn’t necessary in this case.
Step 2:
I took pages from an old French book that I already had and some left over pages from my Greek altered journal project from a few weeks ago. I tore pieces of the pages with my hands or I just a ruler to create not so straight edges and adhered them into the book using matte gel medium and a brush. I let the ripped edges stick out a little bit here and there, just because I totally love how this looks on the finished project!
This I did with every single page and let it dry.
Step 3:
Next is the cover: I added two layers of white gesso to prime the cover and to cover the image as well. Than I adhered a piece of ribbon from my stash using the same gel medium as before. When dry this gets covered as well with a layer of gesso.
To make my altered book journal pretty I used a rice paper by Stamperia (this is the only item that I especially bought to create this journal: Euro 1,95). First I covered the entire front of the book in matte medium, than I placed the rice paper on top, used my fingers to rub away any folds or bubbles and than added another layer of gel medium over the top. This I let dry.
After it dried I used a small wet brush to “draw” a line around the book and than I tore the rice paper over the wet line.
Step 4:
Let it dry shortly and than I can fold the left over rice paper inwards and adhere there with more gel medium. I totally loved working on the cover!
This is what the finished front and back looks like (the back I covered with some Craft Consortium Decoupage Papers from my stash.
Detail pictures:
And that is it for today altered book project! I wish you a creative day!
