Making an Altered Book

With mixed media art you are free to go beyond your comfort zone, using your imagination and exploring an anything goes mind set. Kim Kelly made his very first altered book a year ago when he found out that his uncle Rocky was dying of cancer. Having been given months to live, he wanted to make something that would give him and the family a little hope. And after playing with a book he created a master book and an altered book.

There are a few ways you can alter a book…altering page by page, making a shadow box of sorts, fanning pages, and even cutting shapes out of the pages. However he chose to create a stand up, 2 opening frame display where he used Jacquard Lumiere paints, harlequin chipboard pieces, bead texture, flake texture and texture gel. Here is how you do it:

• Break the spine of the book by bending and wringing it back and forth
• Glue the pages together.
• Draw the lines where you want to cut and then cut down about halfway through the pages.
• Put at least two coats of gesso on both the cover and the inside, making sure you get all the cracks and crevices.
• Once you get the texture the way you want it, you can start to add your chip board pieces.
• Add the decorations you want to use as the last step. 

At the end of the it all you will have learnt and explored new techniques of being a creative artist.