Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Tooting my own horn..... again ;-0

Have been playing some more with the original altered book I started, and realized that 'practice' wasn't bringing out the best in me.  When I saw these old-fashioned composition books with the squiggly B&W covers on sale for a buck a piece, I knew it was time to plunge in and do the real thing.  I've made this for a dear friend, but she won't know who she is from this blog until it arrives in her mailbox......



As luck would have it, at the same time, I found a public library book with a few ideas for altering these composition books (Beyond Scrapbooks by Barbara Bourassa, published in 2006 by Quarry Books).

I have been collecting a stash of vintage ephemera (some from Lenna's inspiring blog).

When it all was put together, the front of the notebook happened,this way - gessoed, stamped, collaged, buttoned, beribboned, tagged, and more -  altered beyond recognition, but still with some of the B&W squiggles peeking through because I like them!!  So I took this photo....



Please click for larger view

It's funny when you see something in a photo (particularly your own work) how it looks so different from the real thing.  There was something blah happening..... so I added a bit of distress ink around the edges and judiciously on the spine, and here's the final result.

Please click for larger view

The inside cover is also decorated a bit, as is the back cover (to hide unlovely barcodes and such...)

6 comments:

  1. This is amazing – as I´m just beginning Art-Journaling it´s a beautiful and inspiring pic of how to embellish books and how to create pages.
    Thank you very much for sharing!!!

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  2. This looks great! Lucky friend! I have some of these notebooks I got for a dollar as well...may have to jazz em up!

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  3. Wow, it looks gorgeous, Susan. A real treat for the eyes.

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  4. Fantastic! You have done an excellent job! I love altered books. At first I was not so keen to mark up a book but my local library was throwing books out! so I had to recycle them into art.

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