My Path into Altered Books

I love art although not talented enought to draw or paint I wandered into the realm of paper crafts. I don't have the temperment for scrapbooking so I played around with collages and found myself drawn to altered books. I at first found it strange that they would appeal to me since it requires the defacing or deconstructing, rather, of books. But I guess it my love of the written word that pushes me to find a purpose for those forgotten or discarded books. I joined an altered book group and have been participating in their round robin, trading books with others and altering a page or more within their book. Here are my first two attempts.





This was my first page I attempted. I felt I left it unfinished as I felt it needed more. I am hoping another person who gets the book will feel inspired to add on to it.


This was the book that inspired my first layout. It was a book that I brought with me from Indiana. The copyright is 1935 and stamped "Public Schools, Mishawaka, Indiana" and it is in poor condition but the illustrations are beautiful.



My second attempt. This was a Grimms Fairytales book, and it was a beautiful book! It pained me too much to do too drastic a design so I kept it pretty simple. The owner also didn't want the gorgeous pictures covered up, only embellished, so I added glitter to highlight Red and the Wolf.