Altered Book

...the fun is inside...

   Just recently I hosted a gift swap. It's called, The Calm After The Holidaze." Basically, it's a time after all of the holiday madness, for fellow crafter's to make each other gifts. In my search for what to try, I found several tutorials on altered books. In this case, it's taking a hard cover book and changing it into an art journal or paste book. Some might even call it a Smashbook. Here's the book that I came up with...

It's a vintage children's book. The title is, "The Happy Hollister's." I found this book at the thrift store. Think I only paid $1.50 for it. Which makes this a pretty frugal project. I'll take you through the steps, that I did, to make this journal.

First, open up the book to the inside cover. There is a piece of paper and some thin mesh to cut through. The best way to cut it, is with an Exacto knife. Make a slice in the front and one all the way in the back. The above picture is what you have left. If you want to cover the inside of the cover with a decorative paper, do so now.

Now you wanna add some holes for the book rings. I found that the easiest way was to use a drill. I drilled four holes, the size that would fit my eyelets. Two holes on the front and two coordinating holes on the back cover. Next, I set my eyelets. I used the large size Dritz eyelets. They can be found in the sewing aisle. For under $3, you can get the hammer style kit. Here's a link to a video on, Make It Mine Magazine, on how to set the eyelet. 

The next part is some what tedious...but also fun. Gather up as many papers as you can. Cut them slightly smaller than the cover. In mine I used lot's of watercolor paper to handle heavy duty art'in. Mixed in are papers for writing and pasting on. Pretty much anything goes for paper. I've also went over board on tabs! I used scraps of ribbon, clips and even file folders to create them. Another small detail was the addition of metal book corners. I used a strong glue to adhere them. They are a Tim Holtz product. 

To finish off the book I threaded a ribbon around the spine. I dyed the ribbon to specific colors that I wanted to use. I also added a store bought leather tassel. That's the finished project! In my next post I will tell you how I made the ribbon. :)