How To Prepare and Choose a Book for Art Journaling or Altered Books

[MissBooksmith]

Thank you for such a good informative video, also I like to pay a compliement when I can and so: you have beautiful hands and nails. Namaste.

[rsingr100]

I enjoyed this video! I am new at altered books and this helped me so much! Thank you!

[dragonflylogan]

Where do you find your books mostly?

Lori

[GulfSpr1te]

@dragonflylogan Thrift stores and yard sales.

[RedDogGirl67]

Seriously - the best video ever to get someone started on altering a book. I keep coming back to this video for reference. I can't wait to find a book to alter! Thanks!!

[SaraEnDippity]

and all of your videos show pages that look substantial! I think I might be stressing myself out about this a little too much and needlessly, to be honest! (Thank you again!)

[GulfSpr1te]

@SaraEnDippity A good way to learn what pages work best for mixed-media is to test. Find a few books (you can usually get them for mere change) that have different types of paper. take them home and rip out a few pages. Then set about altering the pages as you would in your art journal/ altered book. If they wrinkle easily when you add paint or water then you can avoid that type of paper when looking for books.

My favorite book so far was an old book from Germany that had thick textured pages!

[SaraEnDippity]

thank you so much for this (and for pointing me in this direction with my last question!). I'm still at a loss regarding the page thickness - or did I not pay good enough attention here? :D are you choosing books (after checking the binding on them) with a certain weight/feel to the pages? I have some books I've gotten from thrift stores (to cut up and collage with) that I was looking through, but all of those pages just seem too thin to take wet media without falling apart. (eeps, cont.)

[GulfSpr1te]

@SaraEnDippity Yes I choose the book based on a) the right binding, b) pages that feel porous (not shiny or slick), c) pages that feel heavier then regular paper and d) size of the book as I like a larger format

[cheerbear7]

great info thank you so much for sharing! :D 

[GulfSpr1te]

@cheerbear7 glad it was helpful!

[GulfSpr1te]

@Mystykelwave Your welcome!

[ironrose14]

Thank you so very much for this video. I love using old books for my art journaling (still learning) and I did not know about this. I love your videos.

[GulfSpr1te]

@ironrose14 the idea to do it this way came from my altered book days. these are all things you learn for that so I thought I would maybe save someone some time and hassle. I love old books too!

[GulfSpr1te]

@ironrose14 I was getting a lot of questions about what type of journal I use so I thought I would make a video for everyone. So glad it was helpful!

[ccbell42]

great tutorial Love your art

[GulfSpr1te]

@ccbell42 thank you!!!

[imjkmd]

REALLY enjoyed this video! Your explanations are clear with great tips. Thanks, Julie

[GulfSpr1te]

@imjkmd Your welcome Julie! It was 32 minutes long after I first finished recording. Good thing YouTube has limitations or you guys would have been bored silly! I chopped it up and got it down to something manageable.

[ribbonwands]

Great advice! I have been reworking vintage yearbooks as my art journals and have found these bad boys were made to last. I love your rip technique and I'm going to give that a try as currently my book is getting way to big!

[GulfSpr1te]

@ribbonwands Yes, I am on the look out for some vintage yearbooks to use. Love that idea so much!!! I have a huge book that I tried to use as a journal and after only 1/4 of the book it was coming apart at the seams. I ended up ripping all of the finished pages out of it. I will probably bind them into a small journal one of these days.

[onelittlehouse]

I love your ripping method of leaving a little tail behind. I've been painstakingly tearing pages from the centre of the signatures, trying not to damage the threads... Talk about making life difficult!! lol *headdesk*

It's also great to save the removed pages sometimes to use for collage. :)

[GulfSpr1te]

@onelittlehouse Maisy, you reminded me of the first altered book I did where I used gesso to glue bunches of pages together only to have the book binding pop open on me after it all dried and hardened :) We all have to learn and experiment. Glad to have saved you from the worry and some future head to desk pains lol

[GulfSpr1te]

@onelittlehouse oh yes Maisy I save all of the removed pages. The are so fun to use, and FYI you can run them through your printer and print collage stuff on them too. Happy little moments.