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This article contains projects for all levels of paper crafters.
Last month we discussed the basics of choosing a good sturdy book and thoughts about how to begin altering a book. The next step, if you so choose, is to create a good background for your altered pages. This article will discuss some of the myriad techniques for making backgrounds. The slogan “Just Do It” came to mind during the writing of this article, so each technique is very easy and can be accomplished in 10 to 20 minutes.
The first exercise, while it can take as long as you want it to, is one specifically created to help you get over the fear of what to do with that first blank page. I pulled out my box of scraps, you know, the box of all of the tiniest bits of paper you can’t bear to throw away? I chose one piece at a time, at times without even looking, and covered the entire page with those small bits of scrapbook paper, mulberry paper, tissue, handmade paper and fibers.
Participate in this exercise without giving it a lot of thought...just go with what feels right to you. If you’re uncomfortable with collage, consult a book such as “The Crafter’s Complete Guide to Collage” by Amanda Pearce, which goes into far more detail about the mechanics of collage than we can cover in this article.
What Glue to Use
This is a great time to talk about adhesives. There are a lot of glues out on the market, and it’s always going to boil down to your own personal preferences. For altered books, some swear by glue sticks and spray adhesives. Others love Perfect Paper Adhesive, from US ArtQuest, while others don’t like the way it wrinkles their pages and use only gel medium, the most popular of which is manufactured by Golden. Double stick tape, craft dots, glue lines, mono adhesive, electrical tape, masking tape, packing tape...you name it, each one has its place in your art.
Some adhesives will break down over time and others might leave your pages feeling sticky, even after they dry. In particular, stay away from rubber cement, as it will discolor your work over a relatively short period of time. Gel medium, which is what I seem to use the most, can cause your pages to stick together. Sometimes I actually like my pages that way, other times I’ll brush Pearl Ex, baby powder or cornstarch over the pages to help reduce the stickyness. Since the Golden products are artist grade and made to stand the test of time, I like to use them a lot, particularly for sealing my pages.
The point is to know your adhesives and what you want to accomplish. To start out, get a glue stick and invest in a small jar of gel medium. These two items will take you a long way in getting started with your pages.
Paint: Expensive v. Cheap
Another ongoing debate in the world of altered books is what paint to use. Every AB artist will tell you that using too much water in your books will degrade them faster than you’d like, so bear that in mind. Acrylic paints dry quickly and can be watered down to create a transparent wash or can be used straight from the jar or bottle to obliterate the text on your book pages. If you’re queasy about where to start, go to the craft store and buy the cheapie acrylics that come in bottles...there’s an amazing selection of color and you don’t have to even think about mixing until you really want to! Whenever the paints by Plaid, DecoArt, Apple Barrel are on sale at my local store, I snap up a few more colors, since one can never have too much color! Other paints that take up residence in my studio are acrylics from Golden and Lumiere acrylics from Jacquard. Using these products make me feel like a “real” artist! Check with your local art store as representatives from Golden travel the country giving workshops that explain their products and their uses....very inspiring!
The next project shows a painted background that gives your page spread a little texture, due to the thickness of the acrylics used. Note that the background paint doesn’t cover up all of the text on the pages. Another of the many alternatives is to simply paint one color onto your page to create a canvas, such as in the photo of the green page. That paint is Sap Green Artist’s Pigment in the Folk Art line from Plaid.
 
The next page incorporates a few techniques that I like to use often, as they are quick and foolproof. The first layer of the page is crumpled tissue, which is covered with distress ink and then glued to the page. I then used the Direct to Paper technique with another ink page and finished off the background by sponging acrylic paint through a mesh vegetable bag.
Reinforcing Your Pages
Depending on how many layers you plan to put on your pages, you may want to reinforce them before, during, or after you work on them. Sometimes I glue stick groups of pages together, or I use gel medium, and then work on the spreads. Other times I realize that as I’m creating, I’m making the pages too heavy and they need to be reinforced to the 2 or 3 pages before or behind. I do find that pages curl less when I’m covering them with paint if I adhere a few pages to each other from the outset.
And finally, creating a background doesn’t mean you have to cover the entire page, as in the previous projects. “Morning Glory” is a background that will be the basis for more art, to be created later. This page spread was done by stenciling chalks onto the page.
These are only a few ideas to get you started on backgrounds. If you think about the media and supplies that are available to you and start calculating all of the combinations they make, you’ll see your options are virtually limitless. Everything you see in any of this series of articles are all techniques I’ve learned or ideas I’ve come up with after reading the Altered Books Yahoo Group and looking at the fabulous work there, or from taking a class at my local art store, or simply by thinking, “what would happen if I did this?” and trying it out. As I’ve said before, the beauty of doing an altered book is that there are no mistakes. If you don’t like the way a page is turning out, you can collage or paint over the parts you don’t like. You can even rip out the page if you don’t like it!
If you think about it, the collaged page and the morning glories are altered pages that could stand alone by themselves! In future articles, you’ll see all of the pages from this article again, but in a more progressed stage. Until then, go make some art!
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