Altered Board Books

Materials:

pencil
heavy-duty craft knife/box cutter
replacement blades
metal ruler
masking tape
board book
fine or medium sandpaper
gesso
paint/makeup sponges
Krylon Webbing Spray: silver, black
Golden Glaze: indigo
assorted collage materials *
Adornament fibers
Nunn Design charms
Jaquard Lumiere paint: silver
Legacy Collage transparencies #0622, #0623
Legacy Collage printed slide mounts #0980
Dr Ph Martin iridescent inks: deep blue
ColorBox Cat Eyes: royal, midnight and colonial blue
Rusty Pickle, EK Success, and Art Chix Studio embellishments

* Beth's were from More Ephemera! The Ephemera Book by Beth Cote #5233

1. To prep the board book: Sand the pages lightly with fine- or medium-grit sandpaper.

2. Gesso the pages lightly. This step is like priming a wall. If you want to cover the entire image, apply a second coat.

Variation: You can peel the glossy part of the board book off and skip the sanding and gessoing, though this can be hard and sometimes doesn’t save a lot of time.

3. Draw the shape of your window on your prepped board book page. Use a craft knife to cut through the board book pages to make your niche (figure A).

4. Rip pieces of masking tape off a roll and apply to board book to give a textured appearance (figure B).

5. Apply one coat of gesso over tape (figure C).

6. Apply layers of color to tape, starting with inks (figure D), then moving to glazes and Lumiere paints (figure E). Spray with Krylon Webbing Spray.

7. Cut out the transparencies and layer them over part of your windows (figure F). Glue to page.

8. Create background for the transparencies to show through by adding some lighter papers (figure G). A lighter background is best so the transparencies show up.

9. Add fibers and transparencies (figure H).