Altered Book Techniques: Stitching, Creating a Niche

Steps:

1. Decide how deep you want your niche to be. Lift up enough pages to create it and put wax paper on each side of the pages where niche will be cut.

2. Hold pages out straight in ungloved hand. With gloved hand, apply generous amount of gel medium to outside edges of all three open sides of the book. Carefully lay the pages down on one piece of the wax paper you put in the book earlier. Smooth out pages, being sure that all edges are coated with gel medium. Lay the second piece of wax paper (that you put in book earlier) down on top of pages. Close book, pressing the gelled pages between the sheets of wax paper.

3. Clamp the three sides of the book with quick-grip clamps. Let dry for about 24 hours.

4. Remove the clamps and remove wax paper. Some of it may stick; gently pull it away from dry pages. Use a nail file to sand any rough edges.

5. Place a sticky note or your template on top of the dried block of pages where you want to cut out the niche. Trace around it with a pen and remove.

6. Place a cutting mat under pages to be cut through. Use a ruler and craft knife with a sharp, new blade to begin cutting out the niche. Apply even pressure to the knife and cut through just a few pages at a time, removing the cut pages as you go. This not hard, just time consuming.

7. Once again, protect the pages before and after the niche with two more pieces of wax paper, like you did above. Then apply gel medium to the cut edges of the niche, just like you did to the page edges earlier. Smooth out pages carefully, being sure wax paper is in place, and close the book, again pressing the gelled pages between the wax paper.

8. Secure with quick grip clamps again and let dry for 24 hours.

9. Remove clamps. Open the book carefully and remove the wax paper. Once again, sand any rough edges around the niche with a nail file.

10. Now you are ready to decorate your pages. Don't forget to put something fun in the niche you created. You can even add paper flaps to open like curtain or shutters.