Altered Book Techniques

A Door Set in Stone

Materials

old hardcover book
pencil
heavy-duty craft knife
metal ruler
cutting mat
gesso or primer
black high-pigmented acrylic paint
Houseworks Carolina dollhouse door
Houseworks Carolina dollhouse doorknob, key plate
Golden fluid acrylic paints: red oxide, interference green oxide, carbon black
Golden matte fluid acrylic: raw sienna
Golden glaze: slate, burnt sienna, raw umber
Golden garnet gel fine
Golden heavy molding paste
Golden regular gel matte
soft paint brush or mop brush
plastic knife or plastic palette knife
foam plates
rag
clip art
Coffee Break Design small rectangular frame
Seven Gypsies large script paper
Krylon matte spray sealer

1. Using the template from the dollhouse door, draw a rectangle to fit your door on the cover of your book (figure A).

2. Using the heavy duty craft knife with a new blade, lightly run the knife around the rectangle. Use your metal ruler as a guide and do not press hard, but rather use light, repeated strokes. Cut through the cover of the book and into the book if your door is thicker than the cover (figure B).

3. Paint your door with gesso and then with the red oxide acrylic. Sponge on some interference green oxide and raw sienna for highlights.

4. Dry brush the carbon black around the edges of the door. Let dry (figure C).

5. Paint gesso on the book covers and spine. Then paint the book with black acrylic paint. Let dry.

6. Mix 1/4 cup of the garnet gel with 1/4 cup molding paste. Apply the mix to the cover of the book with a plastic knife or palette knife. It is like frosting a cake, but you want the texture uneven to give the appearance of stone (figure D).

7. Squirt out burnt sienna and raw umber glaze on a plate. Use the paint brush to pick up both colors and dab over surface. Wipe off with rag as you work to blend colors (figure E). Continue this until you like the colors you have on your texture.

8. Apply a bit of slate glaze to the plate. Dab a small amount of slate over the texture and use it to highlight and deepen the fissures.

9. Place the door in the hole and let dry overnight (figure F).

10. Glue on collage material behind the door and embellishments.

11. Seal with spray sealer.

Tips:

If you have a smaller book, use a doll house window instead of a door. Rather than use a stone texture, rip Design Originals' Elizabeth’s Travels collage papers and Seven Gypsies mille paper. Glue to gessoed book cover; then rub buff fluid acrylics into the edges and sand. Another variation is to paint the cover with Jacquard Lumiere paints and randomly stamp letters across the front with the Hot Potatoes Coolman Alphabet.

Materials

Colorbox Chalk Cat Eyes: amber clay, bisque, warm violet, wisteria, chestnut roan
Colorbox jumbo leaf nouveau roller
mango and plum ink cartridges
Art Accent collage material
mulberry paper
sunset gold Lumiere paint
old postage stamp
2" square Magic Mesh or other screening material
make-up sponge
Krylon matte spray sealer

Steps:

1. Glue two pages together. This will be the last page of your pocket. Count five pages forward to make the pockets.

2. Rip about 1/5 off the edge of the page in front of your glued pages. Rip about 2/5 off the edge of the page in front of your last ripped page. Rip about 3/5 off the edge of the page in front of your last ripped page. Rip about 4/5 off the edge of the page in front of your last ripped page, which will be the last page of your pocket (figure G).

4. Use the jumbo roller with mango to roll over the pocket pages, skipping every other one. Also roll over the full page on the edges (figure I). Do this again with the plum ink (figure J).

5. Apply glue or double-sided tape to the back of each of your ripped pages on the top and bottom of each page to form the pockets. Glue them to the page behind.

6. Adhere the ship, mulberry paper and postage stamp to page in a collage manner.

7. Sponge on Lumiere paint for accents.

8. Fill pockets with various items like library cards, tags, transparencies, etc.

9. Seal pages with matte spray sealer.

Alternative Designs: