A New Project

Sometimes something I see on a website excites me into action. I am a member on Pinterest (be forewarned, it is a very addictive place) and occasionally I see a piece of art or craft idea I want to try. There was one image which caught my eye. Someone had taken an old hard covered book and transformed it into a piece of art. From cover to cover was paintings, drawings, ribbons, buttons and more creativity spilling out from it's pages. The women had taken more than a year to complete the project though I don't know if she worked on it every day.

For myself I thought I would challenge myself to do something of the same sort for the next 30 days. Our family's art closet is brimming with every kind of material imaginable. I've saved every art or craft material that's ever come in this house since the children were born. They do less art however there materials are crying out to be used. Baring the up and coming birthdays in the family and Thanksgiving, I pledge (this sounds scary) to do at least one page a day for the next 30 days in this new art book of mine.

The project actually started yesterday. I had to convince my husband to give up one of his old text books for my crazy idea. It really took him that long to choose one. No, I'm not mean... I just have no old books to spare. At least not that I'm willing to paint on or intentionally cover the text.

It's time to meet my new art project. Principles of Interactive Computer Graphics will never look the same.

Day Two: Right away I decided to give this book a facelift. Because I'm an Earthy kind of girl I went with unbleached wrapping paper with my favorite insects on it. I covered the book like I do with the children's text books the old fashioned way but instead of a brown paper bag I used the wrapping paper. In order to keep the cover on I decided to use Elmers glue, paint brush for application and masking tape which would be covered up. The school glue itself is a bit thick and I feared it would wrinkle the paper therefor I watered the glue down so it was easily spread with the paintbrush (it washed out just fine) and any wrinkles would spread out easily with a paper towel.

The inside of the cover didn't have to be pretty as my plan was to cover it will something else. One throw away item I always keep is thin cardboard or heavy paper. And this is what I had planned to cover the insides of the covers of this art book with. Using the same method I covered the cardboard with a different wrapping paper and applied the watered down glue in the same fashion as was used for the book cover.

Once two of these inserts were completed I applied them to the inside of the book's covers. I choose this particular colored paper was for it's creamy tones. The books pages are weathered and no longer white. So although the pages will be transformed the inside cover will not clash with the original book's coloring.

The cover is not finished yet. I will be working more on it tomorrow. I have some ideas for it but don't want to disclose them at this time. So it remains a bit plain for the time being.

Stay tuned.