Young Artists Transform Old Books into Works of Art!
As electronic books become more prevalant in today's society, hardback books are being discarded at schools all over the country. As elementary art teachers, my mom and I find it difficult to throw anything away! It seems like, behind every piece of trash, there is an innovative art project just waiting to be created! This is definitely true for discarded books! Artists can transform them into fabulous altered books. Using a wide variety of media, the possibilities are endless!
Altered books are a wonderful alternative to a traditional sketchbook or scrapbook. They allow the artist to create a book that represents his or her interests and unique style. We recently created altered books with our young artists at our studio and were amazed by the diversity among them!
1) First, we used sandpaper to sand the cover and binding of the book. This was done to create a surface that paint would adhere to.
2) We then began gluing pre-cut white paper to the book pages that could later be used for sketching or attaching pictures and photographs. If a book had a large number of pages, we glued some pages together, rather
than tearing them out.
3) Next, we painted the book covers with acrylic paint. Our students
each had a different color scheme in mind.
**Book covers can also be decorated through a collage of patterned paper.
4) Once painting was complete, it was time to add final details! Sp
latter painting, die-cut letters, Sharpie designs, rhinestones, and yarn were all part of this process.
5) Upon completion of their altered books, our young artists were excited to take them home and begin creating sketching their favorite things inside their books.
