How to Get Started with your Altered Book of Love

What is an Altered Book of Love?

This is a People Spread Love Pilot Project spearheaded by Angela Burton, a Jackson Hole artist/illustrator. She thought it could be a great way to spread love and kindness through art bound into one book. This book can be any book. We are taught as kids to not write or draw in our books but this time it’s highly encouraged. If you search: “Altered Books” there is a trove of examples and ideas on how you can utilize this art form.

We have a lot of ideas to get your creative juices flowing. Angela thought this through and wanted to share as much as she knew about the art of Altered Books.

Idea Prompts for designing, decorating, illustrating and modifying altered book pages:

Relate your art to something actually written/shown on the page of the book
Create a theme for the page/book – inspired by seasons, holidays, characters, activities, colors, words, sports, theater, music, etc
Be serious – reflective – meditative thoughts, images, feelings, soothing photos/art
Be silly – make someone laugh – cartoons or humorous pictures/drawings
Use words instead of pictures to create art on the page – this could be collage or written words, pasted in or drawn
Create drama on a page with striking images
Be subtle and create a soothing mood or feeling
Think of something that would surprise/amuse the viewer – pockets/envelopes glued onto the page with a secret message inside – flaps that reveal a secret picture or message underneath – cut holes through a page, revealing an image below on another page (be careful that you don’t destroy the integrity of the book or binding) – secret messages or codes to be deciphered – attach something to the cover of the book, such as fabric, beads, or other materials (be sure that they are securely attached and that they don’t mess up the mechanics of the book opening/closing)
Create a simple pop-up on a page spread – you can find samples of these on the internet
Use one large graphic image on a page/spread
Use several smaller images on a page/spread
Tell a story on the spread
Use bright colors
Use soft colors
For inspiration, look through other visual books that you love, listen to music, take a walk, meditate.
But most of all, HAVE FUN! It doesn’t have to be perfect. Enjoy!

Materials used in past Altered Books:

Matte Medium – use as glue and to protect art
Glue stick – for smaller pieces
Sharpie – works good on slick pages for notes or art – Keep in mind that many pens will smear on the slick book pages.
Collage materials – magazines, photos, print-outs from an inkjet printer, etc
Acrylic paint, to literally paint on the pages and on collage materials
Gesso, only when I wanted to “block out” images on the page
Watercolor paper for artwork, which can then be applied to the page
Scissors for cutting the above
Colored waterproof markers – again, worry about the smearing factor
Double-stick tape for adhering some artwork
Hole punch – for lots of reasons
Other possible items: crayons, construction paper (for those who don’t paint), origami paper

I know that there are more!

A really cool idea: Life Lessons From 100 Days Of Seeing Color In The Garden (Lorene Edwards Forkner)

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