Altered Books have been around since the very first artist worked with the writer to express something more than words and images can do alone.
Since the Victorian era Altered books have become art and therapy and personal mementos - a scrapbook of the heart and mind in a way.
I started this tribe to list information, inspiration and resources for anyone interested in the Media of Altered books but am not limiting it only to books but will be including anything paper or textile even computer art - to be fluid and flexiable and use what you have or find is what makes the most meaningful art - you do not need a lot of money or time or even genius. You need only to look around and alter your perceptions of what art can be.
I hope you have fun and please share your work, experiences and dreams.


Here is a clever list of things you can do with Altering Books
From Judith Page

Altered Book Tips:

Rub linseed oil over a copy of an image or pattern (like small dotted wrapping paper). Glue w/acrylic medium over another colored image. Great translucent play on images/patterns.
Take tissue paper and coat it twice with matte medium. Let dry. paint dried tissue with transparent paints or inks. Let dry and resulting paper looks like stained glass.
Make silk paper with silk fibers meshed between two screens (like the type for windows) and then coat with wall paper paste on both sides. Hang to dry on clothesline still between the mesh.
Encase an image or object in tissue or rice paper and use in window (like glass).
Glue down a strong image or print pattern -like a block print. Crumble rice paper and spot acrylic medium on back and place glue side down over image. Dry. Paint a light acrylic wash over rice paper and the medium acts like a resist so the result is a staining. Dry. Wash second color over parts of rice paper.
Wash acrylic glaze (acrylic paint + matte medium) color over semi-transparent tracing paper. Dry. Glue paper over an image or part of an image. You can still see a hazy image thru the color. Like looking thru the world in rose or green or canary yellow glasses.
Layer coat one side of tissue paper with acrylic medium. Lay over images. Coat top with medium. Tissue is very transparent.
Crumple tissue paper. Drip dye-based inks or watercolors onto papers and shift papers so ink runs in crevasses. Dry them coat then coat with gloss or matte medium.
After you lay images down, coat papers with three to five different colored acrylic washes. (acrylic paint plus medium) Use your color sense as you lay the washes down. This isn't a huge film laid over the whole picture. Let dry between washes. When finished seal color with matte or gloss varnish. Light plays with the glazes and art seems to glow.
Use gold leaf or gold oil crayons on work. Seal with acrylic medium, then proceed with washes and paint. Scratch thru washes and glazes with sharp object and the shine form the leaf will come thru.
Take a colored copy or regular Xerox copy and coat five times with gloss medium. )Let dry between coats. Let whole thing dry overnight. Next morning gently rub paper off back of image and you have a film of your picture or image. You can glue this down, you can transfer this image to your picture by applying matte medium over back (paper-side) of image and let set up, then peel (looks like a photo transfer) or you can do this on fabric by coating image five times then gluing the last image to the fabric with the medium. Next day rub paper off back of image that is glued on fabric and seal.