Halloween - Easy Altered Book.

This Halloween set the scene with dusty, creepy old books you make yourself. These old books are a great place to start when decorating your home. Make a set to sit on top of a piano, add a candelabra and an old skull. If your going for a witch theme make an old spell book and combine it with apothecary jars, a crystal ball and a few spider webs. Or just have fun making a large set to fill a bookshelf. These great Halloween props can be bought out year after year and combined in different ways to really set a spooky scene.

I'll be sharing a number of ways to alter old books starting with a simple print and paste project then working up to a more complicated Sculpey and tissue project.

Let's get started on a your first title, "Anatomy of The Bat".

• Find an old ratty book at a garage sale, flea market or cast offs from your local library. You may have something lurking in a dark corner of your basement or attic. The grungier the better. For this project I used a small book measuring 4"x5"x1". The contents of the book are not important.
• In preparation for printing your vintage-look graphic sheet; dye a sheet of regular computer paper with tea. Soak a tea bag in a few tablespoons of water until the water takes on color. Dab the wet tea bag all over the surface of the paper. Your looking for an uneven effect.

• When you've achieved the aged look of old paper, let the sheet dry completely or speed the process with a hair dryer or heat gun.
• Iron the paper as flat as you can. Don't worry about the odd tiny wrinkle it will add character to the page.
• Load the dry, flattened sheet into your printer. Print off a copy of the graphics sheet I've prepared for this project by clicking *HERE*
• Cut out each of the elements. You will have a title bar, side bar, front graphic and inside page graphics.
• Position the side bar, title bar and large bat graphic on the outside of the book. When your pleased with the look, glue them in place with white glue. Note - a glue stick will not adhere the graphics to a canvas or cloth covered book - use white glue.
• Glue the remaining graphics to pages within the book. This step is meant to "fool" anyone who picks the book up and starts leafing through it.  They probably won't read the text but will see the pictures and be convinced of your small deception. My little book is actually an English novel about a country gentlemen!

 YOUR DONE, now how easy was that! There are many public domain vintage Halloween graphics on the net that would make perfect spooky books. One of my favorite places for vintage Halloween graphics is The Graphics Fairy. Here's the link to the search page, scroll down and look for the Halloween section.

Stay tuned for more altered books coming soon!