How to Make an Altered Book From Junk Mail Postcards

Making altered books is not so much a project as a set of techniques for artistic experimentation. Junk mail postcards are great for altered books because they are free, colorful, funny and easy to rearrange in different ways. Don't feel like you need to restrict yourself to just using junk mail, however. Bring in magazines, colored paper, trinkets or any other supplies you want to, and make your altered book the fanciful, creative, one of a kind work of art

Things You'll Need

• Craft Knife
• Scissors
• Children's Board Books
• Gesso
• Gel Medium
• Paint
• Paintbrush
• Computer
• Printer
• Old Magazines
• Old Newspapers
• Junk Mail Postcards
• Assorted Junk Mail
• Decorative Paper
• Pen

Instructions

Making an Altered Book from Junk Mail Postcards

1. Acquire children's board books. You can usually find these types of books for very cheap at used book stores, reuse shop and rummage sales. The actual content of the books does not matter that much, as you will be modifying them.

2. Save up as much junk mail as you can. Include vacation offers, religious pamphlets, magazine inserts and anything else that strikes your fancy.

3. If you have old magazines or newspapers that you don't mind cutting up, bring them out. The more material you have to work with, the better.

4. Get some decorative paper. This is not necessary, but it can add a splash of color and some texture to your altered books.

5. Look at the board books. Do you like any of the pictures or words inside of them or do you want to use them as a complete blank? Sometimes, it is fun to modify the story that is already in the children's book. Other times, it is better to start from scratch.

6. Decide if you want to cut out any of the pages. You can make an altered book by gluing things on top of the pages or by cutting holes in the pages and using them as frames for whatever inserts you want to paste in. You can also combine techniques, using both intact pages and ones with holes cut in.

7. Rough up any sections you want to blank with medium grit sandpaper. The sandpaper will remove the plastic coating, making the gesso stick better to the pages.

8. Going one page at a time, apply gesso to any part of the book you want to blank. Be sure to let the coating dry before you turn the page so that you don't end up with pages stuck together.

9. If you can still see pictures or lettering, apply another layer of gesso. Two layers is usually enough, but keep going until you have plain, white pages.

10. Cut up your junk mail postcards with scissors. Find images, phrases or sections that particularly appeal to you and cut them out.

11. Arrange your pieces into collages. You can arrange them on pieces of paper, other junk mail postcards or the pages of the book.

12. Glue the scraps down. Use a paintbrush to put a thin coating of white glue on the back of each scrap you want to use. Then glue it down in position.

13. Glue collages into their frames. Use a thin coating of white glue on the frames to attach the collages to their edges.

14. Glue collages onto solid pages in the book. Coat the whole back of the collage with a think coating of white glue, then glue it down.

15. Glue in unaltered junk mail postcards. If you have any postcards that are so golden that they don't need any modification, glue them into the book as is. Simply but a layer of white glue on the back of each and attach it to the book.

16. Decorate the front and rear covers. Decorate them with any images that appeal to you.

17. Write a title. You can use a pen or paint, or print out a title and paste it on.

Tips & Warnings

• If you cut two holes of the same size in adjacent pages, you can make them into one double-sided page. Simply have an image facing to the left on the left page and an image facing to the right on the right page. Then, use a thin coating of gel medium to glue them together.

• Be sure to wash off your paintbrush or leave it soaking in water between coats of paint. Otherwise, you can ruin the brush.