Making Altered Books: New Scrapbooking Trend
Scrapbooking has become one of the hottest crafts around, and shows no sign of losing its appeal to craft artists, but like everything else, scrapbooking goes through fads and phases.
Recently we have seen the `scrappy chic trend, the 70s retro phase and `lumpy pages loaded with 3D embellishments. Part of the joy of looking through scrapbooks in the future will be to see how the pages reflect the fashions of the time.
But whats ahead for scrapbookers? What new techniques and styles will dominate this creative and enjoyable craft?
Using Mini Albums
One of the biggest trends at the moment is the move to mini-albums. Scrappers still love their 12×12 albums, which give so much freedom for self expression, but are being inspired by artists working with altered books to create something more challenging. Unlike altered book artists, who use old books as the basis for their work, scrappers are choosing to make their artistic statements in mini-albums. Mini-albums are excellent because they come with page protectors and each page can become a little work of art with creative cropping, rubber stamping and collage.
Make Your Own Album
If you want your album to be truly an artistic expression, you can make your own from standard cardstock. Cut into 6×6 squares and punch holes along one edge for binding. Make strong covers to protect the pages and decorate with beads and fibers. Mini-albums have a lot of advantages. These little books allow scrappers to keep to a budget since there is not a lot of surface to cover. The smaller size of the pages are a challenge to the scrappers creativity it is surprising how much art you can pack into a small area.
Preserving Odd Mementos
Mini-albums designed to look like altered books are the ideal place for those odd photos and mementos that you have never been able to incorporate into your 12×12 pages. Those tiny snapshots taken with old fashioned black and white cameras, for instance, ticket stubs, sticker photos from photo booths all of these are ideal for scrapbooking in a mini-album.
Using different Handmade Papers
With a mini-album and altered book techniques, you arent confined to scrapbooking stores for ideas. Chinese joss paper, handmade paper, beautifully patterned Japanese paper all of these can provide beautiful backgrounds and accents for your pages. If you are worried about the acid content of some of these non-scrapbook specific materials, you can scan your photos and use the printout instead of the original. This way, you can also use photo editing software to give the image a sepia or blue tinge to better fit in with your vision for the page.
Finding Collage Elements
Magazines and periodicals are great sources for collage elements, especially vintage issues. Old advertisements and vintage movie star portraits go well with heritage pages. When you have created your pages, you can alter the cover with paint, beads, fibers or other techniques to give it a real altered book look.
With this edgy scrapbooking style, there are no limits let your imagination run wild!
by Gail Kavanagh
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