Book Art

Today I'm sharing a Design Team tutorial that I did for Off The Rails Scrapbooking.

I have always been fascinated and intrigued by any craft project using old books and/or book pages.  I am especially in awe of folded book art.  Unlike some diehard bookworms, I have no problem up cycling old books.  You can Google "Folded Book Art" and get hundreds of ideas and tutorials.  You can even purchase pre-marked books that tell you just where to make the folds ... and so I did.  After I complete my folded book art project I decided it needed a special cover.

 

 

 First I made a book cover to fit my book.  I used a heavy weight white wrapping paper.  I used the same concept as making a book cover from a brown paper bag.

 

 

 

1)  I applied a light layer of Mod Podge to the front side of the book cover.

 

 

 

2)  For this step you have to work quickly.  I  laid a piece of printed tissue paper over the adhesive and  pressed it flat with my hands, smoothing out any wrinkles.  Then I had to let it dry.  To speed up the drying process I used a heat gun.

 

3)  I trimmed the excess tissue paper from around the book

cover using a pair of scissors.

 

 

 

4) I then distressed  the edges of the book cover using a distressing tool.

 

 

 

5)  I  applied four colors of distress paint on the tissue paper using my fingers.

 

 

 

6)  While the paint was still wet I misted with water to blend the colors.

7)  I partially dried the painted tissue paper with a heat gun.

 

 

 

8) I then sprayed the painted background with two mists of distress spray stain.

 

 

 

9)  While the stain was still wet I misted with water to react the spray stain and blend the colors. I blotted off the excess color with a paper towel to achieve the look I wanted.

 

 

 

10)  I printed the quote on cardstock and cut the individual words out.  I then adhered the words to the front of the book cover.  I highlighted a few of the words using a distress marker along the edges and immediately smudged the ink with a  Q-tip dipped in water to create a shadow effect.

 

 

 

 

11)  I applied a thin layer of Mod Podge to seal the book cover.

12) Adding the key and some metal embellishments completed the project.