What is an altered book?  An altered book is a form of art that changes it from one form into another.  It’s a perfect way to recycle an old book by adding numerous scrapbooking or art techniques such as drawings, painting, burns, folds, stickers, photos, pictures, stamps, pockets and almost anything that you could imagine.  It can be fairly simple or very complicated using one or many books in the finished product.  I made one of these books long before I even knew they had a name.  Today the internet is full of techniques and numerous examples.  These books are even featured in art shows.  If you do a web search you will certainly see why they are an art form.  They are completely amazing!

The book I made was for my mom on Mother’s Day.  She really loves Halloween so I decided on a scary/ghostly theme.  I used an old Dean Koontz book that normally would have ended up in the box for Goodwill or the garage sale.

The book has been around for a little while and has been looked at by many people.  On this book I put a smaller homeade book on the front and put a special dedication inside along with a key and ribbon.

I used an eyelet punch to make two holes, one in the cover and one in the back for tying on the ribbon and string to close the book.

The following are some sample pages that I made inside the book.

Throughout the book there are many stamps with a Halloween theme.  This one happens to be a picket fence and crows.

Much of my personal poetry can also be found throughout the book…as long as it was dark and scary!

For this page I folded four pages down to make pockets.  One page folded lower than the next.  I Then put eyelets on the sides so the ribbon could hold them shut.  The theme of this page was ’superstitions’ and each card held info an a different one.

Interesting spider facts page.

Recipes for Halloween parties or some that could be used to make ‘fall inspired’ dishes was also an idea.

Drawings made by the kids incorporated them into the project and of course mom loved that!

More of my poetry.

Painting the pages a different color can also make for a great effect.

I had to include some photos from past Halloween parties.  Both of myself and the kids=)

To be honest the pictures do not do the book justice.  It is an amazing piece of art with a whole lot of love put into it.  Anyone receiving a gift such as this would cherish it forever.  I recently inherited a whole bunch of older books.  Most of them I will put on my book shelf but some are just perfect for this project.  My new book has a square hollowed out inside to place small objects.  I still have to finish the cover.  The possibilites are endless and for me it’s an enjoyable project and a wonderful way to recycle.