It was a friend's birthday reciently so i decided as it was she who inspired me to discover my altered side, i would alter her something as a gift.
I had seen an artical in the Craft Stamper mag about making old books into boxes and loved the idea so though i would give it a try.
I started with an old hardback i brought from a charity shop, followed the instructions from the May 08 CS mag (well roughly anyway) , and just added my own twist on the whole thing. (if you want instructions i have a link for a site which shows a great tutorial for something very simular, just leave your e'mail in the comments section and i will happerly forward it on.)
Little details i love (if i do say so myself lol) are the owl, which is a magnolia stamp, coloured and then covered with some crackle glaze and displayed behind an old optical lense. I used grungeboard for the hinges and name, which i painted with a silver dabber, hinges inked over with a black archival ink to age them slightly, and the letters slightly covered here and there with crackle paint and inked with dusty concord distress ink.
I added a book plate type embelishment to the spine with my friends initals in it.
And as i know my friend loves owls i kept the theme going from the front and popped a big owl inside. He was made up of several pieces of paper all mounted on top of each other but with a piece or too missed each layer to show all the different patterns. Time consuming but worth the effort.
To finish i put the same paper i had used on the front with a bar code stamped in black archival ink, and dangeled a little owl charm from a ribbon i stuck inside the spine.
I do hope Hel's liked her present, and my very first attempt at altering old books, i was quite proud of it (and almost kept it lol)
xxx Hugz xxx