Last week was my birthday and in a few days this blog’s 21st blogoversary will occur. So this is my gift to you guys, as a thank you and a token of appreciation. You are amazing, creative & awesome – never forget!

This is a Free Mixed Media Workshop – a gift to you from me, iHanna.

Workshop: How to prepare an altered book with bright, colorful layers in a mixed media way.

What you will need: matte medium as glue, your paper stash, acrylic paint, a journal/notebook of some sort (and I’ll talk about the joy of altering a printed books below) and some time to get messy with your paint brush in hand. Let’s play!

Altering a book as an Art Journal

The first thing to consider is what book to use. When using a printed book as your base, what kind of book you choose will affect the final result, and maybe also how you will feel about working in it. Noticing what’s already printed inside the book’s pages might alter what you put down (colors, words, mood). I’ve written extensive tutorials on how to pick a book and how to get started altering it, so I’ll skip that today. This series of videos that I’m sharing (in one big blog post that is like an entire free workshop) is about how to prepare the actual pages in an altered book. How to kind of gruff them up and make them your own. How to “move in” if you will.

How to find your own personal preference when it comes to what book to alter is not something I can teach you, though. That’s simply something that you will learn along the way, probably after working through a couple of different books. But when you’re about to choose your first one, go with your gut instinct. Like my yoga teacher always say: “choose what feels good”.

In this workshop/tutorial I am using a newer interior design book found for almost nothing at the thrift shop. I usually pick older, more scuffed up non-fiction coffee table books, but this is an experiment for me as well. I like the color of the cover, the size and the feel of the pages. I hope you’ll find a book that you will enjoy working in too.

BTW: Never buy a new book to make into a journal – even if it’s cheap. Please pick a book that’s been loved, read and used already. “Cheap books” cost a lot for the environment and future generations, if not your own wallet. They are not a good idea even if you have easy access to them at a “dollar store”. Altering a used book though, is a good idea. Just sayin.

Now all you need to do is watch the four video’s in this workshop, follow along and learn a few new things about art journaling in an altered book, using tissue paper and acrylics, working in layers, altering a book (yes, all of this is included) – you don’t need to sign up for my newsletter or anything (even though you can because of course I have a newsletter). You don’t have to whip out any money, or sign up to my newsletter, or leave me a comment, or even share a link to this blog post on your social media – but all of those things are welcome options if you enjoy the content. All of it is optional for you but very much appreciated by me.

Grab a beverage, start watching, take notes if you want to, then gather your materials – and let’s play with paint, papers and colors. It’s going to be a blast!

Use cheap materials to create your layers

I am a fan of using cheap materials when I art journal, because I think that helps loosen us up and not be precious with the materials (or the “journal”/altered book). But also I love: “use what you have”, don’t go out to buy new materials for this. Just start experiment with what you already own. I bet it’s quite a bit of stuff if you’re drawn to mixed media ideas? The book we’re using is a second-hand copy that has already been read several times, so it’s okay to cover up everything on the page if that’s what you’d like to do, right?

The first layer of papers will then consist of saved bits of wrapping papers from birthdays and other celebrations. Free or almost free pretty papers makes it easy to cover those layers up later on as well, if we do decide to keep going on any of these “first layer” pages. When layering you don’t know what will happen from one layer to the next, so try to keep an open mind about what’s next. Beyond wrapping papers you could use magazine pages, not images yet perhaps, but “backgrounds” of colors, texture or patterns.

And cheap paints makes it easier to layer, cover up, and “waste” rather than save the paint for “another day”. At least to me.

In the following three videos I’ll get us started with three different categories of layers/materials. 1) solid and patterned papers, 2) acrylic paint and mark making and lastly as we keep prepping the pages 3) thin decoupage papers on top of our previous layers or on top of the text blocks inside our book. In the last and final video I’ll “create a page” from start to finish, just for fun. I am not sharing it so you can copy it step for step, but as inspiration to get you started on making a finished spread of your own, okay?

Layer 1: Add in some pretty patterned papers

Let’s give this a try, shall we? (Below each video is a link to the video on YouTube in case you want to watch it again later, turn on subtitles, give it a thumbs up – or leave me a comment on the individual video there).

My book is already more journal than printed matter, and soon it will start to look like a “real” art journal to me. I love when this happens, with any notebook or journal. When it goes from being just another blank notebook to becoming something that belongs to me, that is a part of me: a journal filled with me.

A journal that will probably be my companion for weeks or years to come.

Then after gluing in all those papers, it’s time to bring out the acrylic paint…

Layer 2: painting with acrylics

Let’s play with our acrylic paint and smoosh it down on the page. Let’s be messy! I love mixing different art materials to create colorful layers in my altered book, and acrylic paint never let’s me down.

I’ll share some of my favorite ways to “paint” in this video where we create a second layer, trying different ways to apply the paint to the page.

Let’s create another layer in our Art Journal.

Bonus lesson: How to use tissue papers & napkins to create collage papers

Layer 3: Layering with tissue papers

Let’s create a tissue paper / transparent layer in our mixed media colorful Art Journal as well! Just for fun… and because we have too much tissue paper, right?

Join in this fun tutorial where we’re using more cheap materials. It’s time to bring out the really thin papers (like napkins and tissue paper) to adhere over the previous layers that we’ve already created. I love this! This is part 3 of 3 in in this workshop.

That’s the last of the layering and prepping in our altered book for now. You could keep going, yes, but also, you are probably itching to create something on those pages by now, right? I know I am. So let’s do that then.

Bonus lesson: How to alter a text book (and prep it before you even start to paint in it)

Bonus lesson (video 4): Start to finish art journal page with iHanna

Let’s create an art journal page in our prepared and beautiful altered book together – from start to finish. It’s a bit scary to get started and just jumping in, so let’s not wait until the fear settles in. Just go ahead and start. For me, I will create a mixed media page using crayons, acrylic paint and collage and you can follow along in the art journaling process. Yay!

Are you inspired yet? I hope sure hope so. April is my birthday month, and this blog turns 21 years old (gulp!), so that’s why I thought this was a good idea to share now. It’s your birthday present from us (me and the blog). I hope you like it. :-)

Bonus content: showing a lot of the prepared art journal spreads in tomorrow’s blog post. Stay tuned.

Subscribe to the iHanna Newsletter to get news and updates. Subscribe to blog posts to get more blog posts like this in the future. If you’re in need of a handmade journal beyond the altered one we just started feel free to check out my shop as well.

Thanks for being here and doing my Free Mixed Media Workshop.

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