Take a leaf out of....

Welcome to our Theatre of Dreams! Thank you to all who took part in the last challenge, what amazing creations!
Tonight the BOOK is centre stage, and we have a guest designer . Welcome CRISSI! Crissi has created the most marvellous altered book,

and this what she says about it

My name is Crissi Harvey I have been crafting for a good few years now in one way or another. I got into paper crafting about 4 years ago and my crafting addictions have gone from there, I love mixed media, altered art and all things that are a little different. I co run if that's the right word, Arty Girlz challenge blog with my good friend Julie. Im married to mark and have a wonderful 13yr son Harry whom im am just so proud of.

Here Crissi tells us how she made the book

I got my book from a sale at the Library for 50p can't grumble at that can you .

Firstly I found an old photo frame and used the glass as a template to cut the front of the book out, then I covered the front of the book with Golden molding paste, to this I added crushed egg shells and let it dry.
when dry I used red yellow and gold acrylic paints on the cover over the shells and also on the back of the book. when it was dry I covered the whole front of the book with a mixture of Tetrolseal car paint (its the black tarie stuff you use on the underneath of cars to stop it rusting) and turps then used a rag to wipe it back to the paint, it gives a lovely rich colour and depth to the texture. (you can also use a cotton bud with some turps on to wipe some of the paint back on random bits of the shells for more effect if you like) oh and don't panic when you see your work has turned black LOL it will be ok LOL.
I used the card that was in the old frame to create my picture i used the same colours for the background as the book then cut out the image and glued it in place, i used a water colour crayon in black and smudged it around the image and edges I also did that around the cut opening. I then glued the picture to the front page of the book, then glued the glass in to the opening that was cut out previously just ran glue around the edge. I used an old earing for a charm,(just made a hole and used wire) and glued the charm words around the book and added an ivy rubon. Then I screwed 4 screws in to each corner which kind of binds the first inch or so of the book together.
On the inside of the book I covered the first pages with paint ready for when Iuse the book as a journal to keep techniques in.The first is going to be how i made the book!

For those of you like me, when I first altered a book, did I *blanch* at wrecking a perfectly good book! But when I saw what you could do(and there are so many books in charity shops just crying out to be altered), I realised that it was fantastic way to use a book, especially if it had sat on a shelf not sure if it was going to be read! So go find a book, a paperback, maybe a magazine, or a book you will never read, and get those creative juices flowing!
Happy Creating
Jennie