When I go to a second hand shop, I head to the book section first. I look for old books about birds, the ones with the colored illustrations. Now that I have duplicates of two of them, I feel better about tearing up the pages. Today, from the pages of one book, I made two small books (each  3″ X 4″). I was inspired by Anna’s tutorial on making accordion fold books.

She clearly explained how to make this simple and easy project. I used pages from one of my bird books as front and back covers.The background is tinted with chalks and inks, stamped with Layers of Color Beaded Frames, Architectural Blocks and Gothic Crosses art stamps, and accented with opaque white gel pen.

I used textured wallpaper (also found at a second hand shop)for the signature (inside of book), which I spray painted and rubbed with colored ink pads.The paper is smooth on one side for easy writing.

After working on project after project for work, it felt great to learn something new and just create for fun with no particular purpose in mind for my artwork. I think I’ll make more books as Christmas and birthday gifts.

I enjoyed this artful experience. Thanks, Anna!