Shabby books

So I work in a library and sometimes we have to throw books out because they've got too old and broken or just not needed anymore - sad but true.

Well last week I was walking through our main office and I spied a trolley of said old books. I gave a gasp and asked, are those being thrown out? Yes came the reply. Imagine my delight rows and rows of old, faded tattered, torn and yellowing books waiting for me to give them a new purpose in life.

Once my colleagues stopped laughing at me and my apparent near orgasmic delight in musty old paper, they asked me why. So I decided to give them a short introduction to the delights of ripping, sticking, inking and stamping using said texts.

Of course they then said they wanted evidence of such activity,so I showed them a couple of photos on my phone, but you've got to see ther real thing to really appreciate the depth and texture. So having a reason to create, that's what I did.

The base is mountboard painted in white. I then used an old candle to rub along the edges to act as a resit and painted over in a darker pink. Rubbed back with sandpaper and then rubbed some brown and gold paint to further add to the distress. Stamped over the top in archival coffee ink to add some text and sprayed a bit with creme rouge glimmer.

Smaller peice of mountboard (bottom left) had scraps of book pages stuck on with matte medium, painted and wiped back with a baby wipe in sand, then using a roller inked over with raisin ink. Where the matte medium was a bit thick it acted as a resist (nice). Again edged with gold. the tag on the right was inked with DI's spun sugar and victorian bvelet and sprayed with glimmer in taffy pink, creme rouhe and antique brass. Put through an embossing folder and again gold along the edges. 2 PaperArtsy roses in gold metal, embossed, cut the petals and rolled back. Finally three cream buttons had some sherbert alcohol ink dripped on them annd some purple floristry wire threaded through eyelets to make a hanging bracket.

Again photo's don't do it justice but I hope Sarah likes it.