Do you incorporate poetry into your crafts? 
Since I’ve begun to get back to my poetry writing and have thoughts of compiling poems I’ve written over the years into a book, I’ve also given thought to incorporating these into crafts.

I think first of doing illustrations and collages that will reflect the theme of particular poems.  Then these might be something I could display (and sell as postcards, posters and originals) along with my children’s anthology, Tales of Adventure & Discovery, and the upcoming poetry book.
Also in mind are the altered books I’ve seen that take lines from poems and use them …read more

Altered book crafts have been a popular addition to the arts & crafts world for several years now.
You can find amazing carved sculptures from books, books that have been completely covered with mixed media artworks and even books used to make fiber art or art quilts.
I’ve got to admit, this is the first purse I’ve seen that’s been made out of a book!
For a project like that, I’d personally recommend "The Ultimate" glue.  It’s a really good quality white glue, and it’s what I used when I’m making covered notebooks.  As long as you handle it properly, I’ve never had …read more

Technique Tuesday!
For my page in the Altered Book group anniversary book, I decided to do a found poem.  I’ve got an old novel called My Lady of the Fog (Ralph H Barbour, 1908) and another Russian text called Selected Stories (Daniil Kharms, 1919).  Very different from each other in feel, I decided to use one of the illustrations from Kharms’s book and do a found poem using a page from Barbour’s.

Really, I couldn’t do it the other way around: I can’t read Russian!
Here’s the instructions that I wrote two years ago for using tissue paper as a guide when creating …read more

Altered Books have been around a lot longer than 10 years, but there’s a very special email group on Yahoo called the Alteredbooks group, which is having its 10th anniversary.  I’ve mentioned this group before as a wonderful resource and place of sharing for folks who are interested in this art form.
Well now my friend Corinne Stubson, who teaches book arts classes and has exhibited her books in art galleries, has decided to make a very special present for everyone in the group who wants to play.  We will each be creating a book page and sending it to Corinne.  …read more

Dark Roasted Blend has compiled some images and impressions of some truly cutting edge (NO pun intended) book artists.  These are the artists who outrage some others with their sacrilege…
Yeah, ok, just drive through the alley behind a bookstore sometime, and you’ll see the “sacrilege” of hundreds of books wasted in the dumpster.  Even though schools, libraries, and bookstores are getting better and better at recycling, why not have spare books be used for art instead?
I’ve always particularly liked Brian Dettmer’s work, which is included, and you’ll find Thomas Allen there too, one we’ve talked about here recently.

Image: Brian Dettmer

Thomas Allen combines book arts with photography to produce some stunning results.  He slices the figures from the covers to create a 3D effect, then alters and stages them for their photo shoot.   I love the gritty, often tongue in cheek results.  Many times his tableaux make visual reference to the title.  It helps a lot that he uses pulp fiction!
There is a large “gallery” of many of Thomas Allen’s pieces here.  I’m not sure that this is a sanctioned site since the post doesn’t even attribute them or link to him.

One of my favorite activities consists of researching and writing about my family stories, along with developing scrapbooks that depict these tales.  In fact, I’ve been developing this into a business that brands me as a family writer.
You’ll find many ways to save your family memories in scrapbooks:

Simply a collection of pictures with names or captions
Adding journal notes and explanations to the pictures
Writing stories and using the photos and pictures to illustrate
Write a fiction story, or biography, illustrated with scrapbooking techniques, as I’ve been doing with the story of my Uncle William “Buffalo Bill” Mathewson of New York State …read more

Artist: Jennifer Star
Website: CreativeJournalWorks
Art and creativity have always been a presence in Jennifer Star’s life. The very foundation of her creativity and artistic expression is based on a spiritual relationship with the earth and universe, and a desire to share this with others.   She has found that healing of the body/mind/ spirit occurs every time she fills herself up with ‘creative food for the soul.’

Bookmaking has been creative food for Star’s soul for as long as she can remember. However, it wasn’t until the early 2000’s that she was introduced to the technical side of bookmaking. From …read more

We’re crazy about books here…we love everything from altered books to handmade journals. We love making them, decorating them, filling them, and even reading them! I have gathered up a load of links from our archives that cover every aspect of books that we’ve examined over the years. And I’ll be adding more to this list as we go on.

Book Arts Links

Artist: Lea Cioci
Published Designer, Consultant, Product Developer

Websites:
Projects in 1000 HANDMADE Greetings
Creative Art Concepts for Papercrafting
I find that my expression comes from music lyrics, feelings, and sometimes even themes. Color and textures bring my spirit alive. Sometimes my work has a message or other times it is just a random expression where I just start and follow the journey of creating. Everyone is an artist in their own way. I honor those to let the journey take them to different places of expression.