Anyway, last year I did something different for one of my Christmas presents. I'm not an arts-and-crafts type person. I like that kind of stuff but usually don't have the patience. Scrapbook when I can be reading? Are you kidding? But my sister-in-law is very much into the cardmaking/scrapbooking scene, and she comes from a family that highly prizes handmade gifts. The more sentimental, the better. So instead of getting her the usual assortment of scarves, candles, bath stuff, etc., I decided to try my hand at making an altered book. I mean, it's a book, right? I love books--any kind of book. I also thought it might be cheaper, but don't tell her that.
She has a couple of Yorkshire Terriers, so I decided to make a photo album/quote book for her. She'd have to add the pictures, of course. But at least I had a theme.
Step 1: I found an old hardcover book about that particular breed on eBay. It had some cool pictures of the dogs, some interesting information, and a lot of other stuff that she'd never read.
Step 2: I kept the book for a while. Looking at it. Looking at altered books online. Trying to figure out what in the world I'd gotten myself in to and where in the world was I going to start.
Step 3: I ran across some cool craft paper. Bought it. Looked around some more. Ended up with four different colors of paint, an ink pad, a stamp, a collection of alphabet stamps, a thick pad of frames/phrases/etc. for scrapbooking, paint brushes, craft glue, chipboard embellishments, an exacto knife, etc.
Step 4: I stared at the book for a few weeks longer.
Step 5: I looked through the book, marking the pages I wanted to keep as they were.
Step 6: I dared to cut a page of a book. That was hard. Especially when the exacto knife thing cut a few more pages than it was supposed to.
Step 7: I lost the pages I had marked to save.
Step 8: I spread everything over the coffee table.
Step 9: The pile grew until it covered the counter.
Step 10: We bought a table to put in the study and moved the mess there.
Step 11: I looked up quotes about dogs. Lots of quotes. I picked out my favorites.
Step 12: I painted some stuff, glued on some letters, let the pages dry, stuck the brushes in the air conditioning unit to dry, and painted some more pages. Cut some more. Ripped some more. Glued some more. Let dry some more.
Step 13: Got paint on a favorite skirt. Had brushes growing out of my air conditioner. Stained my ramekins from using them as paint holders. Got turquoise and brown and black and white paint dots all over my kitchen sink.
Step 14: Tried to clean it up. Sort of.
Step 15: Worked on the book some more. Ran out of paint. Ran out of ink in my calligraphy pen. Started to run out of ideas. Left a whole chapter as it was, supposedly because it was interesting. Mostly because I ran out of ideas.
Step 16: Took pictures of every page. Showed my family the book. Showed my husband the book. More than once. Showed my dog the book. Showed my best friend the book. Showed it to her mom, too. Her dad pretended interest. He's a good guy.
Step 17: Wrapped it up. Put it under the tree. Waited.
Step 18: My sister-in-law tried to guess what it was. Failed. Big-time.
Step 19: Christmas time came. She opened the present. She cried. Ahh...success. :-)
Step 20: Tried to come up with a new idea for Christmas 09. Failed.
Step 21: Have contacted my sister-in-law for a wish list for this year.
Here's some pictures of the project. Anyone else have any fun gift ideas having to do with books?
