Altered Wooden "Books"

I found a set of faux wooden books at a thrift store for whopping $1 for the whole set. They range in size from about 5 inches tall to about 2 inches tall. I have seen similar wooden books at the craft stores.

I started off by adding some black paint along the binding edge then covering the books with strips of dictionary paper and Tim Holtz Tissue Tape.  This is the first time I had really used the Tissue Tape for more than just a tiny accent and I was pleasantly surprised by how well it stuck to the wood. I Mod Podged over all that and let it dry.

I chose Conservatory paper by 7 Gypsies to cover the largest and third largest books. The edges were torn before being Mod Podged on and then I added lots of Distress inks and stains to grunge the books up. I wanted them to look as old and dingy as possible.

These two books are covered with torn images from the Steampunk Debutante 6 inch pad by Graphic 45. I did the same distressing as on the first pair. I finished them all off with a coating of Workable Fixative to seal in the Distress colors.  They are delightfully grunged up.

With this project I learned that you can take something practically worthless (ie, old thrift store craft junk) and transform it with lots of layers of paper, tape, inks and good old glue (Mod Podge.)  These will probably be adbandoned in sets of two. 

 I hope somebody enjoys them!

Gale C. Lewis