A couple of years ago I got this old children´s book at a charity shop. It´s from 1962, and I´ve been meaning to recycle it. Since I am soon in need of a new calender-book, and wanted to do something a bit different, I thought this might be a good combination.
The paper quality in these vintage books is something else. The pages are a bit heavier, and are all matte, even the picture-pages. Perfect for painting over!
I simply started to paint over the pages with white acrylic, adding tiny bits of color to some of the text pages. The pages with pictures are the best, because the colors shine through the white, and create a lot of extra life.
Thenk goodness for the hot-gun! Acrylic dries too slowly when painting pages that need turning, and it tends to stick to the last page if it´s not completely dry.
After I was done with the acrylic, I added some fabric paint and highlights in colored acrylic paints for life and texture.
I like the color-range here! Life waiting to happen!
The first two pages, one still empty, waiting for notes, phone-numbers ect. The second page with the year calendar, so I can keep an overview.
Starting to add content: dates and months…
The cover with added papers and fabrics glued down, and partly paint over with acrylics.
I decided to widen and strengthen the spine, as I know from experience it will bulge as I add to the book.
One of the pages, reminding me I have an exam in a few weeks, and should be reading, not ARTing! Yikes!
I just love your calendar-books! So inspiring! 🙂