Altering a Book, Step by Step III

When Diana and I talked recently, we both agreed that few, if any, books on journaling are as good as Gwen Diehn's two books "Decorating a Page " and "The Decorated Journal."

So I took both off my bookshelf and reintroduced myself to their content: clear instructions, simple inspirational examples and excellent technical know-how, are three of the outstanding qualities of Diehn's books.

One of Gwen's many excellent recommendations is to prepare some of your journal pages in advance with various medium. Then when inspiration strikes, you already have a selection of prepared background pages with various medium and colours.

Ink pads as background(s)

And reviewing the books reminded me of other ways to revitalise and possibly get the last of the colour out of my ink pads. Turning them upside down I used two of the many drying pads as background color for a couple of planned pages by rubbing them against the blank page. It worked.



Another of her great suggestions, and I haven't seen this one elsewhere, is to use absorbent ground to mask text rather than gesso. The ground is much finer, dries flat and is easier to apply than gesso. I checked both the MSRP and the price at Cheap Joes. It appears that there is only a couple of dollars difference for a 16oz bottle of ground as compared to gesso and Dick Blick's price is one dollar less for each product.