altered book step 3

I've finished all the steps for lesson 3 on my altered book (AB) class with Elizabeth.  It's a free online tutorial that she is so generously sharing - amazingly detailed info and photos to guide you each step of the way and you can start any time; the lessons are in order on her sidebar.

There were 3 main components of lesson 3 - prep the cover, reinforce and decorate the inside cover and create a niche at the back.

My cover was a solid black so not too hard to do - I sanded it a bit and covered it with a couple coats of gesso.  I'm not sure what I'll do to it just yet - it may need more gesso, depending....

Step 2:

I had some of this gorgeous textured handmade paper (no I didn't make it) left over from another project so added it for my inside cover.  Yep, that's the glue showing through.  Again, when I figure out how to embellish this, I'll be covering up most of those glue marks.

 I love the ragged deckle edge.

Step 3 - create niche:

Gluing the back pages together - twice!  These clips were the perfect clamp but that's partly because my niche is so thin - will likely do it deeper next time.

Niche cut and glued and drying.

Niche covered with scrapbook paper (corners a little messy) and you can see how thin this niche is.  I'm using wire wrapped sea glass to fill it.  The left hand page has a cutout corresponding to the size of the nice and there's a blank page on the other side so I'm thinking I'll write some pithy comment there when I get to that.  I had this scrapbook paper that felt like seaside/ocean etc to go with the seaglass detail.  I'm sure I'll add to the seaglass page....just not sure what yet.

The niche pages are glued to the back cover.  Things to do better next time:  choose the niche piece first so I make a space deep enough, take more care in cutting/folding the corners of the cover sheet!

Thanks for the detailed instructions Elizabeth!  I'm looking forward to the next steps.