Prepping a Board Book

So after pondering and thinking and wondering about WHAT type of book I will use for the Halloween art journal, I happened upon some children's board books at the flea market. I thought hmmmm alter these? I counted the pages. Most board books would not work for the Halloween or Christmas art journals because they do not have enough pages. I counted, I counted again and again. Yep THIS one has 32 pages...I could use it by doing a final double page for Halloween.

Now how to prep the pages. Sometimes people just use the images on the pages as part of their art journal images but I knew this wouldn't work for my Halloween art journal.

I read a bit online about altering board books and discovered three methods.

1. You can use sandpaper to lightly sand the slick pages so things stick better.

2. You can use gesso and paint over the images on the pages.

3. Carefully tear off the top layer of the printed page.

I opted for method three.

If you start at a corner and work down along the edge of the page you can then pull it across the page and remove it as one large sheet. Sometimes it will tear off bits and they are a little more difficult to remove but overall it is pretty easy!

Now I have a nice blank board book for a dollar! Much cheaper than buying a board book at a craft store and again even in the store it is difficult to find one with the right number of pages!