An Altered book

I've been enjoying making books from scratch, but in the past I have enjoyed altering a book for a journal.
I first did this when I took a class with Kelly Kilmer - for that I used an old book of fairy tales.

Recently, I decided I'd like to try again, this time adding stitching to the mix...The cover is nice and plain which invites many different possibilities for alteration.

I started by tearing out every 3rd page so the book won't be too thick for its cover when finished. Then I gessoed the pages that will be on the outside when glued together

Gesso on the right hand page above - this will give a lovely toothy surface for whatever paints I add for colour, and partially disguises what's below, but also leaving the option of having lettering peak through. I've liked that effect in previous journals.

Next step, stitching pages together. Confession - I actually glue-sticked the edges of the pages together before gessoing, but the wetness of the gesso unstuck the pages. So after gesso I re-glued to hold it for stitching, and then stitched with different threads and colours.

I've only stitched a few pages cos I decided that leaving this step until the end will be handy if I want to stitch something on individual pages as I go.

I've coloured some of the pages with my koh-i-noor dyes and then did some experimenting with discharge paste.

Used foam stamps first and on the left you can see I sponged it through punchinella (click on the pictures for a closer view).

Love these paua colours. Another fun foam stamp.

Really love the discharge effect through the stencil.

Lovely leaf border using my new Luscious Leaves dylusions stencil.

And speaking of Dylusions...this is the effect of dylusions ink sprayed over gesso

And here's another attempt at Dyan Reavley's ghosting technique using water

So I'll hopefully get back to more fun with this altered book next year.
I've got Christmassy things to show you next week.
This is my 300th post! Thanks for being here with me.