Ali Manning: 5 Ways to Alter Book Pages

For my last tutorial on Gingersnap Creations, I decided to combine two things I love - vintage book pages, and clean and simple (CAS) projects. In keeping with our theme, I used some book pages from 'the last century' and created some simple projects that show you how to alter old book pages.

1. Sponge & Punch
It doesn't get much simpler than this! Sponge on a variety of ink colors onto old book pages. Let them dry, punch out shapes and use on a project. I made a card with my punched butterflies and embellished the centers with rhinestones.


2. Stain & Stamp

For this card, I stained a piece of vintage ledger paper with Ranger's Distress Stain. I like this product because it's not too wet and the paper doesn't wrinkle. This is important because some old book pages are fragile. Once completely dry, I stamped the butterfly collage image with Versafine black ink and clear embossed it.

3. Stenciling


There are some amazing new stencils on the market at the moment. I particularly like this lacy butterfly stencil from The Crafters Workshop. I used a stipple brush and three shades of Distress Ink to create this accordion journal cover.


4. Book Page Background Die-Cuts


I wrote a tutorial almost 2 years ago (yikes!) called Book Page Backgrounds and still use the technique a lot. Basically, a background is created by adhering small pieces of book page onto a base and once dry, it is layered with gesso and inks. The full tutorial is here.


For this card, I created a book page background, sponged on green and yellow inks (no gesso) and ran it through a die-cutting machine with a butterfly die. It's one of my favorite card layouts to use! It's so simple, but each butterfly is unique and interesting.

5. Sponging

Sometimes an old book illustration is so gorgeous that it doesn't really need any altering! I found this insect illustration and fell in love with it. It's perfect just as it is!

When I color copied it (if you do this, make sure you're complying with copyright laws), the background was very white and new looking. So, out came the Antique Linen ink to give the edges a little character. I covered some chipboard with it and made a little notebook.

What are you waiting for? Give new life to old books by altering them a little and make some fun projects!