“Retailers are realizing that altered books a present unique opportunity for the craft market,” says Paulette Jarvey, President of Hot Off The Press. She urges: “Now is when this trend is emerging. Now is the time for us to act—and capture these opportunities.”

What in the World is an Altered Book?
“Really, altered books are all about collage,” says Jarvey, who’s watched the collage trend migrate from the gift and stationery to impact rubber stamping and scrapbooking. “It combines paper and paper-crafting supplies on a different—somewhat unexpected—surface and turns a book into a work of art.”

An altered book is a book that’s been glued, embellished, painted, cut, torn, stitched, collaged, rubber-stamped and otherwise decorated to transform it into an art object.

The Traditional Altered Book

Just like every scrapbooker needs an album, every altered book artist needs a book.

Typically, the altered book artist begins with a book that is already bound. It’s preferably hardback, and often one that’s been “rescued” from garage sales, flea markets, thrift shops—even the sale table at Barnes & Noble.

Some traditional altered book artists claim that the project must begin with a printed book, yet a hardback Alter-Able book provides the perfect alternative—the consumer saves a trip to the thrift store and the retailer makes another sale. The altered book artist can still incorporate the techniques such as collage.

“Here’s where the opportunity presents itself to retailers in our market,” says Jarvey. “While experienced book or collage artists may have a stash of materials and the resources to find alterable books, the average craft store shopper will be new to the craft. Here’s where we can provide that customer with information, inspiration—and wonderful products so he or she can successfully make an altered book.”

Who is the Altered Book Artist?

While doesn’t appear to be a specific connection between book artists, the popular Altered Book Artists group on Yahoo boasts over 1800 members. Altered Book Artist Lisa Vollrath is a member of the online group and comments: “There isn't any common thread that ties our previous art experience together. Some are stampers, some are collage artists, some are textile artists or quilters. Some are fine artists, some have done more traditional book arts. The wonderful thing about altered books is that all of these different creative skills can be used in a book, and because our experiences are so very diverse, we are constantly learning new techniques from each other---there's a marvelous blending going on as stampers learn papermaking, quilters start working with watercolors, collage artists start binding their own books.”

Vollrath adds, “That's a theme I hear quite a bit from other artists---that they used to do some type of art or craft, and haven't for a while, and are now looking at all those supplies with new eyes.”

“Altered books aren't just for serious studio artists,” comments writer and designer Judi Kauffman. “They're mainstream, and being made by the same people who three years ago (or three months ago) discovered embossing powder and teddy bear stamps and have branched into the areas they see in books and magazines and hear about on the Internet and see on Carol Duval.”

Basic Altered Book Techniques

How to make an altered book? While most artists will tell you that anything goes, there are a few basic techniques:

Gluing Pages: Altered book artists frequently glue anywhere from 2 to 30 pages of the book together. This helps reduce the number of pages the artist needs to decorate, allowing her to decide exactly how many pages she wants. They also provide stability for windows, paint and embellishments.

Covering Pages: Altered book artists cover the pages of their books in several different methods: with acrylic paint, rubber stamping inkpads, or paper. The glued-together pages give stability to just about any application, which means book artists can paint, brayer, sponge, stipple and stamp to create their own backgrounds. An alternative is to use a stamp inkpad to color the page; the book artist can stamp to decorate the paper, or use “direct-to-paper” techniques. Paper provides an instant background and book artists glue, staple or sew the paper onto the page. Eyelets, brads and snaps are also ideal.

Cutting Windows: After the pages have been glued and covered, artists often create windows with an X-acto® knife. The resulting window might hold a charm, stone, memento or other “lumpy” embellishment.

Collaging: After covering the pages, book artists typically add images and text. The images might be stamped, or collaged paper elements. Similarly, the words might be stamped, cut from existing text or hand-written.

What Supplies are Needed?
First, the book. Certainly you can send your customer all over town to search out thrift shops for that “perfect” book. Or you could save her a trip and make yourself a profit by selling her an Alter-Able book along with her other supplies.

Another must-have basic is adhesive: The book artist needs a good dry adhesive like a UHU glue stick for collaging elements and to glue pages together.

Specialty papers are vital for creating an altered book. Patterned and solid papers are necessities as they can cover whole pages or become collage elements. Book artists can tear the paper, layer it, create pockets, flaps and buckles—they can write on it or computer journal. Vellum is a natural fit with altered books, as it can be torn, layered and crumpled to achieve a dimensional effect.

The altered book artist also needs themed and generic art for collaging. Traditionally the images are clipped from magazines or clip-art; artists also use the artwork from the original pages of the book. While many altered book artists confess to pack-rat tendencies which supply them with a constant source of collage materials, the new or beginning artist might not possess such a stash or know how to coordinated the art.

Of course, altered book artists, like most crafters, won’t stop at just the basic materials. What else can you sell?

• Pens and markers
• Fasteners like eyelets, brads and nailheads
• Any and all “lumpy” supplies like wire, buttons, dominos and charms
• thread and fibers
• fabric
• metal, metallic mesh

The Emergence of a Trend

“Hot Off The Press first learned about altered books when a designer showed us her book at a trade show,” says Jarvey. “We were intrigued with the creative possibilities as well as the potential for retail sales. We kept our eyes open—soon we noticed altered book projects in stamping magazines. Then a friend mentioned she saw a demo on the craft at a stamp store. Trend-spotting is something we take very seriously here—after all, it’s how we were able to be the first company to offer paper for scrapbooking. Now it’s offering us the opportunity to venture into a whole new craft.”

How Can Retailers Sell This Category?

“The collage category is unique in that it has a variety of customers—yet one thing they all have in common is the desire to shop for supplies conveniently,” says Jarvey. “It’s easy to overwhelm customers with excess product, especially when that product is merchandised all over the store. It’s even tougher to attract new customers when embarking on a new craft requires her to visit the thrift shop, craft store, stamp store—and hit two or three garage sales on the way!”

Hot Off The Press offers retailers ephemera papers, images, fibers, treasures and more for creating wonderful altered books. The award-winning publisher also offers two idea books, How To Make Altered Books and More Altered Books.

“Retailers have a golden opportunity with altered books,” Jarvey says, “Hot Off The Press is acting on it. Are you?”