We’re giving the prep an entire week in the season. Use this time to prepare the cover and pages, then share your book on Instagram with #getmessybook.

For some people, this week will feel too short, and for others it will feel too long. It all depends on the book you’ve chosen and your style. Depending on what book you have chosen for the season, it might need a bit of preparation or absolutely none. If your book is especially old, use glue to reinforce the cover. If your book is too thick, tear or cut pages out. Gesso any pages to prepare them for paint. Take the cover off and make your own entirely new book. Bind your own book. Buy a handmade journal. Keep your style in mind too. If you like a lot of painting, you will need more prep work than someone who is really minimalist and can use the book pages as is.

Altering a book may seem overwhelming (or sacrilegious) to some of you. If you are worried about altering a precious book, remember that it was just sitting around unwanted doing nothing until you picked it up. Creating art in a book is all about adding value to it. Today we want to provide you with some great resources from around the web to help you prep or begin your book. And for those of you who can’t wait to dive in, dive in! Next week the prompts are about the inside cover and first pages, so if you’d like to start your pages but still want to follow the prompts, you can keep those free for now. Take today to begin working on your book.

Tips for choosing a book

• Pick a hardback book with a good spine.
• Pick a book that may already have drawings or photos in it that you simply only need to alter or add to some pages.
• Pick a book that has good literary terms or language so that you either wont be distracted by the text itself or you can use the text in your pages.
• Think about what the book will look like on a shelf, do you plan to cover it or let it be a sneaky book in with the rest of your library
• Use just the book cover to make a book
• Hand bind your own book
• or buy a handbound journal
• Get an elastic or binder clip to hold the book together in case it gets too thick

Tips for custom book covers

• Simply paint over it
• Decorate the cover as you would any other art journal page
• Use paint and doilies
• Covering a book with paper
• Cover the book with fabric
• Keep the book au naturel
• Make a book jacket

Tips for prepping your pages

• Tear or cut out some pages to thin the book – be sure to follow the book’s natural signatures so that you don’t have pages falling out (save these pages for use in other projects)
• Prepping your pages + reinforcing the spine
• Glue some pages together in sections or chunks to create obvious pages for you to work on
• Or fold some pages to create sections
• If you like using paint and your paper is thin, prepare pages with gesso
• And another gesso tutorial for watercolours
• How different adhesives work in your book
• If your book is thick enough, hollow out some pages to hold thicker embellishments or hide things
• Add extra paper in your book by sewing it in, using glue, or washi tape
• Here’s a good start to finish tutorial

Additional ideas and tutorials

• Use the cover of a book + add in your own pages
• Such cool tabs! 
• More tips from Caylee
• Gorgeous example from VOL
• Rukristin’s stunning book
• Maggie’s, Cindy’s and Stephanie’s altered books
• Altering your cover
• Altered books Pinterest board

Ok, let’s get started!