How I use books as journals - Altered books, covers & creativity

Hi all, hope you like this look at how I use books for journals and some of the books in my collection.
Reflections journal course: If you would like to get started preparing your altered book, email me to register and for access to the course website: [e-mail]. It is $50 for the Reflections course via PayPal or direct deposit.
Lamp in Dark Places book: www.blurb.com/...
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Journal courses:
Everything Journal Course which includes Intentional Life Course: Click the Join button on my channel, select the Everything Journal tier, then email me for the course resources.
Anchor Journal Course: / anchorjournalingcourse
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[@opalpipkin6285]

I love books too. I have some that are for enjoying to look through, and some are for taking apart and making journals out of them. Thanks for sharing.

[@TheCrisses]

That leather-bound flower book is valuable as inspiration. It might be inspiring your other books.

[@ranchofandango]

I am one that believes in giving old papers and books second lives by cutting them up and using them in my art and books and journals. I have had people gasp at the use of 200 year old documents used as substrate collage for a painting, but after seeing that it has gained a new life as a piece of art, they are able to better understand and enjoy that document rather than arguing about whether I should have used it in the first place!

[@serendipityintended]

I adore books. Reading them, looking at them, creating art with them. Like you, I have some that I will likely never use because I enjoy them so much just as they are. I hope to come across some wonderful finds like those you shared in this video. So, far, I’ve had no luck (at least not for $10!)

[@rewriteministries]

I love books also, I'm so happy to have come across your channel today.

[@debraphillips4736]

I love love books too for as long as I can remember. I love to not only read them and make junk journals out of them but I love the feel and smell of them. Does that make me a bookworm?

[@chill-ivy]

lovely

[@megperry5586]

Your altered journals are beautiful. Does your reflections class teach how to make one?

[@JuniDesiree]

Thank you so much!! Yes it teaches how to alter your own book into an art journal

[@juliebey8240]

I found a couple of 📚 books on eBay that are volumes from a law library. Big, beautiful,mint condition and about 100 years old. My rationale is that they have sat on library shelves for that 100 years probably without ever having been opened. They were $10. I am dying to alter them but want to do it in the right way…thoughts?

[@conifercrow]

I'm an "it's an object" person, myself. If the object is worth more to me by existing in its current form, because I'll go back and read it over again or use it for reference for drawing, or it was a gift that connects me to another person who's precious to me -- it'll stay on the shelf. Everything else, though, is fair game, because it's just a book. There are more of them. They keep making them, in fact, even though my "to be read" pile looks more like a TBR mountain than a pile. Plus, if I take that thing that's unwanted and turn it into something I love and will use, I feel like I'm honoring that object's first life (as a book). It's just speculation, but I think that the OMG NOT SCISSORS people include a lot of collectors (who imbue certain objects with perceived or shared value above and beyond what non-collectors see or understand), or folks who have a deep, subconscious fear of change. There's that whole contingent of people who can't let go of one way of doing things or seeing things or experiencing things in order to do/see/experience them in a different way. It's terrifying and upsets their perception of safety since it attacks or removes their way of categorizing things in the world. And, since the old chestnut of "how you do anything is how you do everything" is kind of true, folks who have trouble with changing an object's category or purpose see ripping up a book as destroying that thing rather than giving it a different life. They're unable to disengage the way they saw the object and its purpose, so they get all the twisty feelings of loss, albeit on a minor scale. Both of those are perfectly valid, btw. We're all crows about something, so collecting is cool. And categorizing the world makes some people feel safe enough to engage with it, which is also cool. As long as we all remember that we're responsible only for our own behavior toward a thing, and not judging how someone else lives their own life, it's all good. That whole spectrum of people clearly loves books, and books are awesome, so...we're all good. :D

[@TheCrabbyCrafterlol]

As a writer, English professor and life-long book lover, I must confess the first time I saw someone "gutting a book" in the name of junk journaling...I nearly threw up. hahhahhah. However, I've gotten over that and have gutted quite a few of my own and altered a good number of books too. I see it as just one more way to enjoy and love books. Most of the books I use for art/crafts come from thrift shops and will likely end up in a landfill sooner rather than later. So we're giving them a new life, keeping them in the world and out of the trash. There are, of course, books I wouldn't dream of cutting up or altering (other than to write in the margins, I've long practiced the art of marginalia, lol. ) For me, there's a line of demarcation between books for crafting and books for learning/reading. I have NO trouble turning a vintage math book into an art journal, but have a pristine collection of vintage and antique English grammar books and old books of classic literature. This was a fun video.