More sneaky peakies

Today I have a card and home decor piece to share.

The background is DI blended then blended for a watercolour effect. The figure, 'Honesty' is also coloured with DI. I added gilding flakes as a window and finished the card with a couple of handmade flowers.

I really love this. My husband thinks that I've had it in for books since I got my ereader, because I now only but 'real' books to craft with - he has a point! If you want to try altering a book yourself, here's how I did mine.

1. I chose a fairly thick book, so that my nook could be fairly deep. Decide on the size of the aperture you want to make and mark it on the front of the book. 

2. Take a sharp craft knife and a metal ruler and begin cutting the aperture. DO NOT use a plastic ruler if you value your fingers - I use a plastic one with a metal edge. Don't try to cut too deeply all at once, it's better to cut all round the aperture and remove the surplus a little at a time than to attempt to cut too deeply all at once.

3. When you near the depth you want, stop cutting and insert a piece of metal into the book to prevent the knife cutting further whilst allowing you to remove the last few pages. I took an empty drinks can, removed the top and bottom and cut up the seam to flatten it as my piece of metal.

4. Take a sheet of tissue paper and scrunch. Apply PVA to the front cover and add pieces of tissue overlapping as you go and leaving excess at the edges to fold over later. Continue over the spine and onto the back. Allow the tissue to dry.

5. Open the book and adhere the overlaps to the inside of the book. Once the tissue is completely dry, you can start to paint. Try not to get paint on the pages - I protected the pages by wrapping the body of the book in clingfilm until I was happy with my paint effect.

6. When you're happy with your painting, remove the clingfilm and close the book. Apply a generous coat of modpodge to the outside edges of the pages to stick them all together. Add a heavy weight whilst the modpodge dries to prevent buckled pages. When dry, your book it ready to decorate.