For Mothers day this year, I went to one of those amazing little bookshops that have stacks and stacks of tottering books leaning precariously into the aisles. I picked up a little green book of Spanish Poetry published in the early 20th Century for £1, because I loved the small size and felt it would be perfect for an altered book.
I love the story of The Secret Garden, so I based it off that; the image of the mysterious gate behind which lies an amazing overgrown garden. First, I separated the book into rough halves; I held half to the front cover, and the other half to the back. I slathered a thick layer of strong glue along the page edges and left it to dry; after a while, the second half of the book was stuck together at the edges.
I then cut a large rectangle out of the second half; going through each page was easy because they were stuck together at the edge. After doing this, I slathered more glue along each edge of the inside of the rectangle to really glue the pages together strongly.
I then stuck the first half together in the same manner (along the edges) and finally glued it to the second half, before cutting out the door from the inside, making sure not to cut the fourth side of the door to allow it to hinge back and forth.
I then decorated it; for the wall, I drew the bricks on loosely in brown pen, before smudging a layer of brown chalky dust over it. I had a lot of leftover green plastic foliage from a dolls house project, so I arranged it to look as if it were tumbling over the edge (at least, that was the intended effect). I finished off with drawing a title on the front page, copying a pretty calligraphy script off the internet.
The robin I drew on the back of an old train ticket before sticking to a piece of blue ribbon. Funny story actually; I accidentally drew on a new train ticket (one I needed to go home again the next day) and had to carefully stick the robin back in place with sellotape. The train conductor in London thought it was pretty hilarious.
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