Vintage Book DIY

Now that Christmas and New Year projects are finished, time to tackle some other things that have been on the to-do list.   I've seen painted books all over Pinterest and have had my eye on this stack from an end table:

I like using old books as decor, and love the designs on these, but not all the dark colors.  Time to lighten things up!

This is a pretty simple project - I just started painting the books with gesso until I got the coverage I wanted.   I wasn't going for total coverage, just enough to knock-back all the dark color.   A word of warning - not quite sure what is in the red pigment, but it took several coats of gesso, a couple of coats of black gesso and then more white, to banish the pink that kept bleeding through !  It probably would have worked better with non-water based mediums.

After the gesso dried , I sanded a bit to highlight some of the detaining.

I've  had a chipboard book in my stash for ages and decided to add it to the group.   Same treatment - a couple of coats of white gesso and some sanding to distress it.

Now on to adding some details.   I stamped a small flourish on the top of  books with black Stazon.   I tried stamping along the spine, but couldn't get a clear image as it was hard to make full contact.    Instead I glued on pieces of Tim Holtz tissue paper and knocked back the black with a light coat of gesso.

Loving my shabby -chic books.