Title: Painted Paper - Techniques & projects for handmade books & cards
Author: Alisa Golden
Info: 172 p. - 2008
Rating: 8 / 10
Notes:
If you've been reading my blog recently you may have noticed I have a fondness for making pretty papers. There's something about making your own papers, well...decorating them at least, that is irresistible. I have not yet the skill to actually make papers and even though it sounds wonderful I think I will refrain from that for now, because new ventures mean new supplies and even more time I don't have. But...decorating papers can be done with what you have and that's what this book is all about.
This book is like a treasure trove of techniques for decorating papers in any way you can possibly think of. Alisa Golden tells you all about washes, wet on wet, marbling, resists, stamping, stenciling, paste papers, masking and dozens of other things you can do to make personal and unique papers to suit just about any project.
The book is both informative with good descriptions and process pictures as a source of eye candy for what one can do with all those pretty papers. Different materials are explained extensively and it would be hard to not find at least one technique you could try without buying anything new. But truthfully, if you are only a bit of a mixed media person you will find many techniques that require no extra costs at all, because you will have most of the materials already.
Next to the chapters on how to decorate papers there is an extra chapter on projects and simple book making. This is not really a book about book making however even though this may be your impression from the title. That may be my only caveat if you consider buying it.
Still it's a very complete introduction into the subject of making decorative paper and what to do with it and I therefore highly recommend it.