How to Alter a Catalog

Turn Junk Mail Into Book Arts

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Dec 16, 2009 Jenn Greenleaf

We're surrounded by art supplies all the time; even when we open our mailboxes. Turn those pieces of junk mail, such as catalogs, into art books.

The holiday season is filled to the brim with sales flyers, brochures, coupons, and catalogs. Rather than tossing these items out, use them in mixed-media art projects. This article is focusing specifically on how to prepare a catalog to turn it into an altered book project.

Materials:

  • Newspaper or brown paper bags
  • Catalog
  • Paper clips
  • Heavy-duty glue stick
  • Scissors
  • Bone folder
  • Heavy books

Instructions:

  1. Cover the work surface with newspaper or brown paper shopping bags. Spread out the materials before you.
  2. A sturdy working surface is essential in book art projects, particularly those where a lot of page manipulation takes place. Think about how many page spreads the altered book is going to contain by counting how many pages are in the catalog, and dividing it up. Hold each section together with paperclips.
  3. Glue each page in the paper clipped section together using the heavy-duty glue stick. Be sure to run the glue all the way to the edge of the catalog’s page. Burnish the pages together using the bone folder. If a bone folder is not available, the scissors or capped glue stick are good alternatives.
  4. Once all the paper clipped sections have been glued together, place the closed catalog under a heavy stack of books. Leave the catalog under the stack of books for several hours, or over night, to ensure it is dried completely and that it dries flat.

Variations:

  • Glue cereal box cardboard cut to size between the pages of the catalog as a way to add durability, rather than gluing the pages together. This will create a bulked out book, but you won’t be sacrificing any page spreads using this method.
  • Use a cereal box cut to size to create a sturdy cover for the altered book.
  • Fold the pages in half toward the crease of the catalog’s binding and glue them down. This will create a slender book to work with but, again, less pages spreads will be sacrificed through use of this method.

Warnings:

  • Because the pages are glossy, another piece of paper needs to be glued to the surface for those interested in working with paint or markers.
  • Do not use wet glue, such as white craft glue or decoupage medium, to glue the pages of the catalog together. This will cause the pages to wave and curl as they dry.

If this project is worked on in classrooms, encourage students to bring in catalogs and cereal boxes from home as a way of introducing recycling into the lesson plan.

RES101

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The copyright of the article How to Alter a Catalog in Mixed Media Arts is owned by Jenn Greenleaf. Permission to republish How to Alter a Catalog in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
We all receive stacks of catalogs in the mail., JMG We all receive stacks of catalogs in the mail.
   
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