Creative Moments: Altered Coloring Book Pages

In our household, receiving coloring books for every event requiring a gift is a very normal practice. We love using them, but we do we do once they're all filled up? What do families do when their children have grown out of them and aren't interested in coloring anymore?

Don't throw them away!

Here's a project that's suitable for children ages five and older. If you'd like to try this project with a younger child, it's possible so long as there's extra time available and supervision during any complicated cutting or gluing.

Step one: look through the coloring book and carefully tear out pages that are interesting, that are scribbled all over, or that are torn. Tear out as few or as many as you'd like. Be sure to choose more than just one page, though, so you can work the rest of the steps in a very creative way.

Step two: gather the rest of your supplies. To complete this project, you'll need the following:

1: glue sticks
2: scissors
3: a piece of construction paper or any other kind of paper of similar size you'd like to use
4: markers
5: colored pencils
6: crayons
7: glitter glue or glitter gel pens
8: poster paint or acrylic paint
9: letters: these can be rubber stamps, die cuts, letters cut from magazines, or stickers
10: piece of cardboard slightly larger than the paper you're working on (you may need to trim your paper before starting)
11: gel medium (this project works well with a satin or gloss finish)
12: sponge brushes
13: disposable cups for paint, water and gel medium
14: newspaper
15: paper towels

Step three: take your scissors and cut out the images from your coloring book pages. Allow the bold black lines to remain and, if you cut them off, take a black marker and run it along the edge once you're finished cutting. If there's text that interests you, cut that out too. Set them aside

Step four: cover your work surface with news paper and, using your glue stick, adhere the paper you've chosen the piece of cardboard. All a border to show around the edge of the page.

Step five: glue your images down to the paper in a random way. You could also do them in a pattern or juxtapose them in a manner that relates to each other. Layering your images slightly will add interest and drama to your piece.

Step six: with your markers, colored pencils and crayons, color the images in. If you're working with something with heavy scribbling, cover over as much as you can (without blotting out the entire picture) using markers. Spread out how you're using your materials so one area doesn't concentrate on just one medium.

Step seven: slightly inside of the black bold lines of your images, trace with the glitter glue or glitter gel pens. Use a different color for each image.

Step eight: take the poster paint or acyclic paint and blob random colors around the edge of the paper and on to the cardboard. This will create your frame. If you've chosen to use glitter glue, you can go in and add glitter to random spots after the paint has dried.

Step nine: using your letters, spell out a word that fits the theme of your piece. For example, if you've chosen images that are about art supplies, you can spell the word "create" out. Glue your letters down in the largest blank spot on your page or layer them over the upper portion of your images.

Step ten: allow the piece to dry completely and then apply a layer of gel medium over the entire piece. Allow to dry completely and you may choose to apply another layer.

This project has a lot of opportunity to expand into more elaborate projects. You may also opt to turn it into a paint only project:

1: Choose a page from a coloring book that's interesting to you as it is. It doesn't matter if it's completely colored or if it's scribbled out.
2: Using acrylic paints, paint the image and the background. You can do an "actual" painting and paint it out as you think it should like (in other words, green grass, pink flowers and so on) or you can collage paint it and create something abstract.
3: Once the piece has completely dried, affix it to a piece of construction paper (this will act as your matte) that compliments the colors used in your piece.
4: Using the acrylic paint again, apply color to the edges of a piece of cardboard slightly larger than the piece of construction paper you affixed the painting to. Choose a color that's complimentary or a different shade of the same color you chose for the construction paper.
5: Once the paint is completely dry, affix your matted piece to the cardboard. The edge will act as your frame, so be sure to center it properly.
6: Add a layer of satin or glossy finished gel medium over the entire piece. Once it's dried completely, you may opt to add another layer.