Glue Books

Glue Books are a wonderful way to recycle all those magazines you can't bear to throw away. Cut the images and words that attract you and store them in a zip lock bag. I sort my images into one and my words into another bag. Then toss those magazines. You will feel a hundred percent lighter.

My glue books are really just starters and motivators to work on other projects. Sometimes you feel like your muse has gone on a little vacation without you. A glue book is a way to bring that girl home. I start with just a small blank book - six by eight or so. I use left over paint to swipe my pages with to just give me a little background color. I put wax paper between the sheets and let it dry. Depending on how much paint I have left over and what I am painting I might get five to ten pages prepped. Then I set aside till the "blank wall"hits.

I am sure you all have had that feeling where you want to create but nothing comes to mind? I hope I am not the only one out there that gets this way. Then I grab my bags and dump them on a tray and my book and just sort of play with them. Or, I grab a few words and see what that brings to mind. Once I have a few images and words I start gluing them in the book. I might play for an hour or so till I have filled a few pages and feel like I have some ideas. Maybe it is color or a notion but I am usually ready to move on to other projects. Maybe it is the act of gluing I don't know. I just know at this point I am motivated.

Two things... First as I read through several years of these glue books I find that they answer things that have been rolling around in my sub conscious. Problems, questions, life events... they seem to mirror. Maybe that is why my muse is on vacation.

Second... there are several yahoo groups that are exclusively about glue books. One with Lisa Vollrath that is called Glue Books. You can meet a lot of like minded people through them. The other that I love is Gluebots. They glue calendars, 4 by 6's, swap, and have exchanges, etc. Great people here. Whatever you decide to do ...learn to recycle things into your art and have fun doing it.