What kind of supplies do I need? Where can I buy the supplies? And how much do they cost? The answers to all of these questions are simple.
The Base
Before you can start thinking about what supplies you need, you should choose a base for your project. In other words, are you creating an altered book, an altered box or an altered picture frame? Of course, those aren’t the only types of bases. In fact, anything can be altered. It just depends on your creativity, personal taste and what you’ve got laying around the house. You could alter lamps, tin cans, cards, vases, old trunks, jewellery boxes, candleholders, Christmas tree ornaments, bookmarks, book ends...virtually anything with a surface that will adhere to glue.
The Supplies
Once you’ve picked your base, you can start gathering supplies. Glue is the only essential supply; the rest is up to you. Depending on the effect you’re going for, you might need the following: paint, decorative or collage papers, an aging kit, ink pads, rubber stamps, scissors, stencils, etc.
Embellishment options may include: old postcards or letters, dried or paper flowers, jewels, stickers, lettering, ribbons and lace, old keys, old pieces of jewellery, frames, mosaic tiles, photo corners, buttons, pieces of mirror, eyelets, decorative pins and clips, old ticket stubs, photos, magazine or newspaper clippings, glitter, bottle caps, hole punchers, cards, game pieces (dice, dominoes, poker chips, mah-jong tiles, game spinners, puzzles), small holiday ornaments, stones, tags, coins, beads...and so much more.
Buying Supplies
Altered art supplies are not hard to come by and they don’t need to be expensive. In fact, you can find most of what you need right at home. Riffle through boxes and the backs of cupboards, closets and drawers. Unless you’re a neat freak, you’re sure to find tons of forgotten objects that will adhere nicely to your desired base. If not, you can still purchase supplies on a relatively low cost.
Garage sales, thrift stores and flea markets house plenty of odds and sods that are perfect for altered art. But if you don’t like riffling through one man’s junk, then why not check out your local dollar store. Most dollar stores have entire aisles dedicated to art supplies. They’ll have paints, papers, glues and in most cases a wide variety of packaged embellishments to choose from. At dollar stores you’ll find art store embellishments for only a fraction of the cost.
Starting Your Project
If you still don’t know where to begin once you’ve gathered your supplies, why not check out some of these great instructional articles?
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