Altered books are back, baby!  Expressive and fun, you will love turning an old book into an art object.

I will show you easy ways to draw my current paramores, birds and bears--no drawing experience required.

We will use lots of mediums--glosses, paints, stamps, stencils, and more. Our books will overflow with collage, color, and meaning. 

Please bring:

• Basic tool kit: Scissors, paint brushes, water sprayer, paint pens like Posca, water container to clean your brushes, baby wipes, paper towels, paint palette. Optional but really nice to have: Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher and staples. You may also want a small notebook and a pen for taking notes.

• A book to alter. It doesn’t have to be old, just a book you are willing to cut and tear and paint. Hardcover books work best, with sewn bindings (not glued).

• White gesso.

• Your favorite stencils and stamps. I will have lots and lots to share, though, so if you don't have any, no worries.

• Your favorite collage papers. I will have lots to share as well.

• I will bring boxes of acrylic pants and glosses and glues, but feel free to bring your own acrylics and mediums if you want to.

This schedule is subject to change but here’s what the weekend will look like:

Day one: We'll warm up with some book preparation and make some handmade papers to use in our art work and exchange with each other. Then we'll practice sketching, working on being loose and expressive. We'll start creating a niche in our books and do some of my favorite interactive page elements.

Day two: We'll focus on page design and composition--using the elements of art to best tell our stories. We'll layer and sketch onto our prepared pages and create secret elements that we can hide throughout the book.

Your Instructor:

Dina’s colorful, expressive style is anchored by her design hallmark, the creative use of white space. Her personal, organic design aesthetic strikes a balance between “artsy” and “classic”.

Dina is a mixed-media artist and teacher. She loves everything about art: creating it, thinking about it, looking at it, and teaching it. She has been scrapbooking since 1995, stamping since 1996, and art journaling since 2004. She believes in writing yourself down, expressing yourself, and making your mark on the world. As a Ranger Signature Designer, Dina designs a line of mixed-media art supplies that includes acrylic paints, mediums, brushes, rubber stamps, stencils, and more.

Dina lives in Arizona with her husband and 3 boys (affectionately termed “the fellas”). With a love of teaching and traveling, Dina travels the world to teach and share her art passion with students on every continent.

Dina is an Open Water Scuba Instructor, affiliated with the wonderful Phoenix Scuba.