Oh, Peely Poo!

hello and Thanks for your time...I have tried several types of paints and primers for the children's hard books and it wants to peel up from that slick cover almost every time! any suggestions?

thanks again

Brenda

 

You have many options creating altered books from board books or vintage "Golden" books - which also have that "slick cover."

You can always work with the cover and/or pages with the slick coating in tact.  This will limit some of your options for decor.  Stickers will likely work - and you can always do your decor on stickers and then add them.  You should still be able to carve, cut, and otherwise alter the pages with sharp instruments.  Certainly you can tie fibers and glue embellishments in place.  (Experiment with the proper type of glue, to be safe.

However, if you want to paint or prime the cover/pages - the secret is you will first need to remove or "deslick" the surface.  You can do this in a number of different ways.  Missy ZNE always suggests you experiment with different techniques and find the one that works best for you or your project. 

One option is to use a razer (or sharp fingernail) to peel up a tiny corner and continue peeling as much as possible of the coating, off the page entirely.  You may have to return several time to restart a peeling point.

Another option is to use a fine gauge sandpaper, and lightly sand the coating, until all the shiny surface is removed.  You can then prime with gesso, gel medium, or the like.

Finally, you may want to "resurface" you pages as opposed to desurfacing them.  In other words - recover the pages in a paper or medium you can work on more easily than the existing slick surface.  The DIY Network website offers a quick tutorial on one such method:

http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/cr_books_boxes_boards/article/0,2025,DIY_13746_5206198,00.html

Whatever you choose to do - practice, have fun, and remember - there are no mistakes, only new creative directions - in altered art!