Yahoo Altered Book Group -- 8,945 members from around the world sharing ideas, tips, techniques and a wealth of other resources. To subscribe, register with Yahoo! and click on Groups. Type in ``alteredbooks'' and follow the instructions.

www.alteredbookartists.com -- a nonprofit organization that promotes altered books as an art form and a meeting ground for sharing skills, experiences and ideas. Membership is $35 a year.

Cloth Paper Scissors -- www.quiltingarts.com , click on Cloth Paper Scissors -- the vibrant, authoritative quarterly covering all types of fiber arts and collage work, including mixed media, assemblage, altered books, art dolls, visual art journals, rubber stamping, creative embroidery and book arts.

When the surface of the pages is wavy, or imperfect, and you run a stamp pad across it, you get texture. On the other hand, if you want to stamp on the pages with a rubber stamp, you won't get a complete image because of the low and high spots. I make them both ways.

There are literally hundreds of paper adhesives on the market. You may regret using instantly bonding adhesives, which seem to catch midair. My favorite is Premium Best-Test Paper Cement, which does not wrinkle, curl or shrink and is acid-free to preserve your art. The cap contains a brush, so it's easy to spread. Double-sided tape is another -- but very expensive -- option. I don't know about its longevity.

Tools: A mysterious object called a bone folder (perhaps made of bone at one time, but plastic these days) can be used to spread the glue evenly across your pages. You might need this if you're using the glue you already have around the house. The folder looks like a large letter opener and is washable.

Bending, folding, cutting: Cut windows, doors or niches into your pages for peekaboo effects. Niches give you a place to embed beads, charms or other small trinkets. Measure the depth of the object, then use a craft knife and metal ruler to cut that deep plus an eighth of an inch through blocks of pages.

Use sandpaper to smooth edges around the cut. Then paint, collage or decorate. One page could contain four or five niches. Cut frames, doors and windows the same way. Center the image behind the frame, door or window, then glue it to the next section. Fold pages in half or diagonally to form pockets.

Backgrounds: Paint blocks of pages with stamp pads, watercolors, acrylics, glazes or inks. Use crayons, markers, pastels, fabric swatches, floral ribbon, photographs, magazine pictures, wallpaper, contact paper, tissue paper, receipts, greeting cards, newspapers, magazines or purchased decorative papers to construct backgrounds.

Ideas: Write diary entries on gessoed pages bordered by torn paper from a magazine. Tearing long, thin strips through colorful pages lends drama to borders. Paint facing pages quickly with two colors, say blue on the left and red on the right.

While they are still wet, press them together and pull them apart. They will pick up colors from each other and also leave white spots. Very cool.

To enhance further, paint stripes of yet another color on a page, press and open. Feel free to go nuts. Slide something flat and sturdy under a block of pages, and get out your stamps, crayons and other markers.

Embellish. Punch holes in your pages and run ribbon, string or jewelry through them. Attach charms with brads and paper clips. Decorate tags (sold in craft shops) and tuck them in pockets. Loop ribbon through the chain hole.

This is cache, read story here