Textiles

I sat down with my book, a 1945 manual on agriculture.  Reluctantly, I started ripping out the pages.  This felt really wrong, like eviscerating an animal.
I ripped out most of the text-only pages and left in the pages with interesting pictures and diagrams.
The teacher pointed out that the fewer pages there were, the less work there was -- I could concentrate on decorating a few pages well, rather than rushing dozens.  Also, it left lots of room in the book to add in other elements.  
With a PVA glue solution, I stuck together the pages to make them stiff and strong.  I added a dash of water to make the glue easier to apply, but I think this made the pages far more ripply than they would've otherwise been.

Ideas:
Cover the outside with furry grass, or wrapping paper that looks like grass.  Stick on tiny plastic farm animals or flowers.
Coat some of the pages in gingham, spotty fabric or sackcloth and sew into them.
Stick in a page of Playmobil spades and forks.
In the biggest gap, insert some cardboard or foamboard, construct a very thin 'barn' with a door that can be opened -- open the flaps to reveal chickens roosting.
Buy some modern farming magazines for collage material.

Homework:
Finish base painting with white emulsion.  Paint or dye pages.
Leave the book splayed wide open to make sure it dries properly.
Research an artist or desginer to do with textiles.
Next week - bring in rubber stamps, printed text, photocopies of text or drawings; marker pens, fine paintbrushes.