create an altered book

A couple weeks ago, I decided that the notebook I take to all my InService classes needed some pepping up, so I did some alterations.

The notebook is a magenta 70-page spiral I got for 12 cents when school started, but I wanted to section it off for each class I had gone to, so I gathered up a bunch of small lavendar, magenta or white “tabs” and stapled them to the edge of the pages at the beginning of each section.

There’s some white lace, some shiny cardstock, a round magenta paper clip, a swatch of lavender fabric, a fold of burgundy ribbon, a butterfly I cut out of a wallpaper scrap, and a binder clip with strawberries on it. If can find a cancelled postage stamp with purple on it, I will use it, and the next time I’m at Home Depot, I’ll pick up a lavender paint sample.

All these cute little found items make awesome tabs for notebooks and the other people in my classes think my notebook is the cutest thing they ever saw! hee hee!

I just acquired a 17-page tip book with lots of cool ideas.

I also found a couple of great scrapbooking books at the public library’s book sale.

Back in June, some mere DAYS before my other computer quit, I had archived all the classes from 2002 and 2003. It took hours upon hours to get them all done, and now I have to do it over. :(
Well, I started today and got the first two done, so go me!

My daughter went to camp for a couple days and while she was gone, I went over to my friend’s house and we spent 12+ hours working on Altered Art! I got all my pages fixed and did a really gorgeous one for my great-grandmother. Oh, wait. I’ll go scan it so you can see.

The new one is the one on the left. For the photo, I colorized a black & white copy off the printer and covered it with clear contac paper. I think I may have invented this as a technique! Anyway, I’ve never seen it done anywhere else. The page on the right is of my grandma, who is now 92. This picture is at the flower shop about 25 years ago. The thing in front of her face is the order form, stuck in the Oasis with a clear plastic card holder. Behind that window is a journaling page painted pink with pink tissue glued in for texture. The next time I go over there, I’m going to trace her hand on vellum and make an overlay on top of the journaling. It will be cool!

I also had time to cover the book and make some ATC’s. It was a very productive day!

I took my Merry Sunshine book over to show my mom, and when I left, it wound up in the trunk, where I forgot about it.

It was baking in the not-so-merry sunshine for a few days and when I remembered where it was, a lot of the paint and glue had melted and all my pages were stuck together! Boo Hooooooo!

Well, when I was done freaking out, the book was still hot, so I peeled the pages apart. It doesn’t look THAT bad. I need to repaint spots on every single page and fix a newspaper clipping—I’m not sure how I’ll do that, I guess I’ll have to color the letters back in by hand.

I love Arizona, but Alas… It eats art.

All the old archived classes from 2002 and 2003 are now in my files. Now all I have to do is take the time to read them. Next week, I’ll transfer the 2004 classes. Some of them look like a lot of fun. Who knows, by the time I get to 2007, they may be current with the postings.

I was already altering a book about my growing up years before I even started the cheerleading one, but it is taking a long time. Every morning of my young life, my mom would get me out of bed by singing at the top of her lungs, and probably off-key, the song Good Morning Merry Sunshine. When I found a book by that name, I had to alter it to fit my life! My school life, my family growing up, my interests, hobbies, collections, etc. Here is one page that fits me. I love singing. Maybe because I woke up to singing every day of my life. Just seems natural.

I found 4 more books for altering after I finish Merry Sunshine. One is a big, fat cookbook called – check this out: The Art of Eating Well! I am already thinking of all sorts of cool techniques to use in that book! Another is a partly used Ledger – small and leatherish. I found a good one to highlight my own family called, “Home Front,” and what may well end up being my favorite is called, “Random Winds” which is perfect for all my artistic musings! I got these books at the Thrift Store for 35¢ each! Woohoo!

It is a pop-up book, so the pages don’t want to cooperate with scanning, but this one looks pretty good – you just can’t see the different depths of the photos. Still, I liked putting the checkerboard pattern in the school colors. I used some of the original background from the children’s book. The pyramid page looks even better, but I couldn’t get a good scan. I covered this book in fabric and cut out the letters C-H-E-E-R to put across the front. Much cuteness!

I have made 3 ATC’s and finished the pages for my Cheerleading book. It’s a pop-up and really cute. I used pictures of the girls I used to coach doing parade practice and building an awesome pyramid that I designed. Now I just have to put the words to the cheers in the book and embellish it. Yay!

I joined so I could take all the online classes. They go back several years. There are so many ideas my head is spinning! I am most excited about ATC’s right at the moment. I can try all my newly found techniques, and archive my old ones in a small file or something, and I can alter THAT, too! SO Cool!