An Altered Book for Summer 2010

This summer I took an old book MAINE MY STATE, gutted it, made my own pages and sewed them into the remaining book cover.  I used Ranger Distress Inks to paint the pages and added stickers, writings, photographs, and other embellishments to the pages to record some of my summer adventures.

To the left you can see the front and back covers which also include stamped, colored and glittered images, ribbon tapes, a tag, and other embellishments.

This is the inside of the front cover and the first page.  I salvaged the poem from the original text and parts of the title page to reuse.  All of the tabs that hold the pages are papered with pages from the original text.

The State of Maine Seal on the left

"The Way Life Should Be" postcard photo reminds me of the log cabin where I grew up and adventures this summer in the Moosehead Lake area.

There's actually a store in Kennebunkport called Daytrip Society.  I bought some items there for Sam to take on his People-to-People trip through Europe this summer.  I thought it would be nice to belong to something called the Daytrip Society since I tend to take more daytrips than long travels these days.

The page on the left is my homage to sheep.  I LOVE sheep, lambs especially.  The photo of the lamb is one I took probably ten years ago.

The righthand page is a salute to the local Farmers' Market in Winthrop where I buy vegetables from Farmer Kev that we don't grow in our own garden and I also buy the best homemade soft pretzels I've ever had.

I love the greens I used on these pages and went with a theme of pond--the pearl swirl for the water; frogs in party hats on lilypads; cat-o-nine tails.  The frogs have been particularly noisy this summer, like they are having a party every night right outside my window.

The postcard image on the left reminds me of the Scarborough Marsh and sea heather.

The corrugated paper pin and three dimensional paper flowers blend nicely with the background on the righthand page.

Don't you just love this raven!  I think it's the black boots and how his wings look like a cape.  I've had ravens in my dreams.

The page on the right features a stamped and watercolor image from Memory Box and a popped up pear inside a rhinestone circle.

The greeting card image on the left reminds me so much of our woods.  I LOVE birch trees.  I also experimented on this page with some new Washi tape.

Little Red Riding Hood shows up often.  I have a large collection of books, framed prints, and other collectibles.

The A-1 Diner remains one of my favorite places to eat.

The other page has another stamped Memory Box image on a watercolored background.  The written quote:  Sorry to appear insistent, but I must have my trinkets.  This is the last chance."  I found this on a postcard at RockPaperScissors.

Olive is my new cat.

These are my journaling pages from July 28 once I knew for sure that I have breast cancer.

Rabbits and Chicks

I have a lot to learn.

Love the colors on the FISH page and the waterlilies card that I tore up to add to the page.

Purple lupine are one of my favorite roadside flowers and love the color of them with the colors in the page's paper.

I am also fascinated by squirrels.  I left some room on this page for journaling later this month.

The page on the right includes a card front that I created using tissue paper, glimmer mist, stamped images, stamped paper flowers, and a clockface.  I also used glimmer mist to color the fabric trim I added to this page.  These are some of my favorite colors.

Donna made the card that I pasted on the lefthand page.

More blue pearly swirls on the fish in the water page.

Cat and streetlight are stamped in black on a watercolored background.  Love the colors in the 3-D Prima rose.

These are my Moosehead pages.

left:  "Up North"

right:  I kept the inside back cover page which included the book pocket.  I made a tag to insert into the pocket.










This is a book I go back to every day, to page through, to add little items to, to journal in.  It is an on-going work that I won't finish until the last day of summer.