Sunday i met with my altered book group at Scrapbook Territory in Berkeley, CA. I have to say that the paper craft community sure does a great job of coming out with new and exciting papers, patterns and imagery to provide visual stimulation for the altered book enthusiaste. 
I happened to have a supply of small green books, called the Underachiever's Manifesto. I did not buy them to read, although it is an interesting concept. I bought them because i thought they would be the perfect quick altered book project!
I started by scouring the store for thanksgiving themed paper. When the girls arrived, i thought, why should i have all the fun? Let them pick out some paper too!
Next we picked out ribbon from the vast wall of choices. I never asked, but it turns out EVERYTHING is $1 a yard! You cannot beat that! We attached the ribbon inside the cover - by gluing the first two blank pages shut. Repeat with the last two. This created a solid hold for the decorative ribbon that can be used to close the books.
We prepped the books by sanding the covers and removing the label on the back. A bit if sanding screen worked great for removing the gold printed title from the book's spine. I had templates prepared for the dimensions of the front and back cover, so we cut those out next. I went ahead and covered the middle of the book too - to create a large "greeting card" out of the book. I added a print of a vintage thanksgiving postcard on one side and left the other side for a message.
Well, then a funny thing happened. Dorothy and Carol actually wanted to READ the books, so decided NOT to cover up the text. Go figure! 
The girls thought the books would make perfect little journals. You can see that Dorothy chose "NADA" for her title, whil Carol chose "2009". There were plenty of blank pages, or illustrations inside they could cover with blank paper and use for journalling.
(psst - i'll be using mine as party favours at our thanksgiving dinner!)
I also wanted to share with you this awesome picture of Dorothy's craft studio. Check out her great idea for storing rubber stamps. She nailed metal silverware trays to the wall. Isn't that a great idea?
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