Altered Book Swap

Yesterday was my monthly meeting to swap altered books with a group of friends. I had Shanna's book: Americana. Sadly she was not able to attend to see the spreads i did in her book but i have them here to show her a sneak peak!

She used a large book - America - the Jon Stewart/Daily show book spoofing the history of the US of A and the political structure here and around the world. As you can see she took the book and created a veritable RIOT of red white and blue.

I created the first spread using a full page of stamps from the post office i had on hand, depicting all the superlative places and things in the states - like the deepest lake (Crater), the tallest monument (the arch in St. Louis), the fastest bird (peregrine falcon), etc.

I scanned it, enlarged and printed the stamps. ("Is that a federal offense? I am Canadian so i plead ignorance, your honour".) Then added some fun fibers around one edge with the letters t-h-e-b-e-s-t.

For my second spread i wanted to do something with an american icon - i almost used Miss Piggy. I thought about having her on a bed of rose petals a la Mena Suvari in the movie American Beauty. Alas, i could not locate high enough resolution images on line to carry it off.

So to plan B - the Beach Boys! You can't get much more Americana than that! I actually cut an original image out of a Beach Boys book that my husband has in his collection of musical literature. He'll be mega pissed if he finds out - so SSSHH!!! They were just perfect for a pop up - so i added a beachy background and there you have it. Since Shanna likes things to sparkle, i added stripes of silver glass glitter to the white stripes on their shirts. To complete the spread i had my husband call out song titles from the other room until i heard the perfect one! Surfin' USA. You betcha.