TIME: the altered book

This is one of the altered books I made in 2008, although I have included tip-ins from swaps I made in 2004-06.  From notes I wrote on one of the last pages, it appears it took me about two months to put this book together.  Of course, I had been collecting images for this for many years and had everything ready to go when I started it.

Please take some TIME and enjoy this book, just as if you were sitting at my kitchen table looking through it.  The pages are in order of appearance.

I've broken this AB into five posts, because I knew I would never get them all in a single post.  However, you may start at the beginning.  With any luck at all, the comment form will be at the end of the final TIMEless post.  I hope you will let me know you have been here and maybe even what you thought of this AB.

Not all the pages will be brilliant, and many are not even good compositions.  But as I learn, I improve.  So, please enjoy as we begin our journey over TIME.

The front cover: it was the first TIME I sewed a cover to a book.  The clock was from a children's toy department at a local discount store.  The back was bright yellow and the heart, which can be removed, was bright red.  It's amazing what one can do with a bit of paint and glaze.

I'm fairly certain you can read the quote, which led to the Memories and Dreams I created from stickers.

I believe this may have been the first time I was in a TIME swap.  The front of the tip-in was made using a transparency behind which I added bits of shaped confetti.  I was trying to learn to stamp, and this was one of the few times I actually stamped on a tip-in.  The acrylic letters kept falling off the acrylic block.  I was so disappointed, I almost stopped stamping all together.                                                                  

This is the back side of the tip-in.   I was helping my friend clean her house and a label fell off a timer.  I asked for it, brought it home, scanned and printed it, and used it for the back.  I created the polymer clay hand from a mold I made.  Obviously, Bleubeard was not participating back then, since I now sign everything Bleubeard and Elizabeth.

Ironic that I would include this page at the beginning of the book.

Another piece I made for a swap.  I only have the front of this one.  BTW, it was hard scanning these, because my setup isn't ideal.  I need to input all the information, click "scan," then rush to position the book on the scanner.  I couldn't leave it on the scanner, or it would fall on the floor, and pages would bend like the one above.

This was also for a swap, but it was a "Memories" swap.  I started to cut the image from the page, then realized how much I liked the background.  Silly me had already started the cut when I realized I should keep it intact.  I used a bit of green scrim for the backing. 

This was a magazine image and a strip of hand painted cardstock.

Pigment ink (direct to paper) and a magazine image were used here.

More magazine images and a computer generated quote.

Magazine image and different sayings also from magazines.

A filler page.  I didn't want to cover over the words on the page, so I made a quick tag.  You can see I'm not very good making tags.

I'm not sure why I have this in the book, other than it's a piece of some old wallpaper I found when I was redoing my kitchen.  The stamp is from River City Rubber right here in River City, aka Wichita, KS.

For some reason, this tip-in sounded better in my head than on paper.  Another transparency covered the letters.

For the back, I used a large plate to outline the round clock, and added bits of handmade paper that I stamped on to mark the hands and the hours.  Like I said, it sounded better before I completed it.

On the other hand, I like this collage.

The background was a paper towel used to mop up paint, over which I added a magazine image and computer generated words.

My attempt at humor with band aids and a quote I found on the internet.

I like the background of this two page spread better than the images.

Although the idea was clever, the image stamped and embossed, I hated the color of the piece with the background.  It was truly a bad color combination that I realized once I had it in place and under a light source.

I remember working long and hard on this background.  I was reading an art book at that time that talked about first adding warm colors, then cool colors, then warm colors again.  At the time, I fell in love with these two pages (see the one below).  Now I am not so sure.

At least I added a bit of texture.

Obviously, I named this the Timekeepers and used magazine images.

I'm not sure what I was thinking with this one.  It seems as if one of the words is missing.  Of course, I'm not surprised, since I found several glued images had come loose from wear and tear.  This goes to show glue sticks, no matter how good they are, just don't hold up under the pressure of these altered books. 

Paint, cardstock, a circle cut from a circle punch, real clock hands that move, a brad, and computer generated words make up this side

with stamped handmade paper and computer generated words added to complete the saying.

This concludes the first set of photos.  Now on to the next ones, please.

Here are two pages of TIMEless quotes and sayings, some culled from magazines and some

computer generated.  Bleubeard's favorite is the one about time spent with cats.

I think I was trying to bring a bit of humor in "Time keeps rolling on," although I hate to admit how I believe the disabled often feel they are OUT of TIME.

The larger magazine image is only a part of the smaller version that I either had to cut off, or was missing.  The smaller image shows a guy opening one of those coats that holds many watches, most of which are dubious in nature.  I added two tiny clock embellishments to the page.

As I turned the page to take this scan, many of the tags came tumbling out.

The same thing happened on the other side, too.

The top of this is all magazine images, while the bottom has images of a stamp I borrowed, so have no idea what company they came from.  They were stamped onto some of my handmade paper.  You can tell, I didn't get all the images right the first time, so had to tear my hmp and use a different color paper.

Magazine images and part of an old birthday card were laid on top of some shaving cream paper. 

This is another tip-in I made for a swap, but this time I remembered to put a date on it (see below).  For this side, I began with paint I applied with a faux credit card, then ran it through my printer.  I also printed the "altered time" scrabble tiles on some handmade paper.  I covered an old CD with some see-through gift wrap and added a polymer clay hand.

For the back,  I also printed onto some handmade paper, including my name and swap info.  I ran the paper through my printer on best ink and quickly added embossing powder.  When I had all the papers printed and embossed, I heat set them.  Some areas of the ep took better than others.  I got the idea when I found a large piece of stretchy fabric (I have no idea what it was made of, but I suspect some form of spandex) that had all these threads removed from it.  It seemed the ideal inspiration for the concept.

This two page spread is hard to follow, since I used gold ink on most of the sentiment on the right which reads "a measure of time" on both pages.

I confess.  I was watching the big basketball weekend aka known as the NBA All Stars weekend in 2008, when I made this two page spread. I got the whistle from the internet and printed it and the wording onto red paper.

I found this image in a magazine.  Look how SHORT those uniforms are!  The black dye ink spread over the page signifies a referee's uniform.

You can't have a book on TIME and not include a few fairy tale characters!  They went well with the page next to it, I thought.

OK, what happens when you are trying to run a ring of gold leafing around a CD and the ink suddenly floods out?  You make the best of it by making it appear to be planned.  I was so lucky to have found these old calendar pages I printed out on a weekly basis from when I was in grad school.  It appears I never throw anything away.  Seems these were the remains of my birthday party.  In reality, most of this trash was leftover bits and pieces from the vinyl letters I used and were on my craft table at the time I created this page.  A genuine flopportunity.

You can see I saved a lot of words from magazines, but I also printed a lot of images on my handmade paper back then, too.  When I needed a two page spread, instead of cutting the images apart, I just used them intact.  Those are real clock hands held together with a brad in the scan from the left side of the spread.

I hope you aren't bored.  We're finally at the end of the second entry.

I got the idea for this spread from a dear friend Kayla, who at the time was 16.  This spread took SO long to put together, I though I would never finish it.  I combined 1 square inch bits of scrapbook, handmade, and hand painted paper, cardstock, book pages, and magazine images.

I believe I warned you that not all pages would be "good."  This two page spread has lots of calendar pages from various years, and shows how long I'd been collecting images and calendars.  Silver glaze was spread over both pages.

It would have been so much more enjoyable to see these two pages together.  The yarn is only attached at the two ends and under the airplane.  The yarn flops free otherwise.  I must have had a lot of extra CDs when I was making this AB.  The metallic blue and red paints were both scraped onto the background, while both CDs were covered with portions of a mileage map.

Another two page spread showing my quirky sense of humor.  The calendar on the left page is framed with four 10 cent stamps with the words "TIME FRAME" created in vinyl letters.  The frame on the right is composed of calendar pages, while the picture is an actual postcard by a famous artist, whose name I no longer remember.

This two page spread consists of some Italian calendar pages I received in a swap.  I sued an actual calendar Day Planner page for the background, a small clock embellishment, and a magazine image I embellished with real clock hands.

Why is it every clock image is positioned at 10:10?  I suspect to best show the hands.  I used a plethora of magazine images I fussy cut to create this two page spread.  Red vinyl letters partly colored in black Sharpie were used for the title.

It's amazing how relevant this two page spread has become four years after they were created. The "USA" is ribbon.

I didn't want to completely cover the words on this page because it had to do with the stock market, a money matter.  It would have worked equally well in my MONEY AB, but I liked how it complimented TIME.

Still another reference to money and time.

This was the first of six pages I created for money and time.

You would almost think this should have been in my money book.  I used this very authentic looking faux money and placed one denomination on each page.  I staggered the money, so you

 could see each as you flipped through the pages.

This is the final page of this six page spread.  It is also the last of this set of photos.  I hope you are still with me as we peruse the next set of images.