Soar-Dream-France: Mom's Altered Birthday Book

Mom's Altered Birthday Book

Not long after I returned from Germany mid-May, Kat and I began talking about what to do to celebrate Mom's 80th Birthday. I've shared Kat's work with you before...it's exquisite, perfect, professional, thoughtful, and always chock full of sentiment. I began sorting through my own memories: times with Mom, ways I'm like Mom, gifts I received from Mom...all to send to Kat. Cleaning the guest room one morning, I walked past a hard bound book of Victor Hugo that I'd set aside long ago in case I wanted to make an "altered book". Basically, you take a book and turn it into a piece of art through collage, photos, ribbon, tiny objects, and lots of glue sticks. I love books...to read. It was difficult for me to glue pages together, cut pages into fancy shapes and actually tear pages out of the book I was using. But, I got pretty good at it over time. I decided that I would make an altered book for Mom. My favorite French magazine Art and Décoration provided the beautiful photography of doors, windows, gardens, kitchens, bedrooms, castles, and other venues for my pages, and then I was able to make the doors, windows, shutters, curtains and other interesting places open to display photos that would be meaningful to Mom. There was not plan...I just did whatever I felt like doing and was moved to do that day. I made a page holder for Mom out of some beautiful pink satin ribbon-with a Lassus Cru Bourgeois wine cork, but then had to put a half an inch of pages together to make a secret compartment for it so the book would mail easily. The book made it in time. Mom loved it. Even though I couldn't be there, it brought Mom a little of France, me, Dali and Sam, and some wonderful memories and surprises. (It also birthed these new cards I've been making!)