Techniques: Library Card Pocket

"Techniques 2010"Altered Book Spread: Not in Your Address Book

This is a very simple altered book technique: create a pocket on one of your pages. It can hold a photo, a tag, a piece of material, a small greeting card, a cut out object, a folded up list of favorite things -- just use your imagination! The pocket on this page is a plain manila library card pocket -- you know the ones that used to be in the back of library books. You can purchase them online in so many styles, sizes, and paperweights. I like the manila ones because you can decorate them to your heart's content -- paint it, stamp on it, cover it with paper, add a picture like I did here. I rummaged around in my studio and found an old address book of my grandmother's -- probably from the 60's or 70's -- and it slipped right into the pocket. I recognized her handwriting and some of the names and places she wrote in there. I liked the image of the woman looking back over her shoulder. Is she referring to her grandmother's book, or somebody else's? A mystery -- how could she ever be excluded from someone's heart?

Materials and mediums used in this spread: rubber stamp ink pads, oil pastels, gold pen, rubber stamps, ribbon, glue.

Altered Book Technique: Library Pocket