Best Work Yet

Story of Alta’s Altered Book

My friend Alta was an amazing, and compassionate person. This is a story of what I made for Alta out of my passion of creating unique pieces of art and my gratefulness for her love and acceptance of me. To me, she was a substitute grandmother who always cared about what was going on in my life. She had a very full life and touched many people. She made quilts for babies, volunteered at a museum and participated in a prison ministry along with playing the organ and piano at church, cooking church meals and raising one boy and two girls. The only thing that stopped as she grew older well into her 90s was her loss of hearing and failing sight. She passed away the day after Christmas 2020 at the age of 99. I had met her at church when I was about three years old. She and her husband were in their late forties which seemed old to me.

I remember that I liked to sit with her and her family. One of her daughters, Kathy in particular, took an interest in me and my brother Mike, first, then the other members of the family got to know us. They allowed me sit with them and explore inside their purses, probably to keep my three year old self quiet. I remember always finding gum and of course a pen and paper to draw on. Alta’s husband was a gentle giant of a man and most of the little kids at church were afraid of him, but not me. I may have been a bit too young to be going to Sunday school and church.

From our first meeting at church Alta and I became fast friends. I would go visit Alta every week during the summer months and admire her roses. Alta took me to Mother/Daughter events at the church and she and Kathy always remembered my birthdays and made sure I received a gift from them at Christmas. When I was in High school Alta and her husband moved from my hometown to Denver. I would visit Alta during the summer and stay a few days shopping and discussing my dreams and aspirations and gave me support. We kept in touch through out the years right up until her death.

When Alta turned 90, I wanted to thank her for all of her love and support throughout the years. I had been scrapbooking for several years. I had already done a couple of Altered books and figured this would a one of a kind gift to celebrate her life and our friendship. I decided to create an Altered book given Alta’s love for art and education.

This project of would not have been as impressive without the help of her daughter, Kathy. She advised me on the particulars of Alta’s life. I learned more of her history teaching experience and subjects she taught. This information I would use to enrich the book. An altered book is a form of mixed media artwork that changes a book from its original form into a different form, altering its appearance and/or meaning.I used an old Social Studies book that was about 3” thick and about 11” tall and 9” wide. I used scissors to cut some of the photos from the book to be used with in the book. I then divided the pages into sections. I cut out pages I did not need in order to make room for the items I would add later. I glued the other pages together to make thick pages for each section of the book and to keep the structural integrity of the book. I added booklets, pockets and mini photo books to go within the book. I made a niche with for one of the items that would be added.

My first step was to make an outline of what would go into the book and what order. I prepared the book by dividing the sections. I covered the book in rose printed paper. I adorned with photos and old postcards of roses on the inside cover as Alta had raised roses for many years in her spring house. I included a pocket that held a couple of cards with the definition of what an Altered book was.

Section 1

Church was very important to her. I made up a small booklet with an order of service, quotes from the Bible, songs she had sung and quotes from well known church leaders. Alta played the organ and piano at church for many years, so I added an embellishment of a grand piano. I found a photo of the paper that Horatio Spafford used when he penned the well known song “It is Well with My Soul,”a meaningful song to us. Because the paper needed to look old and worn, I used scissors, tearing, and a bit of ink on the edges to create an aged look. One other element I added was a miniature replica of flash cards used to help kids to learn Sunday school songs.

Section 2

On the next section I added two “mini” photo albums. Because Alta and Kathy had also taken an interest in my older brother Mike, one of the accordion style photo spreads, consisted of photos of him as a boy and how he and his family looked in present day. I created another photo accordion style spread for photos of me growing up. Because Norman Rockwell was her favorite artist I added a photo of the painting “A Day in the Life of a Girl”.

Section 3

This section was of memories of college. I included a note about a memory that happened over my over one of my Christmas breaks. I was attending a college in Nampa, ID. The original plan had been to go from Boise to Denver then to my hometown for a few days and then back to Denver catch a flight to Kansas City, MO. where I was to spend the rest of the holiday with my brother, then back to Boise for the next semester. Earlier that day, there was even a question if I would ever get out of Boise. Once at the Boise Airport I was finally given the option to go straight to Kansas City with a layover in Salt Lake. So I called my brother Gary to let him know he needed to pick me up in Kansas City. I then called my Dad to tell him to stay home and apologized for not making it there. When I got to Salt Lake the ticket guy saw that I had wanted to go to Denver. He honored that ticket and wish. I got back on the phone to let my brother Gary know I would not be coming in that night. Then I called my Dad and I suggested he call Alta to see if her and her husband could pick me up at the airport. There was no way to confirm if my Dad was able to reach Alta or not (cellphones were not in use like today). I was a bit anxious as because I did not know if anyone would be there when I arrived. I was so happy to see Alta and her husband waiting.

Section 4

Alta enjoyed receiving letters from me and would admonish me for not writing her. This next section contained several letters with memories and what was going on in the present time. Although I had started this in 2011, I did not finish until late spring of 2012. These letters I know made her laugh, because one contained a story of when I was about 8 or 9. Kathy was playing the piano for Junior Church. The church had a treasure chest that you could dig in and get a prize for your birthday or bringing a visitor. I really wanted a badge...sheriff or policeman's. Since I could not get anyone new to go to church with me, I thought....I would just say it was my birthday. I did not take into consideration that Kathy would be playing the piano. Of course Kathy busted me... She asked me, "Isn't your birthday in October?” Well...when you tell one lie...you have to tell another lie. Then...Kathy and Alta brought something for my "Birthday" the next week. I felt bad... I made a point to be quiet in October... I do not remember what happened except I know that neither Kathy nor Alta mentioned it. They both probably understood that I had learned my lesson.

However I know that she cried because of the family loss that had happened over this time. I wrote about losing a sister-in-law unexpectedly and of my brother Mike who died of liver cancer. This had slowed the project down a bit but I got right back on it so although I had missed her actual 90th birthday, I wanted to finish before she turned 91 in September.

Section 5

Alta and Kathy were always so thoughtful and celebrated my birthdays and holidays with a gift. In this next section I added photos of a couple of gifts from them, that I still had. One was a Bible. I used a photo of the front of the Bible and photographed a copy of the inside pages that showed who it was from and the date given. I did the same with a book that contained Peanut’s characters. I also learned young to reciprocate by giving Alta a tea bowel with a calendar. She told me later that she had gotten used to receiving one so she could count on it. Later she let em know that she missed them. I had quit because I was growing up and wanted to give more sophisticated gifts. I added a photo of one.

One morning in January prior to the making of this book, I received a box of Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies. No return address, no note just the box of cookies. I knew immediately who sent them. I laughed until I cried. Alta always had quite the sense of humor. She had bought cookies from me every year I was in Girl Scouts. I used a photo of the Thin Mints box to make a mini book with some recipes of the original Girl Scout cookies and cartoons regarding the cookies. This of course had to be added to this section.

Section 6

Alta and her husband had the opportunity to visit many places through out their lives. They were the first people I ever knew who had flown on an airplane. So I made a section of photos of the world sights she had told me about.

Section 7

The next section is about Alta’s college degree and what she taught as a school teacher. Alta grew up in a small town in Utah. There were not many women who went to college back then. After college, she went on to teach French, Spanish and typing. I personally learned quite a bit about typing while looking for photos of old typewriters and researching different fonts and margins. I made a couple of folders that contained nonsense words and an article about typing. One of the folders had French wording.

Section 8

We had some mutual friends who had photos online. On half of a section, I added photos of people we knew. The other half consisted of 3D baking embellishments. She was famous for her fudge. My favorite was always the spice cookies. I also had to add ephemera of her favorite food, strawberries.

Section 9

As mentioned before she enjoyed making quilts. She also sewed many pieces of clothing. For this section, I cut out a niche to house a miniature dressmaker stand. I found a crochet needle at an antique store to add to the section. Used sewing ephemera and embellishments to complete the section.

Section 10

The last section was about my own family. I had another set of photos in a flip style album. I showed her photos from my great-grandparents to the present. I included my own family including our fur babies. The rest of the section contained photos of Kansas City’s famous fountains and other sites within Kansas City. It was a virtual tour of the places we would show off if she were to visit us. This included photos of restraunts that we enjoy.

The very back had some overflow of our present lives in an small photo spread about the restoration we are doing to our house. Just like the back of some newspapers I included games and puzzles with ephemera. I used scissors to cut out the ephemera for these items. Alta and Kathy were at that time playing chicken scratch with dominoes every week so I had to include embellishment of dominoes.

The finished project did not allow for the book to close completely. I got out my scissors and cut a piece of 2 foot by 2 inch ribbon and added a couple of D rings to secure it closed.

Kathy said that she and Alta were both amazed at the gift. They laughed and cried as they went through it and discovered the embedded treasures. Alta sent me one last gift. She sent me a beautiful lap quilt. Now I am the one shedding tears.