These altered art books just jumped into my cart at Amazon and came home to me. Of the four, my favorite was the paper doll one. It had fun vintage photos of paper dolls and wild new artistic interpretations of the genre. I enjoyed these other books as well, the mosaics are more time consuming than I'll ever attempt.

review: Alphabetica

"Enter surprise truths, enter imaginatively into someone else's life" a great quote from the introduction of Alphabetica: an A-Z creativity guide for collage and book artists by Lynn Perella. This is a book for players in this great altered art game. No instructions, It assumes you will love the artworks for their own sakes and  enjoy the each artist varied take on their Letter and themes.

I collect Alphabet books and I love altered art! I had to buy this one,  S is for sign in, P is for Plaid, U is for Unlimited,  F is for flapping and Q is for quirky and so much more, some letters defined more than once. C'mon, F is for flapping? You gotta run find this book to see what is flapping in it, now don't you?!

Review: The complete Guide to Altered Imagery

Wow wow! THis great book I bought as a present for myself for my last birthday is a great resource on how to alter your own images. Yes , use  your drawings, your photos, your quilts and make them so much more dynamic and interesting. Use paints, markers, gels and inks with your photos to add depth to your work; also image transfers, lino prints, integrating found objects, monoprints, making a rubber stamp, a buffet of ideas! It also fun because there are so many artists sharing their work in the gallery. Yummy!

Review: French Inspired Jewelry

This book is so beautiful, each project page has not only a color image of the jewelry but a colorful collage of vintage items and inspiration around the projects.  It has interesting fonts and decorative page details. Each page is  a satisfying little journey into: the french seaside, vintage cherries, lush bluebirds etc. THis book is every bit as much a find for the altered artist as the jeweler. I particularly enjoyed the items made with vintage buttons, having once owned a button company.  Enjoy, enjoy, I highly recommend it!

Bead Simple Review

If you love classic, stark and simple jewelry designs this book has over 100 designs for you. Each has a clear large color photo and  good instructions. Many of these were just not "gobby" enough for my taste, which runs to bling and dangles and big beads. However, I could see my daughter Rachel and my sister Sara would love these designs. Many were made with classic shaped beads of glass and wood. I thought the earring designs were particularly lovely.

Lots of great stuff in here for all--

Altered art book review

This comprehensive book for those wanting to begin creating altered art is thorough and inspiring, or even for those who have no idea what this is about. It has in depth sections on all the things I needed to know when I started and learned by trial and error;  adhesives, papers, attaching items to pages, preparing the book and on to other objects to alter!

When my sister and I first discovered the altered art medium we were so excited. We joined a altered art "club" which met once a month at a local rubber stamp store and cost 15 dollars to attend. They would teach one technique a month. We already had so many supplies between us from her scrap booking passion and my textile and jewelry habits.  We would bring things to swap and were eagerly checking out library materials and purchasing books. Once the shop decided not to let us use the huge collection of rubber stamps at each session, we started to rethink the club concept. We soon realized that since we had each other we would not pay the fee, but rather spend the money on books about altered art and try to keep each other encouraged. 

It was sad when we moved away from each other, we divided our image and text files, the books in progress and our tools and supplies. Neither of us did anything in our books for years, while I continued to buy books and be inspired by magazines like; Cloth, Paper, Scissors, the Altered Arts magazine and Somerset Studios. We still collected odd bits of found ephemera and salvaged goodies. Now we are returning to this medium and I will write reviews of some of my new book finds---

Hottie Haute handbag review

This is one of those half magazine/ half paper back "special publications" with so much information it's mind boggling, a chapter on collage, one on fiber and fabrics, one on wool and metal, denim and canvas felt etc. And every possible technique from knitting and crochet to recycling all kinds of thing into darling handbags, There are detailed instructions and multiple photos of most projects. However, there are no real "paper  patterns".  It does assume some level of confidence in your sewing or crafting abilities. A fun book. I have been gone all week visiting and just getting back to my blogging.