ATC sketchbook from an altered book

In earlier posts I've written about ATCs (Artist Trading Cards). Check this link. I've also posted about Altered Books. Check this link. And this for Altered Books Part II.

The photo at left shows a little treasure I made from an old book and the desire to be able to easily carry blank ATCs cards and a favorite pen.

I used materials already at hand. The book was a small gift-type book that I'd bought at Goodwill for 25 cents and tore out the inner pages (it was one of those "It's your birthday...." type books, nothing special to me).

For the inside, I used a hard board painted silver...it had two holes already punched in it (this board was something I'd gotten when buying a bunch of ephemera/scrapbooking supplies on ebay, so I didn't create it or paint it, just had it in a box of recyclables). I also used papers from a pack of decorative papers purchased at Crafts 2000 in Parkersburg, WV, and strips of handmade-type paper I had on hand and some music score from my scrap drawer. Same thing with the silver cored that I put between the holes in the hard silver board. Those strings can hold the ATC if it is windy when you are drawing outside.

I had some cool cloth ribbon in my ribbon box (yep, I save everything) and I used clear plastic (the kind that bedding comes in, or you can use scraps from a plain shower curtain liner (a few dollars for a whole curtain!). This plasticcreated pockets for the pen and the cards. I also pasted a photo I took (and cropped) of a tree in winter; the colors seemed to match with the rest of the project.

The back is shown below. This ATC sketchbook fits nicely in a purse. I think I will try it out "in the field" and see how it works on a practical basis. This was a fun Saturday project using materials I already had on hand.