October's altered book club swap post

Greetings everyone! Yesterday I finished the final portion of my latest Altered Book Club spread. Just in time since the group meets this week. This time I received Sally's book. You can see it above. That's not a book you say? You would be correct if you were thinking of an altered book in the traditional sense. Of course this begs the question: How does one define an altered book? This cabinet which Sally made herself is quite clever because in the middle cabinet are the pages already ready gessoed and ready to go! You can see the pages below. Very out of the box or maybe I should say very out of the book.

Inside were instructions from Sally that we could make our "spread" on one of the pages or in one of the cabinet cubbies or both! Her theme is Cabinet of Wishes. We were instructed to create anything about wishes even dark ones if we must. Boy am I glad that she left that door open because the one phrase that rooted itself in my little mind was: Be careful what you wish!

Be careful what you wish suggested the duality of wishes and that's what I chose to explore.

In order to stress this duality, I chose to create a two sided altered book page. One side would be my Fantasy and the other side would be my reality. Also since wishes are so personal I chose to insert my ugly mug into the picture. So the picture above is my Fantasy. It reads: I wish for a fairy Godmother to grant me wishes. And there I am with my beautiful Fairy Godmother. I am happy. Fairy godmother is graciously granting me a wish in a Fairy Medieval Castle setting. Ahhhhhhh how wonderful. But then reality intrudes:

Here is my Reality. This is my real Fairy Godmother. Sweet isn't she? Nice bat wings. So the full text of my wish reads: I wish for a fairy Godmother to grant me wishes...or maybe not! And what does she say to me? " Ok you get one wish. And make it snappy!" Oh yeah that's what my life is really like.

Here is the wish that the fairy Godmother gave me. There are instructions that read: unstopper bottle and speak wish. It shall be granted. Not liking the look of this little wish fairy I hesitated. When I turned over the instructions I found some product warnings. The warnings read: Warning:wishes can be hazardous to your health. Do not drink. Open in a well ventilated area only. And of course the last sentence reads: Be careful what you wish.

Then and there I decided that Sally needs this wish more than I do so I have placed this gift wish in one of the cubby's. Remember Sally-Be careful what you wish!