"Vintage Patriotic" AG Art Retreat

Every year at the annual art retreat with my online group we spend at least one day creating our own book using the retreat's theme. This year was vintage patriotic and, since I love everything red, white and blue, this book was so much fun to make!  I spent most of yesterday finishing it up and am loving the chunkiness of it.

Here is the cover which I made before the retreat as I wanted a fabric cover and some sewing on it. I used canvas for the front and back covers, backed with denim for the inside covers.  I knew it would be a chunky book, so I decided to bind it with rings.  There are four 1 3/4" rings on the spine, tied with many ribbons and fabric strips. The book is about 3" fat!

Inside front cover and first page: the vellum pocket on the inside cover holds a tag pocket made by one of the attendees. I documented about the retreat on the little "notes" tag.

Second and third pages (the 3rd page features my father and his WWII service). The photo opens to reveal a mini copy of his discharge papers and some information on his tour in Germany. He was wounded and spent a few months on the hospital ship pictured in the lower right. He always carried this photo in his wallet

Fourth and fifth pages: the photo on the left are family members of a good friend; the right page is a vintage Bingo card with a small flag I sewed.

Sixth and seventh pages: back of Bingo card features the 4th of July; the right spread is for the Pledge of Allegiance.

The seventh page above opens to reveal this spread featuring the Statue of Liberty:

Eigth and ninth pages featuring the Star-Spangled Banner song and flag:

Ninth page booklet opens up showing information about the flag:

Tenth and eleventh pages honor the Women Airfare Service Pilots of WWII. Our former neighbor, Betty Jo Streff Reed, was one of only 1,074 WASP. The top photos are mounted on a card that flips up to read her story.

Twelfth and thirteenth pages: on the left are photos of my dad and I in 1950 in the annual Memorial Day parade in my tiny hometown; the right page is about the women's rights movement in the early 1900's.

Page 14 (highlighting one of my favorite vintage images) and page 15 which is a double-sided pocket made from a paper bag to hold many of the tags that were swapped and that I created during the retreat:

Back of pocket page and inside back cover:

Tags in the pockets:

This was quite the undertaking but I'm so glad to have created (and finished) it! Several pages highlight personal memories and will be a nice keepsake and remembrance of the 2016 retreat.