I bought the four little old men made of clay on an impulse back in the fall. I was killing time in one of those everything-and-the-kitchen-sink Asian shops one rainy day, and decided to look for tea cups to use in an altered book. I found the tea cups and decided little clay men would be a good purchase as well. Last week when I began brainstorming ideas for a new altered book I brought them out and decided I needed to make them a cherry tree to sit under.

The little men are slightly set into the book, which is the least noticeable part, but took me a few hours to cut the four niches into the pages. The blossom flowers were made by using a paper punch and then stringing them together with a needle and thread. I used origami paper for both the flowers and the lovely blue background. The tree trunk is a rolled up page within the book with ink rubber stamped to create bark texture.

Materials used: book, origami paper, clay figures, rubber stamp and ink, and lots of glue.