Three cheers for the red, white, and blue

This will be my final Art Journal Journey entry this month.  I want to thank Alison (her blog is Craftytrog), our latest host this year for her theme of recycle and collage.  We have really enjoyed your theme, Alison, your great recycled art, and your incredible hostessing skills.  Your use of teabags in journal art is phenomenal.

I actually created this spread for Moo-Mania and Mores' latest challenge which is United States of America, or USA.  It fits both challenges equally.

Everything here is recycled except the glue holding these images in place and my blue and white pens.  

This has been a very difficult piece for me.   I had to remove each small image from a travel brochure one image at a time.  I admit I've been to many of the places shown in these pictures, but some I had never been to.  That meant I had to be sure I got the images pared up correctly with each city and states.

All small images were taken from two travel magazines, most of which were advertising river cruises, thus the rivers in many of the pictures. 

The states represented in these photos are:
AR=Arkansas
IA-Iowa
IL=Illinois
KY=Kentucky
LA=Lousiana
MO=Missouri
MS=Mississippi
OR=Oregon
PA=Pennsylvania
TN=Tennessee
WA=Washington (the state)
WI=Wisconsin

A few close-ups may help you read the state.

All of these cities are special in U.S. history for one reason or another.

It would take me all day to tell why, so I will just let you enjoy the

various images and postage stamps I used, some of which are quite old, others not.

It all boils down to

"Three Cheers For The Red, White, and Blue."

Although I considered using a different background, I decided there was so much I planned to add to the pages, it would detract from the various images and postage stamps.  All images were cut from free travel magazines/brochures, except the large image on the right bottom, which was cut from a magazine about U.S. history.  The background papers were from my recycle bin.

Thank you for sharing time with me today.  Today, you will find me at Art Journal Journey and Moo-Mania and More.  I hope to see you both places, too.