Fairies: An Altered Book

I'm just finishing up my altered book project, and I thought I would share some photos. I originally made this book as a gift for my younger sister at Christmastime, but now I'm finally finishing it to enter in 4H fine arts at the county fair this week.

I made the book out of a copy of The Thousand and One Nights.

Here's the title page:

Table of Contents:

Since I made the book for my sister, I tucked a note for her inside a pocket:

This is one of my favorite pages. I used a portrait of Queen Victoria that I had kicking around, and gave her fairy wings. :)

On the side of the page, there's a few tags that can be pulled out of hidden slots:

(You flip the center panel to reveal the rest of the page)

Originally, the rest of the book was blank, so that my sister could add to it if she wanted to. But she decided she wanted me to make a "Fairy Treasures" page, with a niche for trinkets and beads, etc. So I glued together the rest of the pages and cut out a shadowbox. The picture is of Ali Baba showing off his treasure, which was in the book to begin with. I just finished this page today. 

See all those nifty treasures?

That's one full book!

What I Gave for Christmas

Instead of focusing on what I got for Christmas this year, I’ll tell you what I gave to other people, since that was more exciting for me this year.

To my parents, I gave audiobooks that they can listen to while they are driving. Both books are radio drama done by Focus on the Family’s Radio Theatre. To my mom I gave “The Hiding Place,” and to my dad I gave “The Screwtape Letters.” (Did you know that Andy Serkis is the voice of Screwtape? He’s insanely creepy!)

 

For my oldest sister, I got a candle. But this is no ordinary candle. It’s an artificial one that flickers either yellow or blue, and to turn it off, you just blow. And you also blow to turn it on. :)

For my next oldest sister, I made a recipe box, collaged with cooking-themed papers. She’s a great cook and loves culinary arts. I made recipe cards to go with it.

To my brother, who has his blog here, I gave the game Risk, but with a twist. It’s set in the year 2210 A.D. He played it with our cousin on Christmas night (stayed up until 3 in the morning!), and they both like it better than the original Risk game. Then I played with him… and lost. But I will triumph eventually!

And for my youngest sister, Hepzibah, who blogs at Beauty of Christ (among other places), I made an altered book about fairies. The book used to be "The Thousand and One Nights," but now it is all about fairies, with lots of colors and glitter. It’s my second altered book, and I learned a lot of new techniques for this project. This is probably the present I worked on the most. She loved it, and kept flipping through the pages in delight. I’ll try to post some pictures of it soon.

And for the whole family, I made a photobook. The title is "Faces: Looking Closer at the Personalities Around Us." You can view it here.

More trees...

I went to a used bookstore on Saturday, and I got a new book!

Actually, it's an old book, Trees: Yearbook of Agriculture 1949. It caught my eye because I was looking for a good book to alter, and the cover with the leaves and the title seemed just perfect. It has some great illustrations in it that I can highlight on my pages, and it has maps of the US inside the covers. I'll use it for a nature or tree theme. I can't wait to get to work on it!

Oddities and Trees

More altered book pictures! I completed two more pages. Yay! 

This one is titled "Whims and Oddities," and it's supposed to be a collection of odds and ends... and a vain dude admiring his reflection in the little mirror. (The vain dude is actually a picture of Lord Byron that was already in the old history book I altered). I used gold thread to stitch around the mirror to add some elegance to the page. I put in a gold leaf, and the gold squares are pieces of a credit card. :) I also put in a photocopy of a skeleton key. This page didn't turn

 out as good as how I imagined it, but I'm just having fun and learning. This is my first altered book project, after all!

Enter the Forest! This is the very last page of my altered book. I wanted to do more pages, but I'm afraid the binding is going to fall apart if I do any more. I painted the trees on the pages, fleshed them out a little with colored pencil, attached a paper butterfly and some leaves, and finished it off with some larger gold and

 green leaves (they didn't show up very well in the picture). I might do a repeat of this theme in other books, because nature is one of my favorite themes.

On to new altered books! I have ideas for about 8 different themes I could expand on, but I haven't come to a final decision yet. I'll let you know what I decide.  I got some cool papers and inks with my Christmas money, and I can't wait to try them out on a new project!

Sewing for the Imagination

For me, sewing is not a passion or a main interest, but I like to sew things that I can't easily buy. The very act of sewing is not what I love so much as the finished product I get when I'm done.  So I sew things like Beanie Baby clothes, medieval cloaks, and leafy curtains for my room. I sew things to help awaken the imagination.

My first true sewing project was an Elven-esque cloak.  I spent $1 per yard on some amazing blue fabric that had a wonderfully whispery sound about it. I loved the finished product, but I soon realized how impractical it was.  I made it one size too large, so it swallowed me up every time I put it on, and the bottom hem dragged about three or four inches on the ground. The brilliant blue color is very pretty, but just a bit too eye-catching for me (for example, how could an elf disappear in the forest while wearing such flashy clothes?).

So I made up my mind to sew a new cloak, one that was more practical, less conspicuous, and would fit me better. I wanted a green cloak, but the fabric store didn't have the right kind of fabric in that color, so I ended up with brown, which was my second choice anyway.

I worked on it occasionally, but I didn't have a reason to work hard at it until I found out my family was going to the Renaissance Festival. Then I worked on it constantly!  I finished just a few minutes before we pulled into the parking lot of the festival.

I enjoyed wearing it at the festival. I could almost imagine what it might have been like to live in that time.   I was surrounded by other people dressed much like myself, so I didn't feel like such a geek. I am fascinated by many aspects of the Medieval and Renaissance eras, mostly things like archery, swordsmanship, horsemanship, clothing, and legends and stories from that time. (But not much of the food. Yuck. Who would want to eat roast boar? Not I!)  I had a lot of fun wandering from shop to shop, hefting swords, learning how a waterwheel mill pounded rags into a pulp used for paper-making, watching a ridiculously choreographed joust (ugh), listening to the singing of a musical troupe or the lilting melodies of a skillful harpist, and just letting my imagination wander back in time.

I'm very happy with the finished cloak. I put some gold braid around some edges, and a silver clasp in the front to finish it off. Here are some pictures:

And finally, here I am wearing it at the Renaissance Festival!

Altered Book photos

Here are those pictures I promised of my altered book! First, here are some pictures of the front and back covers:

On the first page, I have a sort of introduction- in poetry.


Here's the title page:


And last, here is a picture of my first completed two-page spread. I love traveling, and I wanted to somehow incorporate all (or most) of the places I want to learn about or visit. So I circled place names I found on the page such as France, London, India, New York, Ireland, etc... I also stitched gold thread on the right page, and a blue cord on the other page. I added a folded map of Venice and other embellishments that enhanced the feeling of world travel. It took me a long time to finish, but I had so much fun creating it that I didn't want to stop! I just kept thinking of more things to put in.


And now I'm working on the next page! I'll continue to post pictures of new pages as I complete them. So, what do you think?

Art With a Book

Even with my excruciatingly busy schedule, I am able to find small tidbits of time to let my creativity out. My most recent endeavor has been constructing an "altered book." Making altered books is a way to recycle old books that nobody reads into a work of art that is pleasing to the eyes and fun to touch and hold. It can include elements of collage, painting, photography, poetry, journaling, stamping, sewing, or whatever else that can fit inside the covers of a book! And even if it doesn't fit, you can always cut out a secret compartment in the pages of the book and put something special in it. It can be whatever you want it to be.

I've always been interested in scrapbooking and painting and photography, but I usually don't have a special project to work on. I don't often remember to take pictures on my travels, and I'm always afraid that I'll "mess things up," if I try making a scrapbook.

When I first learned about altered books, I was skeptical. (I mean, what kind of person would cut and paint and decoupage in a PERFECTLY FINE BOOK?! Scandalous!) But then I saw some pictures of altered books and it immediately captured my attention. Here are some examples of altered books: (I didn't make any of these)

Isn't that cool?

Anyway, it inspired me to make my own altered book. I began searching for a suitable  book to use. I wanted an old, thick, mysterious book that was dirt cheap or free. I finally found what I was looking for at a homeschool book sale. In a box marked "Free Books- Take One" I found a single discarded volume from a world history set that was published in 1906. Perfect!

I took it home and made my crafty plans. I have ideas for a travel spread, a winter spread, an enchanted forest spread, and perhaps some other pages, but with altered books it is better to only make a few pages, because if you make too many, it won't be closeable.

So far I have painted the cover and made the title page, which reads:

"Destinations & Discoveries: The Observations and Dreams of a Curious Mind." It's nothing fancy yet, but the beauty of making altered books is that you can always add to it later. When I get a chance, I'll post some pictures of my work-in-progress.