Birds and Botanicals altered book is finished

I began this altered book several months ago. After working on it for a couple of days, I was tired of it and put it in a big envelope and let it sit for awhile. Today I took it out and looked at it again and decided that it was nearly finished. So I worked on it today to get it finished. Here it is:The cover is an page from an old photo album I bought that was falling apart. The bird picture is actually a piece of wallpaper.
Here is Joy's relative that you saw a while back. I imagined that this was her botanical book and she put it together with just what she could find. There is a "certificate of merit" just under her picture and I like to think that her teacher liked her book and gave her the certificate for doing such a fine job. There are tags and journaling papers on the other page for her to fill out with her notes while she collected her botanicals.

More tags in pockets and more journaling space. Also a "bird" word card.

Here I made a pocket out of stiff interfacing and put a pretty postcard in it with butterflies.

Here is a birdnest that perhaps she could have sketched or collected. There is a bird tag tucked in the back of the nest. The birds on the other page are mounted on a piece of wall paper that was folded in half and sewn together. The tiny tag on the left holds (perhaps) a feather from one of those birds.

Here is a picture of her best friend who helped her collect the things for the botanicals book: butterflies, bird's eggs, flowers, etc.

More favorite things: fabric flowers, pictures of birds, a game card with an envelope that has a tag with feathers on it.

The back side of the game card has my favorite twig chair stamp and a bird attached. The opposite page has some of that wonderful woven paper that I threaded ribbon through so it could hold tags.

These are the last two pages with shells, a bug, and a wonderful bird cage. I used a lot of the Graphics 45 papers, vintage papers, some things by Catherine Moore (the bird cage and the twig chair stamp), heavy paper to paint on with acrylics matching the colors in the papers. It was a lengthy project. Glad I put it away for awhile and then took it out again. The "rest" from it gave me the boost to finish it today.

Done! I think this may be a submission.

Altered book in the works

I am working on an altered book using old and new materials, and recycling others. It is still a work in progress, but I thought I would share a few pages with you. This is the cover. The flower and the lock plate are not fixed yet. Could change my mind on those two things.
This is one of the inside pages. I used an old "Certificate of Merit" as well as old lace. The background is several layers of different papers. This is a great collage technique to use to give the page more depth and interest.
On the wall paper background these birds look great! Love the machine stitching. Just adds interest.
This little girl is also on the page of wall paper. I have used a couple of pages of wall paper in this book. I think you will like the finished product.

Productive weekend

I have been working all this holiday weekend on what I call a "Fashion Folio." One definition of a folio is "a case or folder for loose papers." My folio is actually an altered book that won't be bound together, but tied with a pretty ribbon to keep its contents together when it is finished.The kitchen island is where I have been most of Friday and all day on Sunday.
Plus I have been at my sewing machine and sorting through my boxes of fabrics and trims.
This little doll I had made several months ago, but she has found a place in this folio.
Here you can see I have also been collaging papers and pictures to the pages of this book. Spent most of Friday hunting up paper, wall paper, and fabrics to include in the book. I have sewn or glued them to torn pieces of manila cardstock.

These pieces here were actually taken from an old altered book I made (didn't feel bad about tearing it up!) and a transfer made in a class taken a long time ago. Just using some recycled items makes this folio more interesting. The covers are from an old Reader's Digest. More on those later!

This is a "work in progress." If you look closely you can see that most of the images are held in place with a paper clip. I am still adding things, moving things from page to page, redoing, and reworking. Got lots more to add: sequins, beads, jewelry bits, more Stickles, more coloring. Hmm! Perhaps this is a submission piece in the making??!!