Fantasy Folded Altered Book

I'm still in agony with the dreaded cold but wanted to come on and post a bit anyway so maybe I'll get in the habit of posting more often.
I did do a 2 page layout in the Fantasy Folded Altered Book last night. I don't think I'm done with it yet but thought maybe I'd come here and start to show some of the pages I have finished. On the side,  I was also working (fooling around) in a cheap little notebook that I liked and decided to alter. Well, I altered it so well that it fell apart. There must be a trick to doing those flimsy lined pages that are bound with the coiled wire? I did glue 3 or 4 pages together and the pages held up fine but soon I couldn't get the pages to open and slide along the coil even though I was trying to keep the coil clean of paint and mediums. It started to tear and come apart at the perforations. I'll just save those pages and use them elsewhere on down the road.
So back to the Fantasy Folded book; before I show some of the pages I have to say that because this book is just my own, I haven't paid a lot of attention to what images I use or where I got them. If you happen to see any images that I got from "you", then I thank you so very much. I can't give any credits on this book too much, because my memory is the size of a dried pea and I'd have to go searching through the image files to see IF I did save it correctly using the person's name I got it from. ( I know.....I write long rambling sentences, too!) Anyway, I have tons of images, I love searching for them, finding them and hopefully using them and again I thank anyone who has shared their images for any of us to use. Most of these pages are done just cutting and trimming the images, doing the collage using gel mediums and or mod podge and maybe some markers, ink, caran d'ache colors, glitter and possibly other ephemera here and there.

I don't have these pages actually numbered yet as I'm working willy nilly on whatever page suits my fancy at any given time. I think this will be page 6 & 7. The creases on any corners are where the page is meant to be folded. I opened them to show the whole page.

This might be 8 & 9

and this would be page 10 and then a 1/2 page fold (you can see a portion of page 12 that was waiting to be done when I scanned the page).

and this page 11 (half folded page) and then page 12 finished.

Remember to click on the picture for a larger view (if you dare).

I'll show some more tomorrow....after the game & race!

Altered Pages

So much for blogging a little each day! I've come down with the dreaded cold so been laying low this week. Thought maybe I'd be real brave and show some pictures from a book I've been "fooling" around in since last Winter when I was laid up with cellulitis and a venous ulcer in my legs. Wasn't much fun but it gave a lot of bed & couch time. So,  much easier than a Altered Book is doing Altered Pages. I grabbed a Readers Digest Condensed Book and have been slowly altering the pages with found words. I usually keep it on the coffee table and then grab it while watching a Packer game or a Nascar race and spend time finding words or taking sharpies and blocking out words. The art isn't intended to be great art; it's mainly just doodles to block out words. Then later I go back to a page and maybe add some image or do further doodling. At this point I can't say that any page is finished. So because this book has 4 different stories, the form and choice of words differ in sections. That doesn't really matter but I found in doing these that one story gave me found words that brought back memories and feelings I tried to bury. It's amazing when doing these pages how certain words will just jump out at you. Just like a form of therapy.
I'm finding it hard to scan these pages to show. So I spent some time trying to learn to scan better and so now I'll see if I got the words to show or not. The print is small and some have a glare because I scanned some after I went in and put a protective coat over the page. I'll never learn to scan first in order to reduce glares.
So here's 2 just random pages that I went back and added images to:

(what's a pretext to a rueful smile?)

(she can't understand this, she just wanted it; reflected on wider implications)

Next starts a different section of the book and this will show the beginning of a series of pages that will tell a story....maybe. These aren't finished but I'll show them anyway:

(terrible secrets of the past, haunted by truth)

monster, the smell, the sound, was terror spun into nightmare. destroyed life; it would be finished)

(a flicker. The monster's here. I had to hide)

(hands shook, didn't speak; there were signs.)

This one (above) actually shows 1 page and a half page

(door shattered; Horror)

This just shows another half page and then a page with only the "found words" and the rest of the page not blocked out yet. Hopefully the words will be readable. I saw they weren't so came back in and added the found words under each image.

One Thing Leads to Another

I'm taking a altered book class given by Patty Van Dorin of River Bend Ranch. My first ever class! This class is called Fantasy Folded Altered Book and I highly recommend it to anyone who has never altered a book or has and wants to learn another style. It's easy to follow with many pictures,  Patty is always willing to answer questions and best of all for folks like me, the class is affordable! Here's a link to Patty's blog and a link for the class is on there also. And take a look at patty's wonderful books, journals and assemblage's!
http://ramblingrose.typepad.com/
This is my first altered book. It's coming along and as a first book, it has a definite learning curve to it. Hopefully I'll get faster and better on the next one! I'm just going to show 1 double page layout from the Fantasy Folded Altered Book tonight. I'm showing this because I have a friend who's a author of Fantasy books, a much better writer and story teller than she gives herself credit for!
http://jennakayfrancis.livejournal.com/ and http://www.jennakayfrancis.com/
Now to be honest, I love some Fantasy art and some fantasy things but I don't usually read Fantasy as my every day reading choice, far from it. BUT, Jenna wrote a book ( this book is just 1 of about 30!) that I fell in love with. I was tentative about reading it, but once I opened the book and started on the first page, I was hooked! The name of the book is NITESH, a Fantasy romance with adventure and a touch of the dark,  a White dragon, elves, fairies, and other fantasy people & creatures.
So Back to my picture. As I said, this is a spread in the fantasy Folded altered book and I made it with Jenna and Nitesh on my mind when I found the dragon. The art on the pages doesn't fit the story exactly, and it's a a white dragon heavily shadowed with blue but still, I was thinking of the magnificent Nitesh!

I should say that the art in this altered book is mainly collaged images with a touch of paint , markers, watercolor pencils or caran d'ache crayons. If you click on the pictures they should show a full page view.

So see, one thing leads to another.....

Star

surprise

I had a wonderful surprise today! At least, it was a wondrous surprise find to me and I'm sure to anyone else who's into altered art, altered books, mixed media and so forth. I have a friend who has been cleaning out her closets and doing a general whole house purging. I'm very glad to be on the receiving end of some of this "junk" she's been saving for years ( inherited from parents and other relatives).
Hopefully I'll be able to add pictures so you can see why I'm just so excited.
First was this medium sized suitcase that must weigh 30 pounds or better.

And when I opened it guess what it's filled to the brim with? Vintage magazines, recipe booklets, catalogs and other home leaflets!! Here's a sample:

Now that's just a sampling of those goodies over flowing from the suitcase.

Next was this darling box:

And this treasure box was filled to the top with these!

Yup, it's filled with her old valentines from the 40's and see that little girls hair do with the bobby pin? That's a real bobby pin inserted into the card!

But that's not all, next was this:

A vintage lace veil; her actual 1st communion veil! Along with it was this:

A very nice small lace shawl or scarf! Then lastly but not the least were these goodies in a basket:

A whole handful of keys and 7 or 8 wooden spools!

So, I had planned to do laundry and then head for the art room to do a bit more de-cluttering which always leads to playing in the Fantasy Folded altered book or other art started, BUT now I'm brewing a pot of coffee and intend to sit and flip through these magazines and catalogs!!! What a bright thing to do on a awful gloomy damp Wisconsin day!!

first post

So here comes the scary part, making that first post. I've put it off for several days while setting up the blog and then spent hours wondering how to start and what the heck to say and still wondering why I'm doing this in the first place!

I've given all that some thought and maybe that's where I'll begin after getting this first post out of the way and making sure the world doesn't crash down on me because I dared to send off a post.

So here goes, I'm going to click the publish button.....and then I'm running to hide!

Actually it's near time for GB Packer football and a Nascar race to start and I'm not ready so I have to go.

You'll never know how hard this was!!

Maybe .....maybe, I'll be back tomorrow .

Star