~Altered Book, Pride and Prejudice!~

 ~Some of you may remember a little project I eluded to several months ago, something I was doing with an extra copy of P&P. (Come on, we all know we have extra copies of Austen lying around!) Until now I hadn't gotten around to taking pictures of the progress, so, here's what I promised!

~Meet my latest altered book! My new sewing machine, with its fancy embroidery options, really came in handy designing the cover...

~All it took was a hardcover copy, a square of fabric large enough to tuck under the sides, glue for decoupaging the fabric to the cover, and embellishments. The best part was the embellishing!

~Lace, lace, lace...And stickers, and scraps of fabric, and, of course, an embroidery machine. So much fun!

~Here's a close up of the back! (In case you were wondering, yes, these pictures were taken on a chair in my new room. More of that to come soon!)

~As you can see, altering a book consists of ripping out pages, gluing the pages you have left together, and creating a sort of "grown up" board book! Its really so simple, just make sure you have a book with a good spine! But enough of the cover, lets move on to the pages...

 ~The thing I love about altered books is that you can literally do anything you want. There simply are no rules. Keep playing with your page until it looks right to you. The materials that can be used are endless.

~Some of the things I used inside this book are:

:Various pieces of scrap booking paper (an obvious and basic step in the right direction!)
:Craft Paint, for the hand painted roses you see and page washes.
:Ribbon, Lace
:Cut out Quotes and Illustrations from the book I was altering
:Buttons
:Stickers
:Vintage Paper Dolls
:Stampers
:Tissue Paper

~Some details of the title page. I wanted to theme the book around the story...But you can do whatever you like, write your own story!

~The second page...I love the way the gold paint brushed on lightly lets the words still peek through!

~"I could more easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine."

~Here are the vintage paper dolls I pasted in, they aren't from Jane Austens time era, but, I thought they had the right "look" together. You can almost imagine the wearers look of disgust as they each alternatively survey and ignore the other!

~I added a verse I found rather appropriate!

~These are the last pages I had time to complete before the move... I was just getting to the good part!

 
~Let me know if you have any questions about altering books! I'm a newbie to the art myself, and must confess, it is rather addicting! There are some great websites that offer advice on choosing books and themes, as well as amazing pictures, so do a search!