Making an altered book is a really fun project. You just take a book, any book - but it's nice if the book means something to you - and then you go crazy on it until it turns into art. Then I Defy You, Stars is a mixed media project created from an old copy of Romeo and Juliet that had already been scribbled in by its previous owner. This was my first attempt at creating an altered book and was done in 2006.


glitter and dollar store feathers with a copious amount of paint.


Kleenex ghosties in small boxes formed by popsicle sticks and painted black. glued a couple of pages together to get them stiff enough to create these little boxes in the pages.


dollar store puzzle pieces


Origami cranes in small vellum-covered boxes, revealing the text on the opposite page.


Marked out the stars, cut out the stars, put vellum paper behind them and glued to the next page.


Yellow paint, with flower petals and coffee grounds scattered over them and surrounding an old photograph I got at a junk shop.


Rose petals and vellum paper boxes, pages glued shut.


Opposite side of the page - lace, sewing, spider pens, and leaves.


Page One: Feathers, pictures, leaves and things.
Page Two: Cut out the middle box so that you can see the next page. I sewed the stars on.


Page One: See previous picture.
Page Two: Leaves and branches and things.


Paint, glitter, branches, leaves.


Dried forget-me-nots, butterfly gems and butterfly lace (dollar store)


Lace and stars; angel vanilla scent wrapper; sheet music origami - yes, it opens.


Page One: Scars [redacted].
Page Two: This may have been parts of a fan? More popsicle sticks to carve out a box; too blurry to be very impressive. The chain is the bookmark.


Fortunes, turtles, leaves, a card from my grandfather's deck, butterflies.

Cut a square, sewed lace over it. Spider pens.

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