Garden Party ~ Altered Pages Altered Board Book Swap

 Altered Pages Yahoo Group hosted an altered board book swap.  Participants altered a book to send to one partner, the theme was open.  This is what I came up with. 

All floral collage images are from Altered Pages

 I've never done an altered book from start to finish, I've always elaborated with other artists so this was a huge undertaking for me.  I hope you enjoy my Garden Party. 

Page 1 and 2

 My book starts with an invitation to a Garden Party.

Page 2 has a lovely image (all adult female images are from Artfully Musing Free Downloads) of the party hostess.

The frame is one that I make and I'm trying to get some in my Etsy shop.  You can't tell in the photo but it is shimmery.

I told a little story with my book, I hope you enjoy it.  The story portion will be in italics.

 Page 3 and 4

Lady Heidi Hydrangea and Princess Penelope Poppy are the first to arrive and they brought their prize winning cake.

 Next comes Countess Isabel Iris with her gaggle of puppies.  I count them at night, instead of sheep, when I can't sleep.

The dogs hat is from Altered Pages

Page 5 and 6

Followed by the Deacons wife Daphne Daffodil who has the most lovely singing voice.  How magnificent she has brought the Church linens to top our table with.

I hate to tute my own horn but I love how I added the rhinestones to the music notes.  I think I would have enjoyed music much more if there had been rhinestones on my sheet music in high school.

Oh how wonderful her Royal Highness Roberta Rose is here.  And she is accompanied by her charming daughter Bethany Bluebell.  What's she looking at?

I did a lot of work on the background of this page.  All the depths don't show in the pictures.  I stamped a column of roses and then a column of crowns painted them and then did a wash over them.

The little girl is from Altered Pages

Do you see the hidden roses?

Are you ready for the next page?  At the last minute I did the different layers of crepe paper to try and make it look sky like. 

It's the Butterflies!  They've decided to join us.

The background paper is glittery as are touches of the butterflies. 

All Collage images on this page are from Altered Pages

Page 9 and 10

Now let's sit and chat a bit.



I used real tea leaves to decorate the edges of the rosettes, it makes the entire book smell scrumptious!

Would you like some fresh strawberries from my garden to go with your cake? 

Page 11 and 12

Oh how the time does fly.  It's growing late and time to say farewell. 

Again I played with crepe paper, light blue for daytime and black for night I love the effect it gives the page. 

This is the final page in the book.  It's supposed to be a Thank You from the hostess to her guests or vice versa.  I needed more space than I had left over to give the proper credits for each page. 

 See, it barely all fits and I am sure I left something out!

The back cover is simple. 

I love my altered book and had a very hard time mailing it out today.  I  hope who I mailed it too (shhh it's still a secret) loves it as much as I do.