Leslie-Rahye's International Fairy Day Blog Hop

Hello everyone, and welcome to the International Fairy Day Blog Hop, hosted by the one and only Leslie-Rahye!  The hop starts at Leslie-Rahye's blog.  I am so glad you are here today.  I think you are going to enjoy all of the fun fairy creations by all of the bloggers.

I recently participated in an altered book swap.  There were eight participants, and each month, we each swapped and worked in each other's books.  If a participant had a particular theme, we created something we thought was in keeping with the theme.  The theme for this particular book was "all things with wings".  Of course, I knew I had to use fairies.  I also like to sometimes work outside of the book, and so, what you are seeing is my "tip in" page.

A "tip in" page is simply an extra page that you work on, decorate, and when finished, glue into the spine of the book.  The white strips in the photos of pages 1 and 4 are adhesive strips with the paper covering still on it.  I used this (and some Helmar 450 glue) to adhere the page into my friend's book.

So, how did I do this?  I first measured my friend's book pages.  Then I cut my 12x12 double-sided Prima print paper to measure the same.  It is made just like a card, cut to size and folded in half.  So, each individual page in this book measured 9" tall by 6" wide, so I cut my paper 9" tall by 12" wide.  Before decorating, I made an additional score line 1/4" on either side of the center fold, and that is where I placed my adhesive strip.  I also felt that the score line would help the page open and close after insertion into the spine.  You could, of course, do this as a single page, and I would still make that extra score line to help the page open and close.

Imagine this page inside of a book.  This is the first page you would come to.  This is the reverse side of the print paper, so pages 1 and 4 are simply polka dots.  Everything else was fussy cut from some of the other sheets and added as individual elements to make my own fairy land.  I believe this technique is called paper tole.  With the help of Helmar 450 glue, I was able to glue and keep the dimension I wanted with each piece.  I used a large ball tip embossing tool to round my fairy and her dress.  With the help of pop dots and more Helmar 450 glue, I layered her on top of the mushroom, which was also fussy cut and placed behind flowers.

I added punched branches, a butterfly with pearls, and gold rub ons.  I also added the flower trim to the bottom of her dress, which was the edging on a much wider piece of ribbon.  That was a bit tricky, but do-able.  I absolutely love the result.  More tiny pearls were added to her dress, neckline and hands.

Front page 1

These are the inside pages, just like the inside of a card.  It is hard to see in this picture, but the butterfly is placed onto a piece of clear acetate to pop it off of the page, right in the crease.  I call it my floating butterfly.  Again, everything was fussy cut, shaped, embossed, and glued dimensionally to the page.  I also added some gorgeous Prima flowers and plastic bead flowers from my local craft store.

Inside pages 2 and 3

The lovely verse on the label shape reads as follows:

Follow me 

little birdie 

and I will 

show you 

how to fly 

and be free.

Again, the same process to make page 1 was used to make this page.  

Back page 4

I took this side view to try to show the dimensional aspect of the pages, and if you look closely, you will see my acetate pop up to make my butterfly "float".  You remember  when Mohammed Ali coined the phrase, "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee".  I love making floating butterflies.  Whether in a card or, in this case, a book, it is so fun for me to see the look on my recipient's face when the butterfly pops out at them.

side view close-up

Supplies used:

Prima 12 x12 paper - Fairy Belle Collection

En Pointe

Firefly

Summer Dream

Martha Stewart punch:  Branch, Butterfly, Bird

Tattered Angels Glimmer Glam:  Chandelier

Helmar 450 glue

Clearsnap Design Adhesives-Butterflies

Embellishments:  pearl stickers, Prima flowers, plastic flowers, handmade leaves, tiny roses, Frantage mica chips 

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I hope you are enjoying the hop and will be sure to visit each blog to get your fairy inspiration.  I have added all of the links to each blog below.  Please be sure to leave each of us some love in the way of a comment.  I would love for you to follow me, too.  There will be some blog candy along the way.  So good luck, and have a wonderful, creative week.  

Barbara

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