From the contents of the Altered Book below, a playing card, the Queen, enhanced royally...
and a tarot card (another collection), the Queen of Cups, enhanced to depict the interests and humor of a friend--more humor on the obverse, a memory of our summer adventures.

~Gift tags for my friends~

Tags...each apropos for the recipient and interestingly made up of elements of Me.
Cat, wirework, buttons, stamps and playing cards. The latter also a collection although what is being used for this purpose, while vintage, purchased for this purpose.
The playing card takes on 'interest' when altered, embellished, enhanced.

A Woman in the House

Altered Book No.1
"A Woman in the House"

My first Altered Book and given to my friend Karen. In a house full of books, I could not seem to lay my hands on one to sacrifice, so I set out to find THE book. In a local thrift for mere pennies, the titled spine of this book caught my eye...perfection! The theme was set, the inspiration without bounds.
A multitude of treasures, messages (and technique) not only cover the book, but are secreted within (just a sampling shown above) and all representational of how wonderful it is to be a woman and the friendship of women.

A comment on the art of the Altered Book...As a collector of books and taught as a child by my godmother to have respect/care for books, I found the selection for sacrifice difficult. Once the book was selected specifically for this purpose AND the intial tearing/cutting was done, I found such a freedom, a flow of creativity that I wasn't certain it would end. As I worked through the book, I came to the back/inside cover and felt comfortable, ready in ending the project...and more so, in giving this away...releasing it.
I found that the book had not really been sacrificed as I maintained the original theme and there are elements of this book still quite discernable. No longer does the book reside amongst shelves of discarded reading... rearranged, altered into another art form, it now resides, respectfully, on a shelf of its own.

(While the content of this book is meaningful, it is not necessarily personal. The process of making it was. I anticipate making my second which was to have been my first. Most of the elements have been gathered and for some time too. I think because the contents of this 'the next' are personal, I have been thinking/working up to the doing. I may set this one off to sea upon its completion!)

A composite to show framing and embellishments. I have accumulated (without necessarily meaning to), an enormous amount of buttons. In an attempt to 'let them out of the box', I have used them along with wirework in creating 'whimsies' and also to embellish.

Tea & Biscuits

Made for & given to my friend Diane. We met a couple of years ago while taking an art class, however, not the same class. She was working on what I like to call, PEAR ART...and there next to the making of art, we had our second common interest.
The background image is one of my 'tree/sky' photos...the remaining imagery is filled with message, memory, humor...depicting what I've come to know of her (including her beloved Rascal) and aspects of a friendship which I am delighted to have.