Project # 42 - Altered Fairy Book Cover - Cecily's Secret Book of Fairies

I am so excited to share this altered book project with you. This altered book was a large undertaking, so I'm going to divide up the different elements of the book and make them different pretty things projects.

Today I am blogging about the cover of the book which is a little sneak peek as to what the rest of the book will be like. I can tell you that purple is the main colour used throughout the book. Every day for the next week or so I will reveal new page spreads from the book, and I hope that you will be intrigued enough to keep checking back and watch as all the pages inside are revealed. I'm very proud of this project and I look forward to any feedback you might have.

Let me start by telling you a story. Once upon a time (May 12, 1875 to be exact), there was a little girl called Cecily, who found herself on a spring day rather bored with nothing to do.

She ventured into the garden and started to daydream among the flowers. She was feeling rather dozy and decided to lie down underneath a willow tree, when a gentle, little creature appeared on the grass beside her. After rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, Cecily was surprised to see a perfect little lady with fairy wings standing next to her cheek. Cecily sat up straight away and demanded to know who this little person was.

"Why, I'm Titania, Queen of the Fairies", came the haughty reply. And you were crushing the little bluebells that I carefully planted just yesterday morning. She flitted into the air and began to circle Cecily's head.

"I am sorry", said Cecily quite seriously, "Please forgive me."

"Of course I will!" said Titania and she began to dance most charmingly amongst the bluebells, who really were none the worse for wear.

And so began a beautiful friendship. Every morning afterwards, Cecily would run to the garden with great anticipation, and lie down under the willow tree so that she might see Titania again.

Day by day, as the trust and friendship grew between the new pair of friends, Titania started to introduce Cecily to some of her fairy friends: Peasblossom, Mustardseed and Cobweb, to name a few. They all had wonderful adventures together and Cecily was never bored again.

One day Cecily decided that she would chronicle her fairy adventures in a book, so that she could share her stories someday with her children and grandchildren.

She stole into her parents' library one afternoon, and found a perfect little book, called "Tales and Sketches". Cecily stole it to use for her own, and started to fill its pages with stories and pictures of the fairies she had met.

She decided to bind it for safekeeping, and so she lovingly wrapped the book with one of her velvet hair ribbons, and fashioned a clasp from a delicate, golden brooch to secure it with.

She showed the book to Titania one day, who was most interested; as she walked across the cover to admire it more closely, she inadvertently left little golden footprints behind her. Cecily found that the footprints would not rub off, no matter what she did, and she decided in the end that they were just the right detail left as they were, as the book was about fairies after all.

As the years went by, and Cecily grew up, she saw the fairies less and less, but she always knew that they were there. She finally packed her little book away, and though she had children and grandchildren to share her adventures with, she had by that time forgotten about her little book and it lay hidden away for many years. Finally one day the little book was found, and it was sold at a vintage bookstore to an artist who took it home and treasured it as much as Cecily had. As it was now the year 2010, the artist decided she would like to share Cecily's stories, and she decided to do what most 21st century artists do, and so she blogged about it.

Part two tomorrow.....