This altered book was inspired by a project on Marie Antoinette featured in a craft magazine by Somerset Studio dedicated to that Queen of France.

‘Marie’ craft magazine by Somerset Studio

And the focus for my book is the main female character, Marianne, from a 2001 French film called ‘Brotherhood of the Wolf’.

For those interested, the film, which could be called an action-horror historical drama, takes a real-life event as its jumping-off point.

That real-life event occurred in the 18th century when the province of Gévaudan was terrorised by what legends named the Beast of Gévaudan, a man-eating animal.

In the film, tasked with capturing the beast is a royal naturalist, Grégoire de Fronsac (played by Samuel Le Bihan) and his Iroquois companion, Mani (played by Mark Dacascos).

Marianne de Morangias (played by Émilie Dequenne) is the daughter of a local count.

It’s been a few years now since I’ve watched the film, but the visuals have stayed with me; not surprising I guess with its memorable cast and fight scenes that include martial arts.

As I nearly always do, I watched it in the original language (French) with subtitles; tried it in English and it messed with the atmosphere because the voices did not suit the characters.

My last word on the film – don’t watch it for historical accuracy as it’s what I’d class as bonkers-but-fun.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand…

I made this in 2013 and used a Reader’s Digest compendium, keeping it intact and not removing any pages.

There are only a handful of layouts, with Marianne as the focus for all of them.

I used a mix of paper – mainly Anna Griffin and K&Co – and fabric, the colours complementing her outfits.

I’m not 100% certain, but I’m pretty sure I got the images from a site about film costumes, and I adore the costumes in this film.

The front - the image at the top of this post - is covered with Anna Griffin flocked paper and rose; the ‘M’ for Marianne is picked out in glitter.

The paper on the back is also by Anna Griffin.

I love the way the book looks from the side…

If memory serves me, and it doesn’t usually, the first layout didn’t quite turn out the way I’d planned – it’s a little too pink for me.

There are a couple of tags on the left on which I wrote some observations about Marianne.

I didn’t glue all the pages but attached sections of them with fibres, ribbons, and twine.

On the next layout, I used tissue paper as the background and Anna Griffin paper to mat the image and used blue eyelash trim to tie the pages together.

Layout using tissue paper and Anna Griffin papers

Here, the background paper is Anna Griffin, and I used a couple of red ‘gems’ for Marianne’s jewellery.

I can’t remember where I got the red borders; they’re stickers and I like how they finish the layout.

On the right side, the sheer sparkly pink fabric lifts to reveal another image of Marianne, and red fabric roses.

The next lot of pages are held together by cream ribbons.

The feathery thing on the left echoes what’s on her hat, and the blue of the layout – including fabric on the right – highlights her outfit.

The brown ribbon breaks up the blue and is a nod to Fronsac’s coat.

Blue paper on left and fabric on right by Anna Griffin, feathers and brown ribbon highlighting their outfits

Between this layout and the next, I attached a ribbon between the pages, which has beads sewn on to it.

I covered the page on the left with green velvet, same as Marianne’s jacket.

As there’s lace peeking out of the sleeve of her jacket, I also included a folded piece of lace.

And to finish, a bit of gold ribbon on the right-side page to echo the ribbon in her hair.

Green velvet and lace echoing her velvet jacket and lace sleeve

I sewed the next lot of pages together with red thread and beads.

The roses and white flowers are, again, by Anna Griffin.

The red bow highlights the ribbon in her hair and I added a couple of pearls because she’s wearing pearl earrings.

A friend gave me the faux leather which I’ve used on the right-hand side as page ties, and I thought that worked well as Fronsac’s coat is leather.

Flowers by Anna Griffin with ribbons and pearls

The flowers on this layout are by Prima, with a dot of glitter in the centre of each.

The vellum lifts to reveal another image, this one includes Fronsac’s companion, Mani.

I used blue on this last layout because of Marianne’s dress, which has a deeper blue underskirt.

The smaller flowers on the left are, again, Prima ones, and the others are random ones I have.

This scene is set on a ship, hence the nautical elements on the right; and a butterfly because… why not?

The sheer fabric covering the image on the right lifts up, and there’s a heart charm hanging on the blue ribbon.

Flowers, nautical elements and a heart charm.

Of all the altered books I’ve made, this is my favourite and I keep it on one of my bookshelves.

In fact, it’s the one altered book I go to when I need to remind myself that I’m actually not that bad at making them.

If you want to see a flip through of the book, here’s the video.

Hope you enjoy it.

'Marianne' Altered Book