Thank you all so much for the kind comments and interest in this little book shown so far. Of course, I think it is darling, but everything about it is so personal that it's hard to judge, could be my affection for Mo. Good to know that some of you want to see more.
This is the second page spread inside the tagbook and is about Mo, the school girl. Had to cover a lot of territory with this small lay-out and it took the longest to build. Editing is not my strong suit. Once I came upon the text from the old reader, it set the color tone and feeling for the lay-out. I love this color palette and had too much fun mixing and matching elements from the paper stack. Mo was a little girl during the years I worked with Mary Engelbreit and she always looked like she stepped out of one of Mary's cards. In fact, one card...I Have News For You... is a portrait of her that Mary did after we heard Miss Mosie (Mary's name for her) deliver that sassy wisecrack. Everything in that illustration is honest-to-goodness Mo, the purple hightops, the oversized hair bow, her toys, but especially the attitude. After it came out, whenever Mo and I would go into a cardshop, she would pluck that off the rack and head right to the counter with it. That's me! Uh-huh, sure it is, kid and then she would explain the whole card-story. One shopkeeper asked her to autograph it. Definitely, a MO-ment!
I wanted to stretch the page, and added this fold-out tag as an extender. From one of my favorite old collages, I crafted the yellow duck tag and attached it to a piece of cardstock that I scored and folded leaving a 1/2 inch flap to adhere to the book on the left side for a hinge. With pencil, I wrote the names of all her schools -preschool through HS- around the edges and then dirtied it up so it looked like it was one of those report card envelopes...always at the bottom of the bookbag. The title plaque was made with an old dial-a-letter tape punch that I got at the church sale. (Always shop the office supply room for unimagined vintage materials!).
That old flashcard was a perfect background for her preschool picture on the left. So love that dear babyface! I've been making those layered felt flowers for more than 40 years and couldn't resist the chance to add one here. These days I make them with colored brads to anchor the layers of felt. Right about here I started to think about the book becoming too thick with dimensional additions. But the standard was already set with the height of the flower -- so -- a little more would be okay. Amazingly, I found the same red buttons that I used when I made her dress --yep, the one she is wearing in the picture. Fabric from that dress is also on the other side beneath her senior picture.
The reader text with the ducks in school is so dang cute! I didn't want to cover any of it, even the text was appropriate. A library style pocket from cardstock covered in one of my fabric prints already had an O shape in the design...just added an M from a board game and an O reinforcer sticker, dropped in another school pic. Done.
On the right page, the bridge strip of burlap and homespun on the left edge decorated with charms and trinkets balances out the dimensional accents on the other side. Red buttons were a collection we kept in a jar. She learned to count spilling them onto the floor. On the other edge, I used the clips just to hold the sheer fabric wrap in place while the glue dried, but ended up thinking they should stay there. The far right side was plain old out-of-room and fast forwarded to her senior portrait. Big leap there. Actually, in life it did feel as though there had been a fast forward button. Who pushed it? Where did all those years go? I can see the face of the little girl smiling back in that grown-up glam portrait. Still sweet and a little sassy too. Still our Momo.
Enough for one day here. Next time I'll write about the tags in the school pocket and all the little ducks inside.