This is the third page spread inside Mo's tagbook. As I said earlier, the hardest part was organizing the development of pages and containing the information in each page spread. After the baby years in the pink house, the school years in the next spread, this one is about her life with her sisters.
Mo was born when Maggie was 6 and Erin was 10 and it was almost as if she had 2 extra mothers. Still is that way, really. Erin and Maggie adore their little Mo...always welcomed her into their worlds of Barbies and American Girl dolls, loved it when she came to find them at a friend's house or in a classroom, never objected when her littler needs got in the way of their older wishes. And they have remained steady supporters whenever she needed them. This was especially important when we moved to NY and they went to college, then off to lives of their own. She once said she felt like an only child. All eyes on Mo was probably a tough thing to endure through the teen-aged years-- the spotlight of both parents and both sisters. It took the whole family to raise this one.
There are tons of pictures of Mo -- you would think we never got a camera until she was born. Cute Mo, pouty Mo, playful Mo, mischievous Mo, action Mo...and so on. And there were as many with her sisters. Where to start? Had to pick one and it was this one that Erin took of Mo and Maggie whispering and giggling behind menus at a restaurant. Something very sisterly there, something so lovely. Their long fingers, the smile in their eyes, the mystical orange glow. I love it. On the practical side, it also worked perfectly with the fabric flowers wrapped from the other side beneath the clips. The flower shapes even repeated in the round menus. On the other side, the colors from the orangey photo fit nicely with my new paper patterns and when I snipped the top to cut away the pocket opening, I decided to stay with the tuxedo fold instead of cutting it away. Kind of looks like a shirt collar. The vintage flower accent was something I had just found at a flea market and was so excited to use. 3 flowers, each different, but similar--gee, that was way too cool! You could easily fashion something like this with dimensional stickers, silk flowers or felt ones. The fabric tag is made from a scrap of vintage toile stamped with the word sisters.
After a picture of Mo and Maggie, I chose this one of Mo and Erin for this side of the tag. Always a favorite photo of mine --the way Mo is leaning into her sister in the shade of some beachy hedge on a sandy path. That was the summer we moved and there was a lot of leaning on each other. The borders around the tag are out of an old book -- looking at it now, I'm not sure I did the right thing with the rough patch job on so many paper scraps there. But it is what it is. For the pull on top, I used a wire edged gold ribbon for strength.
On the other side of the tag, the charm came from a broken necklace and the glass leaf from the flea market. Together they worked well with the gold ribbon. I like it when charms, trinkets, jewelry bits and textiles loosely flop around the top edges of the tagbook...like little surprises waiting to be discovered.