Hi all. I'm back with the second double page spread of my altered child's board book exploring the theme of bees. I found these two fabulous quotations about books and bees so they became the inspiration for these pages. Since the book had already been gessoed (glad I did it all at once), I started to add colour to the background by applying Wild Honey, Scattered Straw, Spiced Marmalade, and Mustard Seed Distress ink to the pages with my foam applicator tools. Once that was dry, I applied Nutmeg Silks Acrylic Glaze through the Prima Threads stencil with a piece of Cut n Dry Foam..
Torn pieces of vintage book paper With inked edges were adhered to the background with Matte Medium with an additional layer over the top to protect it from the wet mediums still to come. Those old pages can become quite fragile. Butterscotch, Chocolate, and Mango gelato were used to edge both pages and to add more colour here and there. The gelato was spread and blended with a dry finger.
Black Wendy Vecchi Embossing Paste was scraped through the TCW Mini Chicken Wire Reversed stencil and left to dry. White gesso was pounced through the TCW Halftone Borders stencil as well as though the TCW Well Rounded stencil to achieve the open rings. The library cards are a free download from Linda Tieu and were edged in Vintage Photo and stamped with a harlequin rubber stamp using Old Paper Distress ink. They were also grunged up with Vintage Photo to take away the clean unused look and one was torn to create an interesting bottom edge.
The little bee boy is an image from Hidden Vintage Studio called Busy Bees and the stack of books comes from Anamnesis on Etsy. The vintage bee image comes from The Graphics Fairy, I think, and was matted on black cardstock to give it greater visual weight and contrast with the background. It was popped up on foam tape for added dimension.
The bee definition comes from an old and well-loved child's dictionary purchased at the thrift store. It was also matted in black and popped up on foam tape.
The hexagons were cut with Spellbinder's dies from Authentique's Peaceful Collection paper. The little bee circles were punched from Graphic 45's Olde Curiosity Shoppe paper and deepened around the edges, like the boy and books, with Black Big Brush pen. All of these elements were coloured around with Inktense pencils activated with a waterbrush. The black borders on both pages are actually off-cuts from and MFT die and dotted with a white pen. The measuring tape is pieces of washi tape which I glue to the pages so they won't lift later.
The finishing touches began with Black Big brush pen around the outside edges, doodling and outlining with a black Sharpie, and my favourite splatter dots from a TH stamp and Ranger Coffee Archival ink. White gesso was smeared randomly with my finger, both to knock back some of the darker areas and also to help embed elements into the background. I like the scuffed look where the gesso catches on the raised embossing and the edges of layers.
That's it for my second set of pages dedicated to The Secret Life of Bees. Thank you so much for visiting today. I read and re-read your comments and appreciate the time you take to visit. I hope you get a chance to play and get your fingers messy soon.
Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie
Here are the magic links that will take you to the eclectic Paperie store to find these products:
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2 comments:
Wonderful pages...love the library cards and the pop of color from the stack of books.
This book is going to be such a delight... wonderful pages, and those two quotes are magnificent. Perfect to have them on library cards, and I love the bee boy.
Alison x
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