RSD 1880 Hat ~ Altered Board Book

Hi there! I carved out some time to complete the last two page spread in my altered children's book featuring some of Rick St. Dennis' fabulous hat ladies. All that's left now are the covers and I have a plan!

For this spread I chose to colour this gorgeous image called 1880 Hat which can be found in Rick's Zibbet shop. I coloured her with Prismacolor pencils, dotting the centers of the violets with yellow paint. Marybelle (she told me her name) was then fussy cut and matted in black to help her stand out and strengthen the image for popping up on foam tape.

The background began by adhering textured designer paper to the gessoed spread with gel medium. Text printed designer paper was torn and adhered to the background. White gesso was spread across the paper to knock the pattern back somewhat. Stencilling was done on the same paper with Magenta Hue Archival ink applied with a make-up sponge through Memory Box's Rings and Puddles stencil. White gesso was pounced through a graduated circles stencil. Mini hearts were punched from gold paper which I eventually painted metallic silver and added to opposite corners.

I wanted to frame Marybelle but didn't have a pre-cut frame in the right colour so I flipped one over and added Watering Can Archival ink to it with a make-up sponge. I love how it came out mottled...couldn't have achieved that look on purpose but will gladly accept the happy accident. I matted the inside of the frame with black cardstock and added vellum to mute the background behind her. Four enamel dots were added to the corners and the sentiment was computer generated, matted in black, and popped up on foam tape.

The other sentiment, a quote by CoCo Chanel,  was also computer generated and printed on gray cardstock, matted with black. It was faux stitched, popped up on foam tape, and given two tiny doilies as accents. A harlequin border was cut from gray patterned paper and divided into two segments. Both were faux stitched, inked around the edges, and popped up on foam tape before being adhered to each page.

Three paper flowers attached to the top left corner were given enamel dot centers and tiny leaves to balance out the design and provide a little softness. The pages were completed by adding lots of black doodling, Magenta and Black Big Brush pen to the edges, and some pencil shading next to some of the stencilling and patterned paper.

Thanks so much for joining Marybelle with her 1880 Hat and me today. Please, come back for the front and back covers which will complete this altered book. Did you read all about the big events that Rick and the EDT have planned for the weekend and the coming weeks? You can check it out on Rick's blog post or stay tuned to our Facebook group for more details. We are so excited...hope you'll join us!

Life is good: so is art.
Bonnie