Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas...one last tag:

I have used this vintage image before in a Christmas card...it's one of my favorites.The idea for this design came from a 2008 Somerset Studio November/December magazine cover. Rachel Killpack had used the image to make a  fabulous "Christmas Star". The image is from a very erethral  French Christmas postcard. Those type of  photos were very popular in that era. The top of the postcard (which I cut off) read "Joyeux Noel". The tag was distressed front and back  with Tim Holtz's Bundled Sage. The edges were distressed with Iced Spruce ink. I used the Stampendous Shabby Pink embossing enamel and a flourish stamp to create the back ground. The edges of the image were distressed with Antique Linen ink. The tag is embellished with gold star tinsel garland and a larger gold star.

Red Velveteen Dress

I remember as a kid , my sisters and I would get new  red velveteen dressed for Christmas

This image of a Victorian girl, wearing a red dress reminds me of those holiday dresses.
The tag is covered with a patterned paper of red sheet music and a patterned paper of red and green paisley. Edges of the tag are distressed with Tim Holtz's Antique Linen. The bouquet of holly that she is holding is accented with red and green Stickles

Red and Green

I know there must be some little kid out there that's is feeling like Christmas its taking for ever to come...on the other hand I feel like it's barreling down on me like a high speed train!

Back to the Christmas tags...
 This vintage post card is of a young lady all dressed up in a white fluffy snow suit holding a a ball of Holly.

 The background of the tag is Holly patterned paper edged with Antique Linen distress ink. The snow suit and the Holly ball are accented  with Stickles. Two  green Holly leaves with red berries are place on the corners of the image.
I wonder who decided that red and green would be the official  Christmas colors?

Santa's Elves, Snow Queen and Christmas tags

Like Santa's elves, I have been busy working at my design bench. I haven't been making toys, I  have been creating Christmas tags. My table was covered from one in to the other with vintage Christmas images, holiday patterned paper, embossing powder, Stickels, rhinestones, embellishments and a dozen different colors of Tim Holtz Distress Ink

The craft  tag for this lovely Snow Queen was covered with distress ink and then embossed with Stampendous Shabby Pink Embossing Powder, it gives the Flourish background stamp  great dimension. The Snow Queen image was cut from a Vintage postcard, embellished with Stickles and finished off with gold pleated ribbon and white lace.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving

Chickens, Birthdays and Ferris Bueller

Remember the quote from Ferris Bueller's Day Off...

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around

 once in a while, you could miss it."

Sure you do...

That is a pretty good description of  my November...it moved pretty fast and I missed most of it.

November does have some birthdays in it of family and friends. My Darling Daughters birthday is the beginning of the month ( I didn't miss that). DD raises chickens in her backyard, they lay beautiful brown, blue and green eggs. In honor of DD's birthday I created a  chicken Birthday Card...

  

 I used Bundled Sage and Antique Linen distress ink, Prima flowers and Tim Holtz tissue tape...

I found the text on Pinterest...it was too funny to pass up.

 

Gypsies, Candy and Trick or Treating

The best part of Halloween...besides dressing up in costume  is Trick or Treating. 
These gals are dressed up as gypsies and ready to go out into the neighborhood bags in hand to collect the good stuff...you know, fun size candy bars and of course Smarties. ( Have been informed by my darling daughter that the best Halloween candy is Pixy Stixs ...isn't that just smashed Smarties in a paper straw?)

These mysterious gypsies will have to wait until tomorrow night to go Trick or Treating...but the beauty of being an adult is we can start in on the candy any time!

Pointy Hat, Butterfly Wings and a Black Dress

So if witches a wear pointy hat and a black dress all year round, how do they dress up for Halloween?

Butterfly Wings, Beads and Glitter!

This gal has it all going on...from the tilt of her hat, to the Stickle embellished butterfly wings, she is ready to party all night!

Two Black Bats

 This image of a 1800s era girl in a Halloween bat costume and the flourish and swill background (embellished with a glitter pen) both came from Graphic Fairy. The edges of the tag were embellished with Tim Holtz Aged Mahogany Distressed ink. 

I finished the tag off with a couple of die cut black glitter paper bats...after all, if you are Bat Girl you can never have too many bats!

Twelve days to Halloween and nothing to wear for a costume.

I love the look of vintage Halloween...I'm talking way old, like 1920s-1930s. That was the era that Halloween parties and dressing up was for the adults. They would have big extravagant parties that would last way in to the early morning. The costumes at that time were very creative.

With that in mind, I created a tag with a vintage 1920s look.

 I'm not sure where I found this image of a woman draped in a textured shawl, from that era. I dressed her up in a pair of black and orange butterfly wings that came from Graphic Fairy (thanks GF love the wings!) and embellished with Black Stickles and a glitter pen.

The background of the tag was stamped then layered with a black doily and a “Petrified Butterflies” label.

All about Alice

As you might know,  Alice's life changed forever when she tumble down the rabbit hole and arrived in a fantasy world called WONDERLAND.

Of course an adventure such as that has inspired the creating of

“ALICE TAGS” 

Alice's long fall down the hole ends at a hall of doors in various sizes...

all locked. She finds a key to a door too small for her to fit through.

Of course our heroine finds a bottle that is labeled “DRINK ME”, and contains a magical potion to make Alice small enough to fit through the little door.

There is a curious tea party hosted by a Mad Hatter and his friend the March Hare

 (and a sleepy door mouse)

They are all waiting for Alice to join them...she's late!

The white rabbit is the court's trumpeter for the King and Queen of Hearts.

The big question is...who stole the Queen's tarts, that she made all in a summer day?

Is that cat sitting on the book Alice's cat Dinah...or the Cheshire Cat?

Hum...curious and curiouser

Tape, Tag and Basic Gray

I have been playing with decorative tape.  I guess you could call it a Washi tape knock off.  Real Washi tape is a high quality masking tape made of rice paper that come from Japan. The tape I used came from Michaels, and not made from rice paper.  There are dozens of creative ways to use this tape...check out Pinterest  if you are looking for ideas.

I tried out  a few different  ways to play with the tape from some idea pages, and then my creativity kicked in. I rummaged through some of my toys and came up with a manilla tags, a piece of an oldie but goodie  Basic Gray patterned paper, image from Graphic Fairy ( gotta love the Fairy) and a part of a lace applique ... I put them all together and created...

The tape becomes transparent when it is  applied to the tag .The ribbon for the tag is made out of  the black  decorative tape that has been folded  in half, looped through the hole at the top of the tag, then tied in a knot.

The decorative  tape is on the bottom of the tag, stacked  above each other, The image was printed on clear sticker paper. The tape and the image  are transparent and the cool Basic Gray patterned paper  design shows through.

Long Division, Telling Time and a Calico Cat

This distressed Graphic 45 ABC  Primer patterned paper  brings back the basics  taught in school in the "good old days"...Reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmeti.

This little boy may know his numbers... 1 through 10,  but could long division be far behind? 

The half page is covered with red gingham, and embellished with a vintage looking chip board piece, that warns the next lesson is "telling time".

I love the calico cat sitting next to the student on the red stool

The back of the book is embellished with two alphabet  pages...maybe from an old "ABC book"

The only things missing  from this mini album are some grade school photos

Flash Cards, Work Sheets and Pinterest

Remember flash cards from your school days ? When I was going to school ours were made out of manila paper with bold black lettering or numbers.  This vintage looking  one has a great colorful image of  a young girl and boy under a umbrella ...

Very faint on the card you can see "postage" and a 1cent...maybe it's  a commemorative stamp  for vintage flash cards...then you will have a one cent stamp the next time the post office raises the rates

The half page is covered in ABC's and a subtraction work sheet...the dreaded
TAKE A WAYS. You remember,  9 take a way 6 equals what?

Turn the half page  over to reveal  the rest of  students  school work

Love the look of these old desks, very ornate with the cast iron scroll work.

I'm sure at the time the students in the class room were unimpressed with how fancy the desks were. 

They had no idea decades later their great grand kids would be shopping in antique stores trying to find one of these desks for a vintage home decor look...like the one they found on Pinterest

First day of school

I'm not sure what happened to Summer Vacation...it zipped by  too fast. The kids are going back to school tomorrow. Which gives me a great excuse to share my Graphic 45 ABC Primer  patterned paper mini album...how did you like that conversation transition?

This chipboard album does not have the usual  Stickle, rhinestones and glitter pen bling that I have added to  some of the other mini albums I have designed.  This  paper reminded me of vintage school books that my grandmother may have taught from back in the 40s.

So I created a distress look by sanding the edges and using a lot of Tim Holtz Wild Honey Distress Ink. 

I used two different sizes of chip board pages for the book...it gives it a great layered look. The edges of the larger pages layered ...the red gingham and ABC area.

When you open the first small page the rest of the cover is revealed

Who does "This Book Belongs to"...

The little girl writing on the chalk board or the girl in the red dress... that appears to be giving some one a spanking...WHERE WAS THE TEACHER WHILE ALL THIS WAS GOING ON?!?!?!?

Fragment Charms, Jewlery and Embellishments

I have been experimenting with Tim Holtz Idea-ology  Fragment Charm.  They are Tim's acrylic bits and pieces of different shapes and sizes (the ones that come pre-drill with holes)  when used along with Rangers Glossy Accents  you can create embellishments and jewelry.

The easiest technique is to apply the Glossy Accents to one side of the charm, lay the piece on a patterned paper, wait until the Glossy Accents drys, cut off the excess paper around the charm and there you go...you have a one of a kind charm. Add a jump ring and cording and you will have a pendent...if you use one of the smaller pieces you will have a charm for a bracelet. 

 I experimented with stamping the charms with Staz-on ink , then adding a patterned paper behind the stamp. I tried his technique for embossing the charm by sanding one side to create a frosted look. I then stamped an image with Versa Mark and applied clear embossing powder. Then I used a heat gun to melt the embossing powder which created an etched look on the charm. I now have a jar full of completed charms...there has to be more to these Fragment Charms that to just make jewelry!

While rooting in my patterned paper scraps I found a old Jenni Bowlin paper that looked like a collage of old post cards. One of the post cards had a great teal green background with variegated orange flowers...I created a charm with a portion of this image. While the charm was drying I covered a manila tag with the rest of the collage paper and added some of the text from the paper to the tag. When the charm was dry I added a bow. For an embellishment, I lined up the image on the charm to the image on the tag and adhered it to the tag with Ultimate Glue. The tag was finished off with Tim's Wild Honey Distress Ink.

I was pretty pleased with how the tag turned out...who knows I may spend the next week creating tags and adding Fragment Charm embellishments to them all!

Have a Star-Spangled Day

Happy Birthday U.S.A!

What the heck happened to JUNE?

I had big plans for June. It was going to be my catch up month. All the projects that I haven't had time for since the first of the year were placed on a list and titled "JUNE LIST"

I don't know what the heck happened to June, but we now have three days left in the month, there is no way the "JUNE LIST" is going to be completed. 

What do you do with a "JUNE LIST" and you run out of JUNE...take a marker, cross out  JUNE and write in JULY. I now have a "JULY LIST" to remind me of all the projects I haven't had time for since the first of the year.

Blogging, Pintrest and Tucson Sister

My Tucson Sister informed me last night that she was getting a bit board with opening up my Blog only to see the "Olde Curiosity Shop" mini album. And why hadn't I posted for the last 6 weeks?  This gap in my social media responsibility is easily explained...PINTERST !

Yes I will admit it, I have been lured in to all the pictures of  mixed media creations, classy photos of cats,  clever quotes and all the other fancy stuff. 

It all started out very innocently, my DD sent me an invitation to PINTERST... yes you need to be invited and you have to have a FACEBOOK or a TWITTER account to set up the PINTREST account (all ready too may rules) I do not have either one, nor did I want either one. It was decided the best choice was to set me up with a TWITTER account (that will never be used) then set up the PINTREST account, which allows me into the club to see all the goodies.

It started slowly, at first I just looked, then I "Liked"...then you have to set up  "Boards" so you can PIN. I found out later there are rules for PINNING, which I still haven't quite figured out...I'm sure I am breaking  the RULES, which is not my intent...I just can't figure out how to make the whole thing work!

Also, I am confused about the items that are pinned.  There  will be a inspirational quote  like  "No Pain no gain, do 50 more and you will be happy" next to a recipe for Red Velvet Brownies. Or a spiritual uplifting thought  next to a pin, where someone thinks the "F" word is a adjective.  What is the deal with cats wearing crocheted hats...Cats hate to wear hats, or clothing of any kind, they leave that to the dogs. 

So the simple answer to why I haven't Blogged in 6 weeks is I have been playing on PINTREST...I will try to  do better with the care and feeding of my blog. But I'm still holding hard and fast on my no FACEBOOK rule

This is a photo of Tucson Sister's cat...it has nothing to do with this blog, just wanted to share.

The Olde Curiosity Shop

I love  exploring  antique, thrift, "junque" stores...how every you describe them, nothing is better than  finding cool junk!  Those one time  discards become your wonderful treasure.

 The Graphic 45  "Olde Curiosity Shoppe" patterned paper reminds me of the wandering through the perfect antique store. How to use such a imaginative paper line, chip board die-cuts and of course  "Wild Honey" Distress Ink...?  

Create a antique store mini album!

The cover of the album is the "front window" of the Olde Curiosity Shop...with a glimpse of the fascinating bits and pieces waiting to be discovered.

Layered on the "window" is a pewter Bee...

Opening  the cover to  the first pages  shows some of the  fantastic oddities. Best of all...a flying pig!

 Stepping further into the shop we find butterflies and bees...and a mysterious lady with a copper key.

Turning the page we notice  a rare butterfly collection...

What clever oddities will we spy next? A peacock feather and a "flying" shoe!

We have poked in ever nook and cranny of the shop and now have come to the end...

There is always something fascinating to happen upon in the Olde Curiosity Shoppe