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?!?!?!?