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.