Vintage Images

Hi folks. One of the things that drew me to blogs in the first place, were all the wonderful vintage images to be found. My blog banner is an altered picture from a Dover pictorial archive book, no longer in print, "Children and Their World - A Treasury of Vintage Cuts and Illustrations". If you visit the link above, you can sign up for free samples of images that will be sent to your email once a week. Bliss.

My mother-in-law saved several children's books from before 1920's. I will be sharing some of those images here, from time to time.

 The first images are from the book "Folk Tales from Many Lands" . It was published in England (so long ago that the date is not available), and the illustrator was Willy Pogany. Above you see the title page.

The detail in the many black and white illustrations is amazing. I've removed the text from the image above so you can use the frame in your artwork.

Because Christmas is on my brain, I thought you might be able to use a couple of elf images (from the same book). They have been changed to sepia images and resized for use in a collage or Christmas card.

Hope you enjoy these. If there is anything I can do to make these images more useful, please leave me a comment, and I will try to accommodate.

Noel from Liz

Here's another card for Papertrey's Make It Monday - Glue Pad Essentials . Again, her sheek and simple style is on display. She thinks that her 'e' looks like Mickey Mouse ears but I don't think so. All items are Papertrey's except the glitter and 'Happy Holidays' stamp.

Ingredients:

cardstock:  PTI's vintage cream, ripe avocado, pure poppy

stamps:  PTI's Outlines Alphabet and Guidelines II; sentiment from an Inkadinkado Holiday Filigree

dies:  PTI's Banner Builder Collection and Holly Jolly Die Collection

ink:  ColorBox cranberry pigment from Yuletide set of six nested inkpads

glitter:  Martha Stewart's florentine gold

glue pad:  Hampton Art

Simple Christmas Card

This card was made for Papertrey's Make It Monday - Essential Glue Pad Tips. The total effect I like, but I'm a bit disappointed with the detail.

I bought the wonderful printed Christmas ribbon (framed image) a few years ago, knowing that I would use it on cards as a central motif. It fits perfectly behind the Mat Stack 1 Die from Papertrey. (I love the look of those old scenes printed on silk, or jacquard woven pieces, that would peek out from behind an open frame on yesteryear's upscale holiday cards. Those bits got saved even when the card was finally tossed.) I quickly used a die ink on scrap paper to see if the tiny holly stamp from Papertrey's Border and Corner Oval fit around the perimeter.

It was necessary to stamp and glitter only two hollies at a time so I could gauge the next two placements. I stamped top and bottom, then middle right and left, then four peaked corners, and then filled in what was left.

As I mentioned, I am disappointed with the detail I obtained with my 'Hampton Art's Glue Pad' and Martha Stewart Glitter (about the finest size you can buy). One lesson I did learn, is if you are stamping a very small image over and over again, then washing the stamp about every four uses helps the details remain intact. (This seems necessary because the glue medium really builds up quickly on the stamp surface with multiple passes.) The NOEL is Embossed using one of my favorite alphabet sets,' My Sentiments Exactly - Floral Upper'. To finish, I neatly trimmed the ribbon length, and attached with just a glue dot in each corner to the back of the frame. The ribbon back looks fine when you open the card, and I like the slight transparency on the front view, of not placing paper directly behind the image.

Thank you for visiting. I would love for you to leave a comment if you have an opinion, even if it's just to say, 'Too much detail.' or 'I don't understand your directions.'. I'm new to all this, and trying to improve my posts.

Bada Bling

This latest  Make It Monday #41 at Papertrey was a blast. I had never made 'nice' with my Hampton Arts Glue Pad, but I used it again for these projects. Fabulous Liz (see preceding blog entry) has the 'Essential Glue Pad', and the glue seems to stay wet longer on the pad and paper allowing for finer detailed images. (This is just my observation - no scientific double blind study performed.)

My snowgirl card is a lesson in excess. I tried for as many textures as I could get away with (or not). The already pearlized background paper is glue stamped with snowflakes sprinkled with 'Diamond Dust'. The snowgirl is Papertrey's delightful Snowman Die Collection. For the body I used 'Art Glitter Sticky Paper'. I ran it through my 'Big Shot' and peeled off the printed paper side covering the sticky surface. Before adding the glitter, I stuck the eyes ('Recollections - Mini Round Gems) and flower buttons (no-name bling from Sewfisticated - only 99 cents for 200 ct.!) in their places. This avoids that dancing-around-on-the-top-of-the-glitter-effect when trying to adhere things after the glittering has happened. Add glue to the back (plain paper side) and adhere to card. The 'Sticky Paper' is perfect for large glittered areas or for different colors of glitter used with a masking technique. It also comes in the handy A2 size so it's perfect for almost all your Papertrey dies. Snowgirl's hat is flocked on that same sticky paper. Her over-the-top scarf/boa is a line of single crochet using the new 'Martha Stewart Glitter Eyelash' yarn. At $4.99 for 39 yards it is uber pricy, but I used a 50% off coupon at Michaels, and wish I had bought all the colors. This yarn is stunning! The 'Let it snow...' stamp from 'Clearly Inspired' was stamped on a piece of glassine left over from postage stamps I bought. It took the glue ink and glitter beautifully.

Thanks for taking a peek.

Introducing the Fabulous Liz

Have you ever had a friend who, the very first time they try something. it's as though they have been doing it for years? That's my ever so special friend, Liz Tibbitts, and card making. Right out of the gate, she had a simple style that just blew you away. She will be a guest artist on this, my new blog, (until she gets so many more lovely comments than I do, I'll banish her to a blog of her own).

For Liz's first blog outing, we have chosen a nifty little number created for Papertrey's Make It Monday #40 - Reverse Applique.  You can see she has a really coordinated clean style, that is a marriage made in heaven with Papertrey. (We are both Papertrey groupies and support each others' habit.) She used their Mat Stack #3 Die and Kraft Card Stock. (Neither one of us was crazy about Kraft paper......until Papertrey's.) She is a embroidery floss girl, so that is what she used for the stitching. The printed papers are Debbie Mum's from a Jo Ann's holiday pad.

As an added treat, here are just a few tags she whipped up for Christmas presents. These were samples we took to a shoebox meet. All that was used were Papertrey's Mat Stack 1 and 2 Dies and the tree dies from Love Lives Here: Holiday. She used two sided paper so the pattern combinations werepractically endless for the small number of passes through the Big Shot. (Don't you just love the Mat Stack 2 turned the tall way? We think it looks like one of those old fashioned glass ornaments from the 40s and 50s - yes we're that old!)

Please leave her comments so I can post her other works of art. She just needs a little encouragement.

Thanks so for visiting today.

O Christmas Tree

This is only my second post. I knew posting online took some effort, but I now have a whole new respect for all the lovely sites in Blogdom. Despite a two hour battle with my free nine year old digital camera, I think there are finally a couple of shots that will allow me to share this week's  Papertrey Make It Monday #40.

The reverse applique is a fun technique, and I absolutely adore Papertrey's dies. There are two pics of the same view because I could not capture the paper colors and the mylar thread in the same shot. (The golden glints look swell in person, but my camera skills are lacking.)  The colors in the picture below are closer to true life.

Only the 'PEACE' is reverse appliqued.  It was much easier to pierce around the word, and just back stitch, than I thought it would be. The openings in the p, e, a were added after the perimeter stitching, and in order to place those pieces, I reinserted the cut out word into the opening, and with a bit of glue, tacked the small parts in place. These are also stitched.

 NOTE: There was one trick that made the pre-punching of the sew holes easier. I placed two or three layers of scrap cardstock between the card front and the pad I was using. With the tiny pieces, even my very sharp needle wanted to rip the gold background paper. I discovered this trick also worked well on long straight edges where 'paper fatique' would be a problem.

The garland was not appliqued, but was just stitched to the green paper and placed behind the tree die opening. Again, the holes were pre-made.  By cutting the tree from copy paper, and temporarily adhering the negative piece it to the front of the green paper, I could use the paper piercer and make just the thread holes I needed. I removed the copy paper template and simply back-stitched. Voila.

One last bit of info. The glorious patterned paper is a scan of a Hoffman Christmas fabric from about four years ago. Hoffman is my favorite fabric house, but this print is to die for.  I have the fabric, but can't bring myself to cut it, so maybe this card will help break down that inhibition. (If Hoffman's prints were on paper, I'd own them all.)

Hope this all makes sense. Thanks for visiting.

SUPPLIES
Dies - Papertrey: In the Meadow Silhouettes Die Collection, Wonderful Words: Holiday
Die Collection
Papers - Bazill swiss dot (navy blue), Paper Company (gold)
 

Here Goes

This is my very first post - so welcome. During these first few posts, it seems appropriate to name some of those folks responsible for my entry into blog land.

Nichol Heady at {capture the moment} is one of the driving forces at Papertrey Ink. Her blog is my creative nirvana. If you love to make simple elegant cards using beautiful paper, ink, buttons, dies, and clear stamps, then this is a blog you should not miss. On occasion, I will post my humble creations using their fabulous wares. (By the way, I'm not their shill - just an enthusiastic customer and creative groupie.)

Jumping in with both feet, here is a Thanksgiving invite I made for Make-it-Monday #39 - multi stamp background building at Papertrey's blog. The background images are from Table Service. (One of the things I love about Papertrey's stamps, is their size. The smaller proportions are perfect for building background papers and creating scenes.) The word 'holiday' is from Wonderful Words: Holiday Die Collection. There are more die cuts hiding in the turkey. The body and chest are the two smallest dies from Buttoned Up #2, and the neck and head are the spoon die from Table Service Die Collection. The tail is made of the three different sizes of  Tim Holtz's Paper Rosettes, and those demure feet are punched using Martha Stewart's branch paper punch. (This latter punch may not be available any more.)

Earlier, for Make It Monday #31's background challange, I used stamps from Papertrey's genius stamp set, Guide Lines Two, and the motifs from their special edition stamp set, Iconic Images. The 'Guide Lines' grid stamp was applied to Kraft Cardstock using Versamark's Champagne Watermark ink, making a nearly invisible grid on which to 'build' lace. The motifs from Iconic Images are just the right size to make the lace background using white die ink. The more transparent look of die ink enhances the lace effect when over-stamping images.





I used the 'You're Invited' stamp from  Table Service on the satin ribbon. (The detail of the font on the ribbon is nothing short of miraculous.) The stamps and dies for the cup, pot, spoon, and tea tag are from Tea for Two and Tea for Two: additions. To make the Chintz-ware cup and pot, small prints from K&Co's 'Water Bouquet' paper pad were combined with colored pencil shading and highlighting.

The wonderful 'Table Service' and 'Tea' sets were part of a prize I won for leaving a comment on Papertrey's blog during a release. Up until that moment, I had never won anything in my nearly 60 years. That win alone made up for all the preceding barren years. Be sure to visit them every month and leave a remark. You won't be able to resist commenting when you see the newest offerings and the amazing samples Nichol and the very talented design team make.

Thanks for visiting today.
Marcie