A Bit of Vintage

It felt good to create yesterday on a cold wet dreary day. I wanted to do my Moulin Rouge chunky 4X4 pages and finished up two for a chunky book.

This one I have used perhaps a bit of a story line looking like the lovers met in Paris in 1936, the date on the ribbon. She was a dancer and he was a gentleman. I am not sure where the vintage ribbon came from as it was in my stash for quite some time, but it was perfect for this project! I have some more I shall use for other chunky pages.

I love this corset gal. I ran across a saying about corsets and couldn't resist using it! It is written in French on the front page, but the flip side reveals the translation which reads: " There are women who tire of their lovers faster than their corsets." This came from La Vie Parisienne.

This is how I finished the backs



I also got some other vintage things done this past week. I machine quilted and got the binding finished on my husband's cousins two quilts. The tops were done by her mother. She wanted them quilted to give as gifts to her daughters when they got married. This first one is my favorite.



I am guessing by the age of the fabrics that there are fabrics in there from the 40's and 50's. The sashing screams Peptobismal!



So what do you think Bisky?



I should know by now that I should never ask for your opinion, but I can't blame you for the pepto pink! I am not a pink gal myself!

Funny Money

Lately, we have been making art bucks to trade! What a lot of fun to see what everyone comes up with. This is mine using my face as the money icon. So, if one is wondering what egg money is, this is my interpretation! lol The hen always delivers the goods! The egg "coins" come in 5's and although I initially had the egg coins slide in the top pocket of the chicken's back, I have eventually made a side opening so that the eggs come out of the correct end!

So, what can you spend your egg money on? Why, you can feather your nest or bet the farm, but you don't have to put all of your eggs in one basket! In fact, you don't even have to count your chickens as the money is always there. If only it were true in the real world! Buck, Buck, Buck, BWOK!!!!

Learning to Fly.

I have been working on some twinchies and making magnets out of them using interchangeable body parts. Too much fun! Makes me feel like a kid again! Remember those flip books as a kid? It's fun making smaller bodies, larger arms, etc. Sort of like having your own ring of circus freaks.




Besides having fun, I have learned something new and that is how to change the resolution on photos. I consider myself very inadequate at times with the computer when I have to read to figure it out, as I am a show me person. While this may be easy for some, I found it a big accomplishment! Sometimes we just need to sprout wings and fly!

UPDATE: Here's how I changed resolutions. Note that I have a mac computer, but you may find some of the same things simular with a pc. Find your photo program to do your resolutions in. Mine happens to be photoshop elements 3. I opened up my photo in photoshop and at the top of the bar it says image. It gives you an option to resize. click on image size. It will show you your photo in pixel dimensions and on the right you can also have the option to change in percentages. It's a bit of trial and error to find what you need, but if you change the height, you will automatically get what will be proportionate in width. Some times you need to change resolutions 300 X 600 or something like that. I actually ended up using the percentages for change but it basically does the same thing. One of my postings accepted a very small image so I put in 25% and it was perfect for it. Anyway when you are done, you just have to SAVE AS and I saved it to my desk top or you can save in your photos program. That's all there is to it! Good grief and no one would tell me how to do this from people that knew how to do it!

It's a Sign!

Just finished making this astrological sign for a gal in England, so had to post this too today. I feel a bit cross eyed painting in miniature! lol Lindsay also has two cats which is why I added them in the Lion girls arms. I can hardly wait to see what she thinks of them.



I showed it to Bisky and this was her responce.



As you can see, she is my worst critic!

What's old is new again!

Today I was in the mood for making some 4X4 pages of chunky book collage art. Funny how I use to hate turquoise, but have a new found love for it. I remember growing up with these colored walls back in the 50's. It seems everything was either turquoise or pink! The outside of our house was actually pink!


My cousin had written me a letter (I know a rarity these days with the internet). I love her hand writing and I couldn't bare discarding it, so it became part of the collage. The lace is a piece that I got from Lisa.

Here are some others that I finished up for the day.



I enjoyed playing with different colored backgrounds.



I was looking for my roller sponge brush but couldn't find it so dabbed Modge Podge on it with a regular sponge brush. It had a coarser texture than I would like.



I think the next ones that I do, I will try coating in wax. I also used distressing ink on the edges. I need to work on figuring out how NOT to have wrinkles in the paper. Perhaps a different glue?



as you can see these can get quite addicting!

On With The Shoe!

I had been spring cleaning in my closet and these shoes that have been lurking in the closet, nearly got the go ahead to end up at Good Will. When I had a pin cushion swap coming up, I couldn't resist turning them into an artful functional piece. Either way they were getting recycled, but I nearly had to buy them back! The one on the right is what it looked like before (as if you couldn't have guessed! lol) I will have to save that one to do another one for myself or another trade.



I thought that perhaps I would need to sand the shoe a bit but unfortunately it would be taking off some of the leather, so decided to leave well enough alone. I painted them in acrylics and looked for bits and pieces that would corridinate.



When I took the buckle off, I realized I really had to cover that area up again and found some fabric that I fused together that formed the curl up over the edge. I glued the fabric and stuffing in place and had an old beaded necklace that covered the edge of the glue line.



At first I planned to restring the right amount of beads, but then decided to leave a bit of a decorative hang so I added more yarns and hanging beads. I am rather pleased how it turned out even though I didn't have a plan. I grabbed my paints and went on with the shoe!

One time my daughter and her husband had flown back from vacation and we were to pick them up at the air port. When we did, my daughter took one look at me and said, did you dress yourself? I said," yes, why? " She then told me to look at my feet. When I did, I finally realized that I had one black and one blue shoe on! I have always liked one of a kind things. I guess this just proves it!

Getting Chunky

I just finished doing a 4 X 4 chunky page. Something new for me to do and I quite enjoy having the extra space compared to the ATC's. I made this one for a swap and added the legs that could fold up.



I ran across this chunky duck! Isn't he a wonderful piece of trash? To think that many things would have ended up in a land fill and everything was repurposed to a wonderful piece of art! I wish I could give the artist credit for this, but unfortunately I don't know who:( Isn't it a great piece though? I was thinking that perhaps I should start with a found object and cover it in glue. I could then roll it around my junky studio table that is filled with bits and pieces to come up with my own chunky statue! Hmmm...wonder what I could cover...... here kitty kitty!!!

Hair Umm...

You would not believe it to look at this gal to know that she is a bit of a wild thing! She came in the house one day when she snuck in with the others to get something to eat. She was the last of the orange and white cats that we have been rounding up to get fixed. We named her Tang. I am sure she is Azlan's sister with such close markings on the face. She's just gorgeous! I hope she will eventually settle with the others, but we shall give her some space and time. As you can see, our little kitty hair umm .... has grown!



This is a rarity for Bea. She is semi ferral but getting more relaxed the more she is around the others and I was able to catch her sleeping on my bedroom chair.



We have thought quite a bit on naming this guy. We had thought about Wegie, which would be for Norwegian Forest Cat, but hubby thought it too much like Ouji. So then I thought Mandu (Like in Kat Mandu) lol but it hasn't stuck either, so in order to keep it simple, I was thinking maybe Boa. Since his fur reminds me of a soft feathered boa! So, what do you think? Is it a prissy name or do you think that it could be suited for a male cat?

Social Butterfly

I am so loving spring! It seems a long winter and I love seeing new buds and changes with mother nature!

I was just begging to get out of my cocoon and create another piece of work, so I shall share a piece that I just finished for my fantastic flat paperdoll group where the theme this month is butterflies. It's a fun group so you might want to check it out. Mine actually " Blossomed" Into a Social Butterfly! I had the legs saved into a file and figured one day I would find something to put them on and this happened to be it! I will also be doing the ATC butterfly, so when I get that finished, I will update and load it in. A great place to check out some stamps and such is The Enchanted Gallery.

update: Here is my Madame Butterfly ATC. Her arms and dress folds up. The way my twisted mind works sometimes, I could have had fun, as I was tempted to do Madame Moth. lol But since the swap was for butterflies, I figured I had best leave it be;)