Vintage White Christmas ATC Swap

As mentioned in my last post, I joined Kim Laws' Vintage White Christmas ATC Swap. You can see what I created here. 

Kim packaged the ATCs (artist trading cards) in kraft paper and lace and created a lovely tag for each of us. She also included another of her unique creations as a special treat. We had a few days with no sunshine, so please excuse the poor photography.

Here are the ATCs I received - all so pretty and created by very talented ladies. Upper left - by Cathee. Lower right - by Lynn.

Lower left - by Karen. Upper right - by Geralyn.

Upper left - by Mary. Lower right - by Becky.

You can see these and other ATCs created for this swap by visiting Kim's blog here. Kim posted the amazing ATCs she created - six different ones - on December 1 through December 6. Go to the home page for her blog and scroll down to see them. It's well worth the effort!

Many thanks to Kim for organizing the swap, and to the six ladies who created the beautiful ATCs that I received.

A Little Creating - ATC and Tag Holiday Swaps

I've done a bit of creating lately for some swaps. Kim Laws of ArtJoyStuff hosted a Vintage White Christmas ATC swap. The "vintage" part sorted of slipped my mind for my first creations, but I loved them and was able to use them for my other swap. You'll see them later in this post. 

This is the design I sent to Kim.

Each participant sent six ATCs, and will receive six in return. 

I found this image from Ivory Coast on Etsy, and loved that it had hints of aqua and green that I could play up. 

The beaded and sequined lace on the left edge is from an antique wedding gown. The vintage rayon ribbon used for the bow is one of my favorite recent finds. I used more antique lace at the bottom, accented with vintage rhinestones. The gold snowflake sequins are also vintage. This was my first time to use one of the fun stitches on my new machine on a project - love it!

Another thing I love about swaps is finding fun things to send to the hostess. For Kim I included an extra ATC for her to keep, along with vintage paper doilies, ruffed trim made with vintage crepe paper, and some of the vintage rayon ribbon. Hope she likes everything!

My other holiday swap is a tag swap organized by my friend Kerry. Eight of us are participating, and Kerry will be making a holder for the tags. Several of the ladies have already seen my tags, so I'll go ahead and share them. 

This first one incorporates the ATC I originally made for Kim's swap that I later decided didn't fit well with the theme. I attached the ATCs to tags.

It was impossible to get a really good photo of these tags with all the white, silver and pale blue, but they really are lovely. I pulled my Cricut out for its once-a-year use to cut the trees and the glittered words, and used the last of some vintage silver trim and more vintage rhinestones for the lower edge. I used mica snow under and on the tree, and a glittered tulle ruffle.

Since I was in a creative mood, I made a second tag for the swap. 

These were quick and fun to make. I was inspired by this tag seen on Pinterest. I pinned it from someone else's pin, and though I scrolled through the linked blog I could never find it, so can't properly attribute it.

I'll be sure to share the ATCs and tags I receive, so please check back in a week or two.

What I've Been Doing - Sewing, Finds, Glitter Market, and Creating

When people ask what I've been up to I usually say, "Nothing," but that's not really true. I have a very-part-time job, appointments, lunches with family and friends. A lot of my time is filled up with dogs - letting them in, letting them out, in out, in out, in out...and repeat. I read. I spend time putzing in my craft room, and occasionally I'll make something.

My friend Lisa posted on Facebook about a group she joined called Wrapped in Love (WIL.) Members volunteer to make adoption blankets, kennel blankets, pet toys, and other items for animal rescue organizations. 
















These are some of the blankets I've made. Each WIL blanket has a heart, and fleece scraps are used to make toys to send with the blankets. I've shipped toys and blankets to rescues in Florida and Texas, and delivered them in person to a rescue in Guthrie, OK. I have several more ready to sew for other rescues in Oklahoma and Florida. I think the group has sent over 8,000 blankets so far.

If you're a animal lover and this sounds interesting to you, check out the group by searching for Wrapped in Love on Facebook.

While good estate sales have been more scarce than usual, the DH and I try to go to at least one or two most weekends.  Here are a few things I've found recently. 

These gorgeous photo albums came from the same sale. It was the estate of a family that had settled on the property during the Oklahoma Land Run in 1889. They first built a very small one-room frame house for their family of five. Later additions included barns, a pump house, a laundry building, and a beautiful two-story home. They were also collectors so there were lots of interesting things to see. Happily, the property will be staying in the same family for the foreseeable future.

A friend held a sale that same day where I found the lace, vintage buttons, and awesome feed sack fabrics. The baby dresses, gloves and tussie mussie doll were found earlier this fall. 

This past Saturday I participated in Paper Crown's Glitter Market. This was my fourth time as a vendor. Here's my preview photo for the sale. 

Friend Chris sold beautiful marbled paper and journals she had made, and friend Kerry had wonderful vintage and crafty things. We shared a space and had a great time selling and visiting. 

Photo by Jackie Peters

Sunday Chris and I took a class at Paper Crown with Jenn McGlon of Noodle and Lou. Jenn is known for her paper clay people and animals, which we hope she'll be teaching next April for Glitter Retreat. In this class she taught us to make her adorable nutcracker ornaments using old thread spools and wood balls. Here are the three I made in class.

Big plans to make more of these before the holidays - they're addicting!

I'm in a White Christmas ATC swap and a Christmas tag swap, so I'd best get busy. Plus - a mountain of fleece is waiting to be sewn!

Halloween Altered Matchbox Swap from Vintage Connections

Tami at Vintage Connections hosted a altered matchbox swap last month. Tami drew my name and created the most amazing matchbox for me!

I love everything about it! There are so many perfect details. 

She filled the matchbox with lots of wonderful goodies, and even sent along an extra pumpkin bag of goodies. Thank you, Tami!

I created a matchbox for Kim. Early in my search I found some vintage Halloween pin up photos online. A photo of Dusty Anderson seemed perfect. (She's still living and is 97, according to Wikipedia! I'll bet she's still beautiful, too. I wasn't able to locate a photo credit.)

The original photo background included paper clouds and a black moon. I cut this moon face from a piece of scrapbook paper and used Stickles on the eyes, mouth, and around the edge. I glittered the clothing, shoes and hat, and added rhinestones for a bracelet and on the shoes. The broomstick was a feathered pick that I'd had for a while. It was a bit big, so I cut it down to fit. The white corrugated paper on the box is glittered, too, although it's hard to tell in the photos.

The box was filled with craft supplies (including some lace added after the photo) and sent off to Kim.

Swaps make me happy! You can see the other creations for this swap on Tami's Vintage Connections blog here.

Vintage Treasures and a Class

The DH's oldest sister (he has four) and her husband are avid garage salers, and most every family member has been the beneficiary of their treasure-seeking talent on at least one or two occasions. They were in town a few weeks ago and brought me some wonderful treats!

This pretty satin bed jacket is the palest shade of blue imaginable, and the sweet little hat is in perfect condition. 

They also brought me this early 1900s Ladies' Home Journal fashion spread. I absolutely love it! 

In a class at Paper Crown last month - taught by the talented Jackie Peters - we used vintage wallpaper, other vintage papers and ephemera, and new paper and other items to create a journal. The images from the LHJ fashion spread were perfect additions to my journal. The cover of my journal is shown above. 

This first page still needs something in the center, but I want to find the perfect image.

The images on the left above were in my class kit. The first of the LHJ images is on the right-hand page.

More images from my class kit on the left, and another LHJ image on the right.

LHJ images on the left for this page, with new papers, vintage wallpaper, washi, and bits of Dresden trim. Love this spread!

This was a fun page to put together. I'll add a bit of paint to the center and maybe snippets of lace and ribbon.

This spread still needs a bit of something. That's one thing I like about this type of book. You can keep looking through it and adding bits here and there as inspiration strikes.

This spread may be my favorite. I absolutely love the Chinese-inspired tunic with the lavender trim on the left. I'd buy that!

Hope you enjoyed the treasures and the journal. I'll be working on the book from time to time, but thought I'd best share now as it may be years before it's really finished!

I'll have a few new finds to share in my next post. 

Try to stay cool - fall will be here before we know it!

Spring Finds

Seems I haven't had much to blog about lately. I've not taken any classes since Glitter Retreat, and between the heat and general goings on I've been pretty lethargic. 

Estate sales have picked up, though, and I've found quite a few things in the last couple of months. "Finds" posts seem to be my most popular, so I'll share those. 

These are mostly just quick "end of day" shots so the lighting and composition aren't great, but vintage goodness always shines, right?

Yards of cute butterfly lace here, and these are just a few of the little tart tins I found that day. The ornament boxes are in fairly good condition. I'm hoping to use them for little Christmas vignettes. 

Four full rolls of Deco-Twist from the '60s and a few sparkly things for next year's Fourth of July creations. The fabric ribbon has since moved into the bag for Goodwill.

There were lots of crafty things at this sale. A few items went into my latest pink inspiration kit. I love the needlepoint pieces. The brown bits on the left are leather left over from someone's projects. I bought a shoe box full of old cards just to get the little cream and blue floral cards on the right. 

The cute gloves are from Saks and in great condition. The sweater clip is sweet, too. I loved these boxed hankies - and the box is as great as the hankies - metallic and embossed with beautiful text.

More gloves, and a shabby little head that I'll most likely be keeping. The James Whitcomb Riley book has some lovely illustrations with pink accents.

These prints are quite old, but most likely reproductions of late 1800s magazine illustrations. 

And then there's this girl. I thought about keeping her but I don't have even one inch of space in my craft room and there's nothing else I want to give up to make way. Hopefully someone else will give her a new home.

I found lots of lace, two pair of gloves, a lovely old collar, a fun Christmas corsage - love those things! - and more at a sale this past weekend less than a mile from home. I love it when sales are close, especially in the heat of summer. 

Here's a better shot of the gloves and collar. Gloves don't sell as well as they did at one time, but I can never resist them if they're special. 

A few more things from the nearby sale. I'm not sure what the illustrations are from. They're on a large sheet of heavy paper. I'm sure I'll find a use for them, though.

Hope you enjoyed seeing my finds. I've listed quite a few things on Etsy, and hopefully will have lots more soon!

Glitter Retreat - Part Two

I'm so behind on posting! Glitter Retreat was over a month ago, so I'd best show the rest of my photos. If you missed my first post with my swap creations and links to Cindy's Paper Crown Glitter Retreat posts, you can find it here. Today I'm sharing what I received from the three swaps, and a peek at the swag. 

First up is the bracelet swap. The bracelet I received was made by Pattye, and I love it! Here's a pic someone took when I received it (borrowed from the Paper Crown blog.)

The bracelet is leather and stamped with some of Catherine Moore's Character Constructions stamps. It's very cool.

Swap two was the Embellished Slipper swap. I received Sharon's slipper, made from one of her friend's ruffled honeymoon scuffs. She covered it in pink roses, buttons, and pink and yellow seam binding. The front is finished with a rhinestone crown. So very cute!

We were to fill our shoes with French brocante goodies, but Sharon went above and beyond and gave me a Vera Bradley tote bag with a cute metal bin and so many great goodies!

She included lots of French-themed stamps, stickers, and other embellishments that will be perfect for completing the French journal project from the retreat. Soaps with a cute dish, a pretty towel, buttons, ribbons and so much more! 

The last swap was the paper doll swap. Mine came from Kathy, and has one of my favorite quotes on the front. The tag is pretty and multi-layered and I love it! Anything with birds, you know!

As I said in my last post, the Character Constructions paper doll creations were amazing! 

Now, for the swag - and what a lot of swag there was! We were totally spoiled - not only with delicious French style home cooking, beautiful class creations, and so much fun, but also with many wonderful gifts and treats. 

This is just a portion of the lovely things we received. Each instructor provided a little gift as well as lots of extras in their class kits. A couple of people brought little fun things for everyone, and we received gifts at each of our field trip stops. Everyone received a huge French market basket that Cindy filled with fun things from Paper Crown, and our bags were full as we headed home. 

I'll be looking forward to next year's Glitter Retreat!