A St. Paddy's Day Pocket Letter

Laurie sent me a beautiful Valentine-themed pocket letter last month, and I responded with some St. Patrick's Day creations for her. 

The Graphics Fairy had many great images to choose from so I included several. The velvet bow came from a vintage hat, and had been on my work table for some time waiting for the perfect project.

The first row has a tiny green millinery flower and some vintage buttons with a Graphics Fairy image in the center.

Row two includes two Graphics Fairy images, plus a bit of bling in the center pocket.

Row three has lace snippets, millinery, a bit of a rhinestone and floral necklace, vintage buttons, and ribbon rosettes.

This was my first pocket letter and it proved to be a bit addicting. I finished the front and just couldn't stop, so I filled the back side of each pocket, too!

It was too hard to decide between the images of the ladies and I could only use one for the tag, so I included two more for Laurie. Some of the papers were purchased specifically for this project, but it was surprising how many green bits there were in my stash. The flamingo card is a bit out of place, but I knew Laurie would like it and it was a perfect fit.

Laurie was in a recent swap where participants exchanged ribbon dolls and that inspired me to try one on this tag. 

The flower "badge" came from more bits from my table and a fun button I had just received, and I had to include some trim, of course, and a bit of beautiful velvet.

Someday I hope to have more vintage finds to share. I'm a bit flummoxed by the lack of good estate sales so far this year. They've all been too high-end and "new" for this vintage loving soul.

In the meantime, hope you've enjoyed seeing these bits of green. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Fabric Marbling - Possibly Even More Fun Than Paper Marbling!

The talented Chris, who has taught several paper marbling classes at Paper Crown recently, taught a fabric marbling class last month. It's hard to describe just how blown away we've all been with these classes. You splatter paint onto treated water, comb and swirl, lay the paper or fabric onto the water surface, and get something amazing every time. 

Here are Chris and Cindy prepping the water for their next prints.

The printed fabric was placed on newspaper to dry. 

Here are some closeups. 

I'm not sure who created this next one, but I love it. 

And here are my four. The colors are a bit more vibrant than they look in the photos.

The fabric, a lightweight cotton broadcloth, isn't stiff at all. The fabric can be heat set with an iron, and is then fully washable. It could be used for so many things - if one can bear to cut it up!

Of course, a lot of prep work goes into this process before the class. Chris has to spend several days treating the water, prepping the fabric, mixing paints, and many other things. She does all the hard work, and we have all the fun. Thanks, Chris, and thanks to Cindy at Paper Crown for asking Chris to teach!

I HEART Pocket Letters!

Wonderful Laurie of Indulge Your Shelf sent me my very first pocket letter this month. I've been seeing lots of pocket letter swaps lately but hadn't joined any. This one has a pretty Valentine theme, and came in a cute envelope with a vintage card and the sweetest tag.

The vintage card is embossed and oh so adorable. And that tag! What's not to love - lots of pretty layers, a precious little girl with her pup, and some of my favorite trim at the top. The rosette is the icing on the cake.

The pocket letter has pretty papers, bits of ephemera and trim. Some things are attached but many are loose so they can be used for projects. I don't think I could bear to disassemble it! 

 This first row of pockets reminds me of Laurie's love for all things Jane Austen. 

The middle row has pretty ephemera bits and some vintage buttons.

The bottom row might be my favorite. I love the aqua ephemera in the first pocket. The second pocket has chocolate (!) and the third has the sweetest Dresden cupid.

If you'd like to see more photos of this and another lovely pocket letter Laurie created, visit her blog here.

I'm creating a pocket letter to send to Laurie and will share that soon.

A Slow Start to the New Year, OR "What? It's February Already?"

This year is whizzing by, but I've been under the weather since the week after Christmas so haven't accomplished a lot. Nothing serious - just a cold-turned-sinus infection that won't go away. 

Yesterday I made it to my first two estate sales since well before Christmas, but the pickings were slim. One sale had a few vintage things I would have loved to purchase, but the prices were horrendous. The second had great prices, but hardly anything I wanted. Here are my meager purchases.

 The book isn't vintage, of course. I've seen the movie a couple of times so no surprises, but for fifty cents it should be a good read when I don't have any library books on hand. 

I've been trying to spend some time organizing. My favorite vintage lace has been mostly piled in a box on a shelf, but lately it was taking up more and more space so I decided it was time to make some sense of the mess. Here's what it looked like when I pulled it from the shelf.

And here's what it looks like now. With other pieces pulled from around the room, the collection expanded to two boxes.

There are a few more pieces to be ironed and carded, but this project is almost complete - at least until I buy more lace! Here are a few of my favorites.

This next shows a card of narrower lace and a couple of pieces I picked up when I visited French General in 2012.

While I was organizing, I pulled out some lace and a few other items and listed a few lots on Etsy. These two have already sold. The cream lots sell quickly.

I liked the two photos above so much that I used them for some of the MOO business cards I ordered last week. I love MOO, because you can use multiple photos for the back of your cards and their paper is nice.

This blue lot includes some fun embellishments. The color lots take a bit longer to sell, but just the right person always comes along.

After Christmas I found this Smith and Hawken plant stand at Target and had to have it for my work table. Can you see it among all the clutter on the shelves in back?

I was using just the oblong white basket that's now on the lower shelf. It held all my tape and tags, but my stapler and other things were scattered about. It's nice to have everything together when I'm creating or packing Etsy sales for shipment, and I love the look of this piece.

The lower shelf holds tape, tools, tags, pins, and more.

The upper shelf has inks, markers, scissors, and more tags. There's still a bit of space to be filled. 

Those are my accomplishments for the last few weeks, along with a bit of watercolor and journal pasting. I'd love to hear what you've been up to!

Vintage Treasure Box

At a estate sale last summer I walked into a closet and found only one thing - a worn and shabby box sitting on the floor. The wooden box was covered with faux woodgrain paper and lined in flannel. 

The box itself was sort of interesting, but of course I had to take a peek inside. It appeared to be filled with tattered and torn strips of organza, a few strips of silk, and bits of ribbon and lace. My junking heart started to beat a little faster!

I dug a bit further and what I saw intrigued me enough to take the box to the check out table. I couldn't wait until I got home, so I started pulling things out in the car while the DH drove. 

There were bits of lace, a ribbon rosette, and a bit of tucked trim.

There were a few crocheted pieces, including a doily edged with a silk ruffle.

There were lots of tassels and cords in various states of shabbiness, and a bit of fringed trim.

There were tools and bits of thread and a few other miscellaneous things, but possibly the best thing in the box was a huge knot of vintage French metallic trim with matching thread. It took me over an hour at home to disentangle it all. What you see below is just a portion. I've since sold and gifted quite a bit, but will be keeping the most of what remains.

At the bottom of the box I found a Brainerd & Armstrong Co. book titled "Embroidery Lessons with Colored Studies" printed in 1900. The book has over 100 pages of embroidery illustrations and stitch instructions. It also contains sixteen full-color plates of embroidery designs. The former owner tucked bits of embroidery floss between many of the pages - some in the original late-1800s packaging, and some loose. Bits of crochet and newspaper clippings were also tucked into the book.

I thought this hand painted hankie with the note folded inside was sweet. 

And what about the bits of fabric that were at the top of the box? I've yet to wash and press them, but I rather imagine I'll find a use for many. 

My visit to the sale was late in the day so apparently this box of goodness wasn't to most people's taste. I'm so thankful for that, as I think it's found the perfect home with me!

Journal Making

In 2013 I signed up for Mary Ann Moss's Full Tilt Boogie on-line journal class. I watched the video tutorials right away but didn't make anything. About 18 months ago Mary Ann announced she was switching her blog to another platform and the class link I subscribed to would be going away in January 2016. That seemed like forever but I watched the videos again, found an antique photo album to use as a cover, made up some pages, then didn't do anything else. In early December it occurred to me that January 2016 was right around the corner! I decided I'd best get in gear and make at least one journal before the class link expired and...voila!

It's hard for me to believe that I actually made this! The late 1800s celluloid cover came from an estate sale several years ago, but the velvet along the spine edge was threadbare and filthy. What a perfect place to use the striped grosgrain ribbon I love so much! 

This book was made using the sewn tapes method, with the pages stitched together with waxed linen. The fabric "tapes" are from an upholstery sample I picked up somewhere years ago. The velvet bow came from a vintage hat.

The velvet ribbon tie was originally the binding on another 1950s hat. I stitched it to some vintage picot-edge grosgrain ribbon from my stash.

As for the style of the pages, most of you will get it. For those who don't and who think I've lost it, the book is meant to be a place to stick bits and pieces of paper ephemera and other things I've been saving just because I like them or they speak to me for some reason.

The quote on the inside cover came from a Hallmark bag. Washi tape figures prominently on these pages and throughout.  Most of the pages are made from partial pieces of scrapbook papers that I love. I use a lot of paper for packaging of items I sell on Etsy, so there are always leftover usable bits.

I've shared a few page spreads below. Most have already changed significantly as I've added a lot of things since I took these photos. I'll share new photos in a couple of months, but I can tell you that I've already emptied out one drawer of my paper treasure chest!

Just one more!

The Full Tilt Boogie class is available on Mary Ann's Dispatch from LA web site. The class includes several binding options. She offers other classes as well, and her blog is a great read.

My plan for the year is to MAKE a lot more things and to USE lots of the crafting supplies and vintage items I've collected. I'm starting the new year with Mary Ann's Remains of the Day journal class. I've watched all of the videos and can hardly wait to start my next journal. It will use up a lot more of my stash. But for now, back to adding to this one!