Thrifting Treasures

This was a treasure-filled, Thanksgiving weekend.

We went to a garage sale that was a little further away than our usual haunts. The write-up was so interesting so we hoped to find some bargain treasures. We found treasures but they weren't quite bargains.

My first instinct was to grab all of these wonderful ephemera, Christmas and Disney items. I felt like a kid in a candy store. Then I asked the seller for a price and discovered that he had bought a lot of this stuff on eBay and was reselling them. The prices were high so I had to start putting many things back. I admit that I was pouting just like a kid.

I finally had just a handful of items and the seller was kind enough to give me a good deal on my selection even though it was still way more than I hoped to pay but much less than his original quote.

The big ticket item was the Official Boy Scout Binoculars. The packaging looked so vintage and I have several old binoculars.

My favorite find was the Shiny Brite, two-toned, blue/green ornaments in a good-condition box. The original price tags says $1.29 from Newberry's (a five-and-dime store that has long been out of business).

The only piece of ephemera that I kept was a card shaped like a milk bottle with eight suggestions by the National Dairy Council for children to stay healthy. I loved this because suggestion number seven says "Take a bath oftener than once a week". This has a copyright date of 1924 and the illustrations are adorable. The image above shows both the front and back of the same piece.

The last thing I bought were metal candle wax catchers (I think). They look like they slip under a candle to catch dripping wax and are shiny to reflect more light. I plan to use them in a project.

It was another pleasant, treasure-filled weekend.

Triple Play Blog Hop - Week 4

Today I Created | A Shadow Box

Happy Thanksgiving and welcome to week 4 of the Sizzix Triple Play Blog Hop. Today's featured Sizzix die is the ScoreBoards, Frame & Frame Back w/Stand by Eileen Hull.

This die is a really cute shape with scallops and flowers, unfortunately, most of my photos seem to be of my son so scallops and flowers didn't seem to work for me. I was sitting and eating a pizza with my son while describing this die shape and suddenly looked at the pizza box.

Pizza boxes are made of corregated cardboard and this die is a ScoreBoard die designed to cut thicker boards. A frame made out of the pizza box perhaps??? In the middle of eating a pizza slice I grabbed a pair of scissors and started to cut off the top of the box so it wouldn't get any grease stains. Luckily my son is somewhat used to my sudden creative impulses.

Since the pizza box represents something that my son really likes, I decided to create the entire shadow box of things that remind me of him. Off I went to collect bits around the house.

To create the dividers and sides, I cut parts of the corregated board into 1" strips and hot glued the sides to the back. Next, I used more 1" strips to create dividers. The dividers looked plain so I wrapped them in Japanese Washi Tape from cutetape.com. After the sides and dividers were in place I glued the front of the frame in place.

I added Vintage Transparent Deco Tape along the top of the Frame Back and more Washi Tape along the left side. I also added Distress Ink and rubber stamped a truck image using a Tim Holtz's clear stamp. I did not want to cover up the fact that this is made from a pizza box.

I hope you are having a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoy my project using the Frame & Frame Back by Eileen Hull for Sizzix. Be sure to click on the Forward or Back buttons in the Triple Play blinkie on the right to see what other talented designers created with this versatile die.

Song Birds

Today I Created | Glittery Song Birds

I wanted to create something cheery since the weather has been gloomy here. I created chipboard birds to brighten my day.

I used a sheet music image from the Graphics Fairy. This was printed on paper and glued to chipboard. Next I die cut them using Sizzix Birds die.

I inked the edges using Worn Lipstick, Distress Ink then applied Mod Podge over the entire bird shape and added glitter.

I glued these to painted clothes pins, added some weight to the bottom of the clothes pins (weights are  necessary only if nothing is hung below the birds) and hung them up. I also plan to use these on my Christmas tree.

This project has been shared with the Graphics Fairy, ApronThriftGirl and Making the World Cuter.

Estate Sale Thrifting

Today I Created | Additions to my Ephemera Collection and more

It is a rainy weekend here in Southern California. In spite of a bit of rain, we went to a half-off day at an Estate Sale.

I admit that I have a collection of a lot of odd things but they all have two things in common; 1) They are vintage and 2) I like something about them.

I first dug through the small collection of postcards and cabinet cards. I found four lovely postcards that were so sweet. Plus I found a cabinet card of a photo of two sailors but on the back was the most beautiful Art Nouveau illustration that I just couldn't pass up.

I found a box of dominoes. They must be from around the midcentury because the dominoes are very dense but they are in a green vinyl-wrapped box. I plan to do some altered art with the dominoes.

Then there was this Automatic Adding Machine (and Subtracts!) Considering the technical advances in inexpensive calculators today, I thought this "Automatic" Adding (and Subtracting) Machine was rather quaint. This is made in American and must be about midcentury.

I selected one piece of hand-embroidered linen that I thought was very sweet and I needed for a project I have in mind.

My final find was an unopened bag of Christmas tree Candle Clips. These are heavier than the modern versions and have a nice pinecone pattern on the underside of the clip. 

I hope you enjoy my Treasure Thrifting adventure from this weekend.

This is linked to Vintage Thingie Thursday.

Blog Hop #3 - Flower Pillow

Welcome to the third week of the Triple Play Blog Hop. This week's featured die is the Sizzix Originals Die - Flower, Beauty Bloom by Brenda Pinnick.

This was an interesting personal challenge because I didn't want to create a typical flower with this die. I had cut a few test pieces out of paper to see if I could find any inspiration. As I moved the flower bits around I suddenly saw a pattern appear. Being a graphic designer I tend to think in ways of how to organize bits to create a pleasing visual.

Once I had an idea of a pattern, I then had to decide on a technique to best showcase the pattern. Since this was Brenda's die and she also designs fabrics, I decided to try fabric applique and create a pillow.

The image above is of the finished pillow on my vintage, garage sale desk chair and below is a detailed image of the machine applique. I had never machine appliqued before so this was a new experience. I used an old wooden button from my mother's collection for the center detail.

I hope you enjoy my use of the Flower, Beauty Bloom die. Please continue through the Blog Hop by clicking on the Forward or Back button on the Triple Play Blog Hop blinkie to the right.

This project is linked to The Girl Creative.

Child-size Cooking Utensil Collection

Today I Created | A Collection of Child-Size Cooking Utensils.

It was another warm and beautiful Southern California Autumn weekend so we found ourselves at a garage sale where the person was an avid Garage Saler selling off her collections. There were large quantities of vintage glassware and old Pyrex cooking bowls in a variety of colors and styles.

I was attracted to the smaller, child-sized, toy cooking utensils that had the old red wooden handles. I bought a mini-muffin tin (4" x 5.75"), two mini-rolling pins and a cake decorating tool with six nibs still in the box.

I also found two more Tin Noisemakers for my collection and an old camera, with instructions and a flash attachment. I know that I have more old cameras stashed away somewhere so this will be part of that collection.

Sizzix Triple Play Blog Hop - Twist Cube, 3-D

Today I Created | Karen Burniston's 3-D Twist Cube using mostly Tim Holtz product.

Welcome to Week 2 of the Sizzix Triple Play Blog Hop. The featured die is the Sizzix Cube, Twist 3-D pop-up Bigz XL die by Karen Burniston. I had a lot of fun with this project so I included a lot of details regarding products used and various techniques.

My design concept was to try and use as many Tim Holtz products from my stash as possible. I started off by doing a lot of sketches and some test cuts to see how everything went together. When I was ready I cut all of my pieces from tan cardstock (the only product I had to purchase) and made little piles of embellishments that I planned to use on each side. Next came the fun part of decorating the sides.

The image above is the top with the cube folded flat. I used the Sizzix Retro Circles Texture Fades to create the pattern in the paper and Distress inks in Spiced Marmalade, Tea Dyed and Barn Door. I applied the inks using the technique in Tim's Compendium of Curiosities (CC) book, page 33. I attached the Button (my stash) by inserting the stem of the button through the cardstock and attaching it with wire hidden inside and then looping a Ball Chain around the button. Other products used: Journaling Ticket and ABC Skid alphabet stickers by Creative Imaginations. The other items you see along the edges are actually parts of the various sides of the cube and will be described later.

On the front of the cube I used the Cracked Texture Fades and applied the same colors of Distress inks plus Dusty Concord using the CC technique on page 40. The die cut shape is the Styled Label stamped with the Crown from the Regal Flourish stamp set using the technique on CC page 37. I also added a Game Spinner.

The left side has two paper images from the Graphics Fairy. The crown paper just worked so perfectly in this design. The stamp in the corner is part of the Regal Flourish set using Black Soot Distress Ink. I also used some Traveler Tissue Tape, Ball Chain and Type Charm. I punched a small hole on the front and side of the cube and hung the Type Charm from the corner.

The back was a little more free-formed. I used the same inking technique on CC page 33 but without the Texture Fade so the ink blended on the paper surface. The Clock is from the Journey stamp set. The Wings (top right corner) are die cut from plastic packaging using the Sizzix Heart Wings die and then embossed with the Patchwork Texture Fade. I inked them with Alcohol inks in Purple Twilight and Sunset Orange.

On the right side I inked all of the edges before assembling so I was able to get crisp edges. The wing is created with the Regal Flourish stamp and Perfect Pearls using the CC technique on page 38. The Crown is die cut from Grunge Paper using the Sizzix Heart Wings die then I applied Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint and Dusty Concord ink using the technique on CC page 42. It is attached using a Memo Pin. Other product used: Filmstrip Ribbon with a bit of Alcohol ink for color.

The bottom side worked well because I used only three main colors of Distress inks in this project so, although the panels are all very different, they visually work together. I used a French postcard image and a French map image from the Graphics Fairy on two panels. The other panel is a continuation of the side. I added more Traveler Tissue Tape and a stamp from the Journey set.

I didn't want to ruin the surprise of the completed cube so I left these last two photos for the end. As I said at the beginning, I did sketches and made samples to see how everything would work together. Before assembing the final cube I laid everything out to see how it would work. Here are the photos prior to assembly. You can see in these photos that I had additional embellishments (Swirls and Key) that I did not use in the final piece.

I hope you enjoy this example of the Twist Cube as much as I enjoyed making it. And thanks to Karen Burniston for designing such a clever die.

Please continue on through the Blog Hop using the Forward or Back links in the Triple Play Blog Hop blinkie. And please be sure to visit again next Thursday when the featured die will be the Flower, Beauty Bloom.

French Collages

Today I Created | A series of collages combining French images and birds.

I wanted to create three collage images to be used in a framed set. I hope to find the perfect set of frames to highlight these images.

All of the images are from the Graphics Fairy blog. I absolutely love the birds and wanted to use them in a unique way. The French paper background and the other French images create a visually pleasing composition to the bird images.

Tin Toy Collection

Today I Created | Additions to my Tin Toy and Noisemaker Collections

It is a lovely Autumn day here in Southern California so I spent the morning browsing at the local outdoor antique fair.

I found three items to add to my collections.

Earlier in October I found a nice lot of tin noisemakers. Today I found one more to add to that collection. It is a slighter smaller version of one of the designs I already had.

I also found a tin spinning top. I've seen smaller versions but this one is about 5 1/2" across and very colorful.

The best find was a tin Junior Dial Typewriter. I love old typewriters and this is an adorable toy version.

Blog Hop - House, 3-D

Today I Created | A 3-D House for the first Triple Play Blog Hop Thursday

This was my first experience using the Sizzix ScoreBoard dies by Eileen Hull and I can see the wonderful possibilities. I decided to try some unusual chipboard to use as the basis of my 3-D House project.

I found some old LP records in my attic recently so I dug through them and found John Lennon's Double Fantasy album. He was such an icon of music and peaceful protests that I knew I could create something with his album cover.

I had to be a little creative to die cut the shape so that both John and Yoko's image could be clearly seen once the house was assembled.

After most of the house was built but before gluing on the roof, I attached the wire so that it curved in a graceful bend. Next I used Photoshop to print images of butterflies that I found on the Graphics Fairy blog and carefully cut them out. I arranged them by color so that they start off in shades of blue/green and rise up to orange. I attached the butterflies onto the wire to appear as if in flight from the door up to the rooftop.

My Triple Play Blog Hop project is a tribute to John Lennon and the magic of his message that is still relevant today.

Please click on the Triple Play Blog Hop button on the right to continue to view the work of other designers and their creative use of this same 3-D House die. And next Thursday we will be featuring the 3-D Twist Cube die.

Holiday Luminaria

 

 

Today I Created | A set of Holiday Luminarias

These were inspired by the Halloween Luminaria on Tim Holtz's Blog. I wanted to try a different twist on the idea.

I started by making my own bags. I used light-weight, 12"x12" papers that were a solid tan color similar to a real paper bag. I die cut them using the Sizzix Bag, Tall die. The nice part about cutting bags with this die is that they are smaller than lunch bags so the battery-operated tea lights fit nicely.

Before assembling the bags I glued die cuts of two styles of reindeer and a snowflake cut from black paper. The snowflake and one reindeer were cut from the eclips Christmas & Traditions Alphabet cartridge. I was able to cut them small enough to fit within the smaller bag. The other reindeer is from the Reindeer Flight die by Tim Holtz.

I assembled the bags and placed the flameless tea lights inside. One tea light per bag worked well but you can use more if you want it brighter. Below is a photo of how the same bags appear in regular light.