Following My Heart ... Right Back To Sheer Joy!!!

Hi there!  Sorry it's been so long, but I sure hope to be doing this more often from now on!  With hubby at home most of the time now, our travel schedule, an elderly mother who needs me, and my desire to craft ALL.THE.TIME!, blogging just tends to take a back seat.  That said, I do have another, new, endeavor. 

For some time now I have wanted to form a new group in our area for a 'place' for women in our area to gather, chat, share, learn, and craft together!  Building friendships and relationships that will go beyond the group's confines is important to me!  So, one of the local craft stores is allowing us to use their classroom on Fridays ... for free ... and I have been advertising by word of mouth, Facebook and a local online newspaper.  I had great responses, and we had our first gathering yesterday.

It was a phenomenal success!  I had hoped and prayed for two people to join me.  Three and I would have been over the moon happy ... but we had more!  Five ladies joined me yesterday for some fun, fellowship and crafty fun.  It was amazing!  And we now have dates on the store's calendar through April.  The best part of this?  I walked away with five new friends, at least one or two that I can see becoming close friendships.  I feel so blessed that God has blessed this new endeavor!

Anyway, most of my time yesterday was spent talking to people, answering questions about my work, and walking people through the store and showing them where they should start on paper crafting, and I loved it!  But I did get back to my first love ... card making ... for the first time in a long time, and it was wonderful!  I made one card completely and started another, then this morning when I couldn't sleep I finished that one and made another.  It was bliss!  Card making is my first love, and I haven't made a card in months ... maybe over a year, and it felt so good to get back to doing what I love so much!

First up is 'It'll Be Okay' ...

Of course this is a Mabel Lucie Atwell image .... my favorites ... as are all three of the cards today.  I just love this little image, and have wanted to use it in a card for a long time.  Here are the 'ingredients' in the card:

• Card blank - Recollections from Michaels
• Background paper - Black Stripes - Recollections from Michaels
• Ribbon - May Arts
• White Eyelet - stash, could be from anywhere!
• Button - stash, could be from anywhere!
• Stickles - Black Diamond, Platinum, Diamond and Christmas Red
• Ink Pad for edging - Stampabilities Pigment Ink from Hobby Lobby - Brown
• Ink Pad for sentiment inside - Stampabilities Pigment Ink from Hobby Lobby . Black
• Sentiment stamp from 'Trust God' set from Stampin' Up  It says "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

Close up of ribbon and trim ...

Next up is 'Baby Boy' ...

 Here are the ingredients:

• Card Blank - Recollections from Michaels
• Background Paper - Light Blue and White Stripes - Recollections from Michaels
• Dark Blue Cardstock -Recollections from Michaels (no color name)
• Red Cardstock - Bazzill 'Card Shoppe' Cardstock
• Ribbon and Button - stash
• Stickles:  Waterfall, Diamond, Patina
• Sticker - SRM Press

Close up on ribbon ...

 And last, is 'Best Friends' ...

 

 Here are the ingredients:

• Card Base - Recollections from Michaels
• Background paper - Bold Yellow Stripe - Recollections from Michaels
• Dark Green Cardstock - 'Greenbrier' from Bazzill
• Trim is by Hug Snug Seam Binding
• Vintage Button from my stash
• Stickles:  Black Diamond, Patina, Icicles

And that is my first three cards in a long, long time!  If you are looking for the images, simply go to Pinterest and search for "Mabel Lucie Atwell Images" and you will find quite a few of them!  I save them to my computer using Picasa software and that makes it easy to organize and do minor edits to the images.

I hope you have enjoyed your visit today ... It really feels good to be making cards again!  Come back soon, Becky

Sharing ... Vintage Thingie Thursday ... Vintage Black Draught Bottle

Hi there, and welcome!  Today I want to share one of my favorite vintage treasures with you, and I will be linking up with Coloradolady's Vintage Thingie Thursday!

I collect a lot of different kinds of vintage things, and have a love for even more, but this is probably the most odd thing in my collection.  Most of my collected items are cream and sugar sets, bowls, pitchers, platters ... and then there are the hoarded things such as vintage fabrics, ribbons, laces, buttons, etc.  But never before a laxative bottle ... that's right, a laxative bottle!

Vintage Syrup of Black Draught Laxative Bottle

Don't you love that color?  It is such a pure, clear green that just called my name when I found it one day when I was out treasure hunting with a friend.  Not too far from here, maybe 5 miles or so, there is an old home place with two old chicken houses near it.  Inside one of the chicken houses is a treasure trove of ALL KINDS of things, from old tools and farm implements, to vintage dish and glassware of all kinds, and right on up to some pretty nice furniture.  The old gentleman who owns the place loves visitors and talks to anyone who will listen.  I love stopping by there and looking around for treasures and having a chat with him!

So one day I spied a bunch of these bottles, and took one for my very own.  I think I paid ten cents for it, but can't remember for sure.  The bottle is about 6 inches tall, but only about 3/4 inch thick, and the opening is about 1/2 inch across.  The edge of the bottle says 'Syrup of Black Draught', which I had always thought was cough syrup, but after investigating a bit I found out it was actually a laxative! 

Back last fall I stopped back by to visit with Mr. B. and get some more of the bottles ... I thought a grouping would be pretty ... but he had sold the rest of them!

My moral to this story is ... don't be afraid to get something unusual to add to  your collection!  Unique and unusual are often also lovely!  Oh, and by the way, the pink flowers are actually camellias from my garden.  Thanks for visiting today!  Blessings,

Sharing ... Vintage Thingie Thursday ... Chicken House Finds

Hello!  Today we have snow left over from Tuesday, and the temps are in the single digits and haven't been above freezing since it fell, so the snow isn't going anywhere soon.  I've been spending some time going through old pictures, and thought I would share some pictures of some of my treasure hunting finds from the past.  I am also linking up to Colorado Lady's 'Vintage Thingie Thursday' post.

One day I was on my way to take my Mama home after a visit, and I decided to take a little detour onto a road that I had never been on before.  And no, there aren't many of those in our area ... I love knowing where I live, and make it a point to take new roads when I can.  Anyway, back to the story.  We went by an old farmhouse with two old (very old) chicken houses alongside it.  One of the chicken houses had a sign that said it was a 'yard sale'.  It wasn't open that day, but I knew I would go back on day.

Fast forward to a few months later, and my friend Phyllis and I were out treasure hunting and the pickins were slim, so rather than go home, I remembered the chicken house and we headed there to see what we could find.  The old man who owned it was a sweetheart, and we enjoyed talking to him and shopping around in his large chicken house just FULL of all kinds of things.  And I found some great treasures!

 

Do you know what that glass thing is in the picture above???  Well, it is a vintage chicken watering dish.  You actually fill a glass jar (Mason, Ball, mayonnaise, LOL!) with water, turn this upside down onto the jar, then turn the whole thing back upside down so the water runs down into the dish.  I remember these from my childhood, and had to have this!  I think I paid 50 cents for it!

The pic above is a close up of the detail on this ...

and this is a feed sack that was turned into a pillow case!  Right before our visit to the chicken house, I had found instructions for making aprons from vintage pillow cases, so I bought this one, and ...

... these two!  One of these had never been sewn up to make the pillow case, so it will be easier to make it into an apron ... IF I ever get my sewing machine fixed, but that's another story for another time!

Close up detail of rose pillow case.

And the last thing I bought that day, and probably my favorite, is this vintage bottle ...

When new, this bottle held 'Black Draught' cough syrup.  The bottle is about 6 inches tall, 2 1/2 inches wide, and less than an inch thick.  I love the size, the shape, the color ... just everything about this bottle.  In fact, my Mama and I went back a few months ago and I asked if he had any more of them, but they had all sold out!  And yes, those pink camellias in the bottle are from one of my camellia bushes ... aren't they beautiful?

The added bonus of this trip was that I spent less than $5 for the whole bunch of pretties!  And the last time I went he gave me a vintage Fostoria cream pitcher and cut glass sherbet dish!  Mr. Boling sure is a sweetheart!

I would love it if you would tell me about some of your favorite treasure hunting finds, so please go and 'LIKE' my Facebook page and leave a pic or just tell me about a vintage find you love!

Thanks for visiting today!  Blessings,

Sharing ... A Girls Day Out, and Vintage Treasures

Hello!  I want to tell you about the really nice day I had yesterday!  I drove about 40 or so miles northwest of my home to my friend Mary Ann's new-to-her home up in the beautiful mountains of northern Georgia.  I loved her new home, just don't like that it's so far from here!  Mary Ann and I met at our local scrapbooking store (LSS) and over the last 2 or so years have become good friends.  I am most grateful for her friendship!

My friend Mary Ann in the 'craft cave' of her former home.   We were having a play date and
exploring the joys of printing with a Gelli Plate and she had her hands patterned with paint!

 
Anyway, after I had a tour of the house we took off for Lafayette (pronounced lah-fet) a little town in northwestern Georgia, a little over 100 miles from my home.  We stopped first at a sweet old house that holds a restaurant and catering service called Ivy Cottage, to have a bite of lunch.  We each had the daily special of Sour Cream Chicken over rice and two sides.  The chicken was delicious!  It was just tender stewed chicken meat in a sour cream sauce and served over white rice.  Next we headed to a vintage, junky, funky, very cool store where both Mary Ann and I have  some of our crafty things up for sale.  If you are interested in finding them, just go to Facebook and search for Heirlooms Vintage Boutique & Rentals.

I forgot to take the few new things I had made, but picked up some of the older paintings I had left up there, and a few Thanksgiving and Christmas things that didn't sell.  While we were walking around, looking at the shop and any new things that we hadn't seen, we ran up on a bowl full of the cutest little tin candy molds!  There were 20 of them, 2 each of 10 designs for $8.00!  We decided to split them up and each take one full set of ten and bring them home to see what we could make of them.  Here's a picture of all ten of the ones I brought home ...

There are round ones, square ones, oval ones, simple ones, scalloped ones, and elaborate ones!  And I love them all.  Well, except for maybe that round one on the bottom left ... it's kind of boring!  :)  So my friend and I each got exactly the same set, and all for $4 each.  And the cool part is that Mandy, owner of Heirlooms, just deducted it from our accounts on the books, so our part of them will be deducted from future sales. 

Each of these tins are tiny, as in less than two inches across.  They are mostly in good condition, although there are some bad spots, but I won't be using them to mold candy or butter or such.  Oh no!  I'll be using them in my crafting!  I see ornaments and altered items in my future.  I've been making some suncatchers from chandelier crystals (another post for another day) and I'm thinking they would be cute to put tin and crystal together!  What do you think???

Here are some individual pics of my favorites ...

I realize now that I love the oval ones!  This one above has that cute ruffly edge, and the raised 'scores' on the bottom will make a pretty ornament or altered object!

I actually love the simplicity of this oval with scalloped sides.  I'm thinking maybe I will use this one in a spoolie, as a background for a sweet vintage image.

And this square one with scallops ... very sweet!  Maybe a mini shadowbox?

And this one ... oh my!  I turned it upside down so you can see the detail.  I love this one and may have to treasure it for a while before I use it in a project!

Did you notice the fabric I used for the background?  That is one of my vintage 1950's chicken feed sacks.  It has some lovely 'Pennsylvania Dutch' images and is a nice thick woven cotton fabric.  I have a collection of these, and one of these days I will explain to you how I came to have them ... the story goes all the way back to when I was a small child!

I love my sweet little candy molds, and can't wait to get to work making some projects with them!  Do you have any suggestions for crafty ways to put these to use?  I would love to hear from you!  Blessings,

Sharing ... Design Team Project ... Anything But A Card Challenge #31 'Balance'

Hello there!  I am very excited to have joined the Design Team at Anything But A Card, a challenge blog where you get a new challenge every month.  I have participated a few times, and have known one of the designers for several years, since we were on another DT together about 3 to 4 years ago.  She kept asking me to join their team, so I finally said yes!

This month's challenge is all about 'balance' and how you interpret it, there is also a photo that may give your creative side a little boost if you need some help.  As this was my first challenge, I decided I should stay true to my vintage/retro style and went to Pinterest in search of a vintage image that fit the theme.  And I found one, too!  A cute vintage image of a boy and girl on a see-saw, apparently having a blast.  Then I found a quote that said 'life is a balance of holding on and letting go - Rumi' ... and isn't that the truth!  And I remember as a kid, hanging on tight until I got to the top and raising my hands up high until it was time to start back down again.  Here is my project ...

Here the details:  The base is an 8" x 4" manilla tag, and I don't know who made it as a friend ordered a case of them and gave me a stack ... she's sweet like that!  The papers are from a My Mind's Eye 'Playdate' 6" x 6" paper pad.  The trim at top is from Pebbles, and the tiny ric-rack is from an estate sale I discovered a few years ago.  The teal card stock is Bazzil, the white card stock is Georgia Pacific from Walmart.  The brown ink is from Stampabilities, the bling on the image is Stickles in both Ice Blue and Mercury Glass.

I wanted to do a close-up of the image so you could see the dimension.  I actually printed out two of the images and fussy cut one, leaving only the see-saw, tree stump and children.  Then I inked up the part I cut out and adhered it onto the base image using foam squares from Recollections.  Then I added stickles to draw your eye to the edges so it would really pop up that dimension.  Here is how it looks from a side view ...

Do you see the foam dots under there ... that is a very easy way to give depth and dimension to a paper crafted project.  I think I will give this tag to my niece ... she is a new Mommy and I think she is learning that there are just some things that have to be let go of so she can do the important things.  She is a really good Mommy and a wonderful husband for my nephew, and I love her a lot!


Thanks for joining me and please come back soon ... I will have another project to share with you soon.  Blessings!

Sharing ... Crafting ... Moving On to the Next Holiday!

Well, Christmas is past (sort of) and today I have a day to myself to do whatever I please, and what pleases me, of course, is crafting!  And since I make crafts to (attempt to) sell, I have to look ahead to the next holiday ... Valentines of course!  And I just LOVE making Valentines tags using vintage images! 

Where do I find those images, you ask?  Well, these days I primarily find them on Pinterest, but I don't pin them, but instead save the images to my computer and use Picasa to edit and print them.  (The link on the word Picasa will take you to where you can get the free download)  For the Valentines tags I print 9 images per page, set at 'Wallet' and 'Shrink To Fit'.  Here is an image just for you ... simply put your cursor over the image, right click on your mouse and choose 'Save Image As' and save it to your computer.

This is one of my favorite vintage Valentines images because it is so sweet and simple!  Once you have saved this to your computer and printed out numerous copies (In my case 9 on one sheet) you want to 'fussy cut' these sweet puppies out from the white background.

What is fussy cutting?  Well, according to definition.net, it is to cut pieces of fabric (or paper!) so that a particular part of the printed design is centered or featured.  In the case of these images you can simply cut around the whole image, removing the white around it.  

The only really hard part of doing this is leaving 'just the right amount' of white outside of the printed area.  It really does make a huge difference if you do this!  Here is what I mean ...

I know the picture isn't great, but it's hard to get a very up close photo without it being a bit fuzzy.  But do you see what I mean?  Just a tiny bit of white outside the printed area is all you need.

One thing that I do suggest you have for this process is a pair of good 'detail' scissors.  The pair I have now is great!  I bought them at the 2012 Scrapbook Expo nearest me for $1 and they work great.  They have think sharp blades and a pointed tip.  When I went back to the 2013 Expo they had gone up in price to $2 ... but still a great value for these wonderful scissors!

The scissors I use are about three to three and one half inches long.  The blue ribbon tied to one of the finger 'holes' is because there are several of us at my LSS who have them, and with the blue ribbon I know this pair is mine!

And what do you get when you do the fussy cutting?  Well, you get a neat and clean image, ready for turning into something pretty!

Do you see how pretty those little images are?  They will look great on some valentines tags once I have inked the edges and prettied them up a bit.  But that's for another post!  Thanks for visiting today, and I look forward to showing you more about how I make some really sweet Valentines tags!  Blessings,