Green Paper

Your November 2011 Calendar

It's Lucile again this month - oh, the possibilties with this image!

Enjoy!

And did you know  that each of the calendar image collections, including Lucile, are just $5 in my e-shop? They're a bargain!

And, there's still time left to register for the My Christmas Gluebook online class, before the start date next Sunday. Learn all about it HERE.

Your Gluebook Opinion, Please...

I'll be doing a video version of the Your Vintage Gluebook online class next Summer at Artful Gathering 2012. It's a long time from now, but it's on my mind a lot lately...

So I decided to ask all of you (especially those who have taken the online class): What would you like to see me demonstrate in the video version? 

Each video class be a total of around 90 minutes for the entire class, in 15-20 minute short videos. I'm worried about condensing the 9 sections of the class in it's entirety into one and one half hours.

So...what should I be sure to include? What was your favorite part of class, or the most valuable, or just the most fun?  

If you haven't taken the class, you can go HERE to check it out. 

If you have taken the class, you can go back and review it - the log on page is HERE.

Thank you so much for your opinions, suggestions and feedback!

Vintage Gluebook Pages - with all Vintage Material!

Last week, I posted about using the "real thing" more often in our work....and yesterday (at Karla's) I crafted 5 spreads in my vintage gluebook - all with the actual vintage materials - no copies! 

The flower background above is a endpaper from an old book. You can see a page of music behind that. The snapshot is from an old album I picked up about a year ago. The map pieces are from my favorite old French Atlas - it's water damaged and really beat up and yet I still hesitate to use it, so silly. No one else will ever love it like I do!

More music and map pieces, a bit of ledger paper, a picture from an old Munsy's magazine, part of an old ticket, and a tiny piece of Victorian scrap I have been hanging on to forever.

Another old snapshot, another bit of the French atlas, music and dictionary paper... opposite a page from an old German birthday gift book and a little snippet from an autograph book.

Another picture from a Munsey's magazine, another flower illustration from the German gift book, more dictionary, maps and music. The Saturday Dec 6, 1851 card is from an old game that I don't remember the name of...I sold packages of mixed pieces on eBay a year or two ago and this may be the only one left - time to use it!

One more snapshot and music,a torn bit of an old trade card on the bottom left a and a blank calling card on the top right. The text piece is from an old French magazine, Lectures Pour Tous.

As you can see, I used a lot of old music, dictionary pages and maps - easy to do when there are normally so many pages in any dictionary, music book or atlas. The magazine pieces are from collected issues of old magazines, I wrote about finding these in an old post HERE. 

If you ever shop flea markets or antique shows, when you can talk to the vendors, ask any paper vendors if they have old damaged pieces that aren't on display.  If they do, and they let you pick through them, you can sometimes get a nice selction of torn or beat-up pieces you won't mind art-ing with, at an affordable price. Most vendors will be happy for you to take some damaged stock off their hands.

So, how'd you do this week - make anything with your "real things"?

Introducing My Christmas Gluebook...

The holiday season is coming, and it's a great time to do some special gluebook-ing!

In anticipation, I've been searching out great holiday and Christmas-themed paper pieces for the last few months -  beautiful examples of Victorian artistry, some great shabby pieces and loads of charming imagery. These marvelous new additions, along with some old favorites, are included in a new online workshop, My Christmas Gluebook.

This class enables you to create a sweet 8 page gluebook, filled with vintage holiday collage. You'll also receive ideas to adapt the designs and images into your current gluebook,  as well as holiday cards and gift tags. The material is really flexible!

The course contains great composition tips and example pages, with step-by-step pictures to show the collages being created. From image choice, to positioning, to embellishments, you'll see what works - and what doesn't!  

The private class blog is ready with a full, downloadable supply list and all of the images are provided individually and in easy-print collage sheets. Like all of my classes, you'll receive the information about how to sign in as soon as you purchase. You can start creating before class begins if you'd like!

The first My Christmas Gluebook lesson posts in 2 weeks - on November 6th. There are 5 lessons in all, a new one posting every Sunday, Wednesday and Friday through November 16th. The cost for all of the instruction, examples and images is just $23.00.

 

 

You can find even more information HERE. I hope you can join us!

The Christmas Gluebook Online Class is Coming...

I'm working on the Christmas Gluebook class today. Here's a glimpse at some of the images included in the class:

Watch for the registration information on Saturday!

What if we die?

Catchy blog post title, eh?

The latest edition of the Collage Club was about using 'the real thing' in your art - the actual vintage papers and ephemera you've collected. I've been thinking about my overflowing 'collections' recently. I know you have them too....old paper and books, rare ephemera and trashy ephemera, fabrics, beads, buttons, lace...should I go on?

Then, I received some timely comments this week. First, from Pam at Fairy Rocks and Things: I love old photo albums. I just hate to see those abandon families.

Then a comment from Julie (Jewels, how come I can't find your blog?)  in which she says: I got to the point where I was asking"if I don't use it now will I ever". Can't stand the thought of something just siting in a box some where when I can highlight it in "art"!  

It all percolated together for me....overflowing collections, abandoned photographs, if I don't use it now...and it made me wonder: what happens if I die?

Will any one of my family members treasure my bits and bobs the way that I do? Will any of them see a tub full of old paper as anything except trash? Will they have any idea what pieces of my stash are actually valuable and which pieces have very little value to anyone except maybe artists like me?  Are my beloved collections about to become the forgotten cabinet card photos at the flea market...or more likely added to the recycling bin?

If you're like me, you have friends and relatives who 'don't get it'. They may love us, and our art, but they don't really get the magpie attraction we have to the faded and aged. Can you imagine their dismay at having to dismantle our collections someday?

So, I am committing myself to using the real thing even more often. Who will appreciate it and enjoy it more than we do? Would I rather it was thrown away by an unsuspecting relative 30 years from now, or would I prefer to take a deep breath and glue it down onto something beautiful, so it will be seen and appreciated...by me and my blog friends at least!

I plan to label the truly valuable things I would never use, like my French Holy card collection and my Tennyson calendar, among others. They're all in a special drawer anyway; I just need to add some notes about them so maybe the descendants will make a bit of cash.

Then, I plan to start using the real thing even more often: the dozens of magazine images, the damaged ledger pages, the ripped handwritten letters, the old book pages, the actual photographs, and torn bits of ephemera.

It's true for money, and I have to remember that it's true for art supplies too - you can't take it with you. 

This and That...

If you haven' t seen it already, I had fun doing a guest post on Gingersnap Creations yesterday. It's an introduction to vintage gluebooks and a walk-through of a new gluebook spread. I hope you like it!

If you want to know more about vintage gluebooks, you can check out my online class, Your Vintage Gluebook. Click HERE for all of the details.

Next, the random winner of the October Collage Challenge is Linda of Unlimited Possibilities. She's a local crafter and we keep meaning to get together - one of these days! She won the sweet little gift book.

I thought I'd give you a glimpse at some of the pages I received for the Vintage Gluebook Swap. This is what the sorting table looked like at one point:

Aren't they beautiful? The packages will be on their way back to the swap participants very soon!

Finally, watch this space for a new online class beginning in just a couple weeks. This one's a little shorter than the others, super-affordable, and really timely. 

It's called My Christmas Gluebook, and we'll make a small book from watercolor paper and decorate it - gluebook style! It makes a great keepsake for yourself, or a pretty gift for a friend. Loads of images are included so you don't need to have any vintage holiday imagery of your own. All of the images and lessons can be converted to greeting cards too, if you're making some special holiday cards this year. 

You know how relaxing gluebook-ing can be and we can all use a little of that in the upcoming season! Watch for the class details and registration info coming this week! 

Free Image for You...

After I showed my flea market purchases yesterday, Beth Leintz asked if I would post an image of the cover of the autograph album, so here it is. Don't forget to click the image and then click again to get the biggest size.

Since the pages had already fallen out, it was easy to open up the cover and copy both sides and the spine. You could print it and make your own little book cover.  I'd love to see what you make. 

By the way, I mentioned the Collage Club yesterday. You can still join, and you'll receive all of the editions already sent this year - 20 so far! Plus, you'll get the last 4 of the year when the time comes. I won't be doing the Collage Club next year, so this is your chance to get in on what's already happened, and what's to come. Click HERE for more information.

Back from Vacation...

I'm home from my visit to California, where I had a wonderful time.

We did both family (Nica's first birthday!) and tourist-y things. Nica's birthday party was fabulous - just family and a few friends. Nica was cheerful and smiling through the entire thing (actually, she's normally like that) and she seemed to love all of her gifts, as well as the cake.

But the thing you all probably care about the most is my trip to the Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena CA. Hundreds of vendors, miles of aisles.   This is the 3rd time I visited the Rose Bowl Flea and the other 2 time were fabulous. This time, there were some cool things you might have liked...

sweet baby shoes...

burlap...

and more burlap...

and loads and loads of vintage clothes

The last time I went, I bought dozens of cool things. This time, everything seemed overpriced or just boring. There were few books there, and even less ephemera. I had better luck last year when we visited the Pasadena City College Flea. I plan to schedule for the Long Beach Flea next time - I hear that's great!  

So, what did I get? I bought two items. Yep, you read that right, two. But - they're both wonderfully cool, both were affordable and they'll give me hours of gluebooking fun!

One is a 1920s-1930s scrapbook of dozens of cool pictures of people and activities, including swimming, a wedding, graduation, and plenty of family and individual shots.

The other is an 1880s autograph book with loads of pages of sentiment - many decorated with a bit of Victorian scrap.

I'll share something from each with you in this week's Collage Club, so if you're a member, or become one, watch for that.

What else did I do on my trip? I visited the Getty and saw various exhibits, including the Luminous Paper exhibit, which I highly recommend. We went to Universal Studios, where I got a private back lot tour with my sister Kathi, who is head of benefits there. We also went to a free outdoor jazz concert at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and visited some of the exhibits there. One was a small dual Monet/Lichtenstein exhibit of a series of paintings by each artist, both of the Rouen Cathedral.

What did you do while I was gone?

Today's the last day...

...to link your entry into this month's Collage Challenge. I am thrilled by the diversity of creations so far this month, and I hope you join in too!