Green Paper

Your December Calendar Page!

I hope you have a wonderful month!

This month's calendar is from the 1927 Postcard Calendar available HERE.   It's normally $5.00, but use the discount code decemberspecial and get 25% off! 

Classes on Sale...

My year-end sale has started. Everything in the store is 25% off - including each of the classes and the Collage Club!

The entire year of the Green Paper Collage Club is $70.00 - now $52.50

Collage Basics was $45.00 and is now $33.75

Your Vintage Gluebook is regularly $35.00, now just $26.25

My Christmas Gluebook was $23.00, and now $17.25

And all of the image collections are 25% off too!

Visit the store HERE and use the discount code decemberspecial on the shopping cart page.

My Other Mother....

How many mothers do you have? At one point in my life I was up to 4, but now I'm really down to just one. I had my own mother, adopted roommates mothers, and aquired a mother-in-law for a while.

But my most consistent "other mother" is still in my life, in a really big way. 

My family moved to Missouri when I was about 13. My sister fell in love with the boy across the street later that summer, and I became best friends with his sister. Of course, I spent plenty of time at their place, and 'adopted' both a mother and a father.

my other mother and my mom, about 5 years ago

Fast forward 5 years and my sister married the boy across the street. Both sides of the family and all of the friends knew each other really well, and it was a great celebration.

A few years later, my sister and brother-in-law had the first grandchild on both sides. About 6 months after that, my parents moved to California. I stayed. I was in college nearby, and just couldn't bear to leave my sister.

Later my best-friend-across-the-street moved 1000 miles away with her family. I became a doubly surrogate daughter in my other family.

In all of this time, my other family and I have shared most holidays and countless family events, plus lots of just hanging out.  To this day, weddings and babies are celebrated by both sides of the family, and I'm surrounded by people who know each other and have a long shared history. 

Both of my parents have passed away now, and my other father has too, but I still have my other mother with me. On Thursday, I'll be lucky enough to be one of dozens of people at Thanksgiving dinner with her. That's just one of the things I am thankful for.

Everyone needs other mothers. Collect them if you can.

Your Wish List...

I have a question for you... As you might know, I have loads of vintage paper, most of it from old books of every subject. 

So here's my question...what do you have lots of...and what are you always looking for? 

I have lots of: 

• dictionaries
• magazine pages
• post 1920 materials I don't like (I prefer to use the really old stuff)
• pages from novels
• game cards

I always want  more:

• ledgers with lots of handwriting
• small ephemera
• handwritten letters
• gift books with pretty pictures
• booksellers labels
• pretty calendars with one page per month

So that's what I have... and what I want. What about you?

My Christmas Gluebook is Complete...

Well, my own Christmas Gluebook has been complete for a little while now, but today was the last day of the live My Christmas Gluebook online class, so lots of artists are completing their books.

And you can still join us!

The class is self-paced now - you can sign up and do everything on your schedule. All of the images and information is available as soon as you log on, and all of the lessons can be downloaded and saved.

The blog will be open indefinitely, but registrations for the class will end on December 31st, so don't wait too long. Get more information HERE.

Year End Sale Begins Now!

It's almost Thanksgiving  - can you believe it? 

And it's time once again for the year end sale in my e-store. This time it's not just images - everything is on sale! The classes, the images, even the 2011 Collage Club! 

You'll save 25% off anything and everything in the e-store from now until December 31st. 

You might pick up some new images. All of them are exclusive to me, created from ephemera in my own collection.

You might decide to take that class you've been thinking about. Each of my classes is complete and ready to begin on your schedule. And each of them provides loads of  images to get you started.

• How to save? You need to order through the e-store HERE. 
• Click ADD TO CART when you've made a selection
• Enter the discount code: decemberspecial on the shopping cart screen

That's it! The store calculates the discount for you and then emails you a link to the material as soon as you pay - no waiting!

I hope you'll visit the store to see everything available. And, please contact me if you have questions about any of the classes or image collections. Thanks!

Holiday Gifts and Decorations, Part 2:

I'm bringing you another great handmade-gift tutorial, this time from my crafting buddy, Karla Nathan. And this one is only $6.00!!! 

Karla's Cuff Bracelet Tutorial walks you though everything you need to know to decorate a cuff bracelet. Karla uses fabrics and lace bits, broken jewelry and velvet ribbon to decorate hers, and she'll show the easiest ways to do it. She has stunning results. I have seen her cuffs in person and seen the tutorial, both are fabulous.

She's also offering a few supply kits in her Boutique, if you'd like to grab everything at once - the cost of the kit includes the tutorial.

If you pick one up, tell her I said Hi!

Making Holiday Gifts and Decorations?

I've been seeing a lot of great hand-made gift ideas out there this year and I thought I would share in case you're looking for inspiration. You can get really amazing results in a few easy steps when you know how, and some of the tutorials I've seen lately have really impressed me. 

Today, these adorable Altered Ballet Slippers from Lisa at Tarnished and Tattered. These are so cool displayed on their own, but also wonderful as ornaments and included in assemblages and shadowboxes. What a great way to showcase a little ballerina's first dancing shoes.

Those of you trying to use up some treasures (like I am!) will have a field day decorating these - fabrics, lace, bits of old jewelry... I have Lisa's tutorial and it's really great. Clear photos, step by step instuctions and simple techniques. This is a very do-able project with impressive results, so you might want to check it out.

If you don't have any of the raw materials or you'd like to pick up some great embellishments for these, Lisa has been trying to keep her Etsy store stocked with kits. I think there's only one in there today, but I'm sure she'll have more in there soon.

I know that Lisa's kits are always filled with beautiful vintage goodness, you will be so impressed. 

We Have a Winner!

I drew the winner of the November Collage Challenge prize today. It's Laurie from Indulge Your Shelf.

I saw Laurie in person last Spring at Karla's Bird Song Event, she's wonderful. It's so sweet to make blog friends and then meet them in person!

Thanks to Laurie and to everyone who played along!

...Or You Could Spend $6.00...

On eBay this week...Logomachy Victorian style cards with a starting bid of $59.95, and a Buy it Now price of $79.95. But you probably wouldn't want to use the originals for art...

If you'd like to art with them, you could spend $6.00 and get the downloadable images of the same cards, HERE. Or all 4 styles of Logomachy cards for $18.00, HERE. 

When I sold discs at Karla's Bird Song event last Spring, Beth was telling people that this group of 4 styles was my best collection - she makes tags and gluebook pages with the images all the time. She's right - they are versatile. 

And it just seems that $6.00 sounds better than $59.95.