There are just a few hours left in the August Collage Challenge. If you haven't posted your entry yet, you have until midnight CST. If you don't have a location on the web, just email your image to me and I'll post it for you. I don't want anyone to miss out. (although visiting everybody is part of the fun)
My de-stashing continues. If you like trade cards, you might like some of the ephemera packages being listed...
Stop by my Etsy shop to see what's available.
Remember me? I used to post all the time about art and gluebooks and vintage paper and cool images and online classes... Do you remember? I can't blame you if you've forgotten all about me.
Many of you were so sweet to send messages inquiring about my long absense. I think I answered back to each of you, but if I didn't respond, please, please forgive me. I've been ill, but I'm feeling much better now, and actually interested in art again.
I don't plan on writing any new classes just yet. I'm just happy to be glueing a bit and hoping to get some new things in the free images folder.
Wading through some of the excess paper and supplies in my craft room has been an eye-opener. Just looking at the shelves is getting me down. I've been keeping every image or picture I've ever posted on the blog or offered in a class and I need to purge!
I know some people who would kill me if I started tossing things like I'm tempted to, so I'll post some pieces for sale in my Etsy shop over the next couple days. Some are in great shape, others are shabby. Maybe other artists can give these treasures a new home. If you're always in the market for good ephemera, check the Etsy shop or you can email me directly.
Posted along the way here are recent gluebook spreads. I hope you like them. I don't think my style has changed in my absense...do you?
So good to be back!
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!
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:
I always want more:
So that's what I have... and what I want. What about you?
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"?
I had a couple different questions recently about how I store my vintage books and paper.
So, today I'm opening the door to my non-glamourous methods for storing my supplies. Please be kind, I will never be in Where Women Create.
First, book shelves. I have some cheap industrial shelving in the closet of my craft room. These were supposed to be a temporary measure but they've actually worked out pretty well, so I still haven't replaced them.
I have very few 'complete' books on these shelves. I go through each of them as I buy them and take out pages that I particularly like, or those I know I want right away. The books are then put on the shelves, and they're loosely sorted so that all of the foreign language is stacked together, all of the children's books, etc. So it's really not too hard to find what I need when I get into them. I do go through the stacks periodically and resort, and it helps to remind me of what I have.
Loose paper I pulled out too much of, or I'm not using right away, goes into file folders in a big plastic tub. It's sorted by what type of paper it is. I also use these files to build the 30 page paper assortment I sell on Etsy. So, you can actually buy the paper I use myself.
Lastly, I keep the paper I am currently working with in an office in-basket. As you can see, it's overflowing right now, it's time to go through and put some back in the folders. I have a bad tendency to over-estimate my needs and add too much from each book.
If you've taken the Your Vintage Gluebook class, you've already heard about this in more detail. I keep three baskets on my desk - small, medium and large, they stack up in each other. When I need a little accent of something, I go to the small basket first and look through the little pieces of papers and images. It helps me use up what I have.
In the past I sorted all of my images by style or subject, but now I sort them in these baskets by size. May be odd, but it really works for me.
Thanks for following along. How do YOU store your papers?
I've been good at showing some of the latest downloadable additions to my e-store, but haven't shown off any of the classic image collections lately.
The store is filled with exclusive image collections for your art. Each of the images is full size, scanned at 300 dpi and jpegs - so you can alter the size as you like.
One of my favorite collections for accents and interesting focal points is the Vintage Graphics and Text Collection. It includes 50 images of bank notes, cabinet card backs, invitations, advertisements and more. Here are a few (shrunk down to blog size):
If you're frequently looking for the right border for something, a little flourish for an accent, or a fascinating font, this is a great group. The digital file downloads as soon as you purchase - no waiting. You can begin arting with the images right away.
Stop by and see a glimpse into some of the other images, right HERE. Thanks for checking it out!
Finally some paper and treats available in the Etsy shop! I am determined (yet again) to pare down my collections! Here's a glimpse at some of the new stuff:
One lot of ALL of these snapshots! There are about 190 in this lot, and it's the only one I have available. It ships in the US for free:
A very cool old album cover - yep, just the cover, ready to be converted into a book or wall hanging. For a fun bonus, the inside back was decorated with victorian calling cards:
Paper assortments are back - yay!
Little paper fortunes - great accents and messages!
Assortments of 100 game cards, that should keep you busy!
I found a few more of those Farmers Exchange order forms, so I'm sharing:
The poetry pages I've been using in my gluebook - they're here too:
There's more in the shop that I haven't shown, so stop by and take a look if you have a minute.
And more coming as I clear off the desk...and the boxes...and the closet. Wish me luck.
I was asked a while back about some of the patterned papers I use in my gluebook. Were they scrapbook paper that could be purchased somewhere? I keep meaning to do a blog post to respond, so here goes!
I use papers I've created with patterns from a variety of sources. Here are a few examples:
The following paper was copied from an end paper in an antique book. This is one of the papers included in my Collage Basics class.
This next one is created from a portion of one of my Antique Holy Cards, that's the original card on the right. I don't think this one is available anywhere yet, but the Holy Card it came from is HERE.
The one below was created from a portion of a page in an antique French Zoology book. See the strip of bees at the top of the page? This is also available in the Collage Basics class (even though it says Collage Club for some reason...)In case you think creating your own papers is hard, the 2nd and 3rd patterns were created using the software Microsoft Paint. It comes with Microsoft Windows, so if you have Windows you already have Paint. I demonstrate how I make these papers in the Your Vintage Gluebook class - it's so quick that students were showing their patterns in the Flickr group on the day I posted the lesson!
Creating your own patterned paper is a wonderful way to truly personalize your art. There's nothing like using your own papers and images to make your work really individual!
If you don't already do this, I hope you give it a try because you WILL become addicted, I promise!
By the way, if you're ever curious about where I got a pattern or image I am using, I'm happy to share the info. Just email me or leave a comment and I'll get back to you with the source.
