Green Paper

Vintage Gluebook Pages and Our Challenge Winner!

I had a nasty bout of the flu this week and I'm out of sorts and really behind on everything!

I have a couple recent gluebook spreads to show you...

And, I forgot to announce the January Collage Challenge winner - it's Corinne of Dining Room Table Art.  Thank you to the sweet people who kindly reminded me!

What have YOU been up too?

A Vintage Gluebook Spread

Just one today as we wrap up 2011...

Today's Gluebook Pages

I took some time out today to play in my gluebook, and here are a couple of the spreads:

As usual, just paper and glue...

I did a really good job of sticking to the 'real thing' and using my vintage papers. The only copies are the ticket and stamps on the spread above - some of my favorite accents.

I hope you're having a wonderful Holiday Season and finding time to art!

New Gluebook Pages

I haven't shown any gluebook pages recently, so I have some to share...

What do you think?

I forgot to announce the winner of the December Collage Challenge, it was #2,  Lydia. Her entry is HERE. It is really beautiful, so stop by & see it when you have a chance.

By the way, the 25% off Year-End sale in the e-store is over in just 2 weeks, so if you've been thinking about one of the classes or image collections, you might want to pick it up soon. Read about the sale 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"?

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! 

Vintage Gluebook Pages

I haven't posted in a week! How does this happen? But I have been art-ing...in fact, here are some Vintage Gluebook pages from the last few weeks. I hope you like them...

 
 
 
 
 
By the way, if you've been thinking about the Vintage Gluebook Page Swap, there's still time to join us. Just click HERE for the details.

And if you'd like a chance to win some of my antique magazine images, enter Karla's Craft Day Giveaway. I donated some of my magazine pictures to the stash (the originals of course), so check it out HERE.  

More from a Feel-Good Gluebook...

Thanks so much for all of your nice comments and emails about my modern gluebook pages. I finished my latest feel-good gluebook (I call them that because playing in one - and looking at them later -  just make me feel good) and thought I would show you the finished one.

The pages measure a little over 7 1/2" X 5". You might be surprised by how few pages it has - just 12. I handmake them from watercolor paper, and like to make them short. They're even more fun because you can finish sooner and get that sense of accomplishment more often!

A few more pages:

 
 The back:

 Front and back when closed:

By the way, all of the images and words in this book came from the April 2011 edition of Veranda magazine. It's fun to use just the contents of one magazine to make one book. An little challenge.

That's it for me today - what are you up to?

And Now for Something Completely Different...

About a year ago I learned a little about art therapy and was actually tempted to use modern materials for the first time. I started to play with magazines quite a bit and began creating modern gluebook pages just for myself. I chose images I particularly liked, and words or phrases that spoke to me.  

I find this really relaxing (like my vintage gluebooks) and cheerful. I started calling my book a feel-good gluebook. I use a bit of marker now and then, otherwise I'm still just using paper.

I decided to share a few pages with you, so I hope you'll let me know what you think...

Here's the cover:

 and a few random pages...

 
 So what do you think? Have you played with magazine imagery too?