HAUNTED - SUNDAY POSTCARD ART

For the next 5 weeks Kris Dickinson of A Nostalgic Halloween is hosting at Sunday Postcard Art.  This weeks theme is Haunted!  I just had to take a break from the assembly line of  Candy Cane Cones to play.

All of the images used here are from Deviant Scrap, I've used images from several of the micro kits offered for Halloween e.g. Toil & Trouble, The Haunted Library   As I have said they are Digital Divas at Deviant Scrap but their kits include collage sheets for those of us who cut and paste!

VINTAGE LABELS

I think fall is the perfect time to put some of these to use!  Be sure to double click on the image and save the larger image for best results.

VINTAGE IMAGE CRAFT

As mentioned in my "CANDY CORN CONE" post, I discovered VINTAGE IMAGE CRAFT while searching for ideas, directions for vintage style chenille ornaments.  I posted my project on their FaceBook page and was featured in the VIC September Newsletter!  How fun is that!

They are working hard on building up their FaceBook page and offering lots of fun and free images!

I have taken a little time now to look through their site, signed up for the newsletter and looked through a number of past issues.  This is a treasure trove of authentic vintage images (lots of freebies!) and some really sweet projects with images and complete directions included (for free in the newsletter!).

Do check them out, sign up for both the newsletter and like their FaceBook page!

HALLOWEEN VINTAGE SHEET MUSIC COVERS

If you are making decorative books these would make great covers, I also see some great fussy cutting opportunities here.  Again these are from "Thirteen for Halloween"  Remember to click on the image and save the second larger image for best resolution when printing.

AUTUMN SCRAPBOOK PAGES

Haven't done any pages for ages LOL  Nothing too complicated and oh I am happy to see a less fussy style becoming the trend.  Inspired from within the latest copy of "Scrapbooking and Beyond" and an autumn themed pad of paper from K&C0.  These are from a trip to the Sunshine Coast for Thanksgiving 2010 to visit one of our daughters and family.

A visit to the pumpkin farm of course!  McLean had no trouble picking his pumpkin.  Tried to keep any girlie frill to a minimum...pods don't count as flowers right?

Baby Olivia enjoyed the day too.

WOYWW - WHAT'S ON YOUR WORKDESK WEDNESDAY

Don't know what has come over me but suddenly have an itch to join in the sharing of What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday!  I am pleased to report that most participants seem to have real spaces and not the ones I dream of LOL

On the window sill are some of this year's Halloween cards, I like to look at them as I do the next one.  I seem to do something different until I land on one that really "sings" to me.  Here I was working on the Candy Corn Cone.  I like to have the basics within easy reach, so they surround my desk with a bit of work space in the middle.  No curtains, we back onto a wooded area and on a clear day there are some glimpses across the water (Victoria) to Port Angeles, Washington.

Directly behind my desk chair, I think you can tell that I like to stack stuff LOL  I do need to move my inspiration board as I can no longer reach it or even see it.  The seven 12x12 acrylic cases contain my holiday stash for the most part.  The rolling units are pretty organized for contents at least.

Enjoying a bit of fall colour!

VINTAGE HALLOWEEN GLUEBOOK PAGE

Early vintage halloween magazine images are hard to come by.  I put away a 1910 page from a "Ladies Home Journal" sometime ago unsure what to do with it.  Each  volume featured a page focused on entertaining, these typically included table setting, menu and theme ideas.  Went looking for it and managed to tear it!  Easy decision now, use the images to make a vintage Halloween gluebook page.  For some authenticity I have used only vintage images including the sheet music background and glue - the same supplies that would have been used in the day.  No glitter, no modern embellishments, no inking or stamping!  This will go into a Victorian scrapbook I have been making similar pages for.  The page size is 8 x 11, I have left a one inch margin on the left where the page will be punched to add to my scrapbook.  If you click for the larger image I am sure you can read the menus.  None of these tables would be out of place now except the suggested price of the decorations and menu items at $9.00 for up to 12 people LOL

I am linking this up to the September challenge at  Unruly PaperArts - gluebook pages.

CANDY CORN CONE AND BLACK CAT CHENILLE ORNAMENTS

Maybe each time I create a new piece it becomes my favourite?  Not sure but lovin' this sweetie!  The sparkly (Diamond Dust) Candy Corn cone is inspired by a Lisa Pace project. I have used black Ostrich Fringe (been dying to use this stuff!) around the top and provided pretty fluff to the cone top with orange dyed cheese cloth.  TH rosette die cut (sparkly green paper), MS felt jack-o-lantern sticker, sparkly orange pom, gold tinsel pipe cleaner and orange seam binding from my stash.

The Black Cat chenille ornament directions and image can be found at Vintage Image Craft.  The moon die cut was created by my friend Heather Hudson   I have been wanting to make chenille ornaments for ages, how vintage sweet!

Going from zero to 90 LOL I can't recall the last time I entered a challenge.  Inspired by Heather (who is on the Sugar Creek Hollow Design Team) I am entering this in the Sugar Creek Hollow challenge which just happens to be #30 - Vintage Animals!  And the challenge at Make It Monday.

THE RAGTIME GOBLIN MAN VINTAGE SHEET MUSIC AND COVER

Both the cover and first page of sheet music for your pleasure.  Again from "Thirteen for Halloween".

"THE WITCH BEHIND THE MOON" VINTAGE SHEET MUSIC COVER

I happened upon a great site for "halloween sheet music"!   Thought I would share with you some of the pieces I chose but do check it out for yourself  at Thirteen for Halloween.

RAPHAEL TUCK & SONS (PAPER DOLL & COSTUME 1890s)

Some of the finest paper dolls were produced by Raphael Tuck & Sons.  I believe these are from one of the  earlier series in the 1890s.  These are scans from my own ephemera collection, so as usual click on the image and save the second larger image for best results.

Marked on the back "No 7 Green"

Marked on the back "Gown and Hat A for No 7"  (the sets came with 4 costumes)

FALL SILHOUETTE

This is a gif file, meaning the background is transparent.  Whatever you print this on will show through.  Thanks again to my buddy Heather for the conversion!  Do check out her fabby halloween background!

THIS TOO SHALL PASS (words to live by)

In the January 2012 issue of the UK "Scrap 365" magazine I saw a project by Mahlin Wiggur which stuck with me.  She used the same phrase, mounted it in an oval frame.  Her approach was colorful but totally shabbified. Both the style and phrase stuck with me.

I rarely do flower arranging!  When I was on the Bella Creations design team, I was always in awe of the gorgeous arrangements Lacee seemed to just throw together in no time at all..not me!  Each addition is carefully and slowly considered many times before getting adhered in place LOL

I started by picking through various alphas, I adore the glittery blues ones so those started the colour palette, the gold ones offered a bit of contrast.   I used several Distress embossing powders on the others, sanding them down a bit here and there.

The frame I covered in gesso and left until I had the flowers in place.  I used Versa Magic "Cocoa" ink on top of the gesso.  My last step was to add texture to the frame and actually everything else with Golden's Glass Bead Gel - my newest favourite find!

These are indeed words to live by and I am hanging this over my desk, where I will see it everyday.

 

VINTAGE IMAGE - RATS (WELL ONE AT LEAST)

If you really want to do Halloween up right then this image is for you!  This was culled from a turn of the century advertisement for rat poison  in a ``Ladies Home Journal``.   My friend Heather made a gif file out of it giving it a transparent background so you are just printing the image itself onto whatever you wish.  Have fun!

Heather is on the Sugar Creek Hollow design team, do check out her blog to see what she might be up to!

"TRICKS" A HALLOWEEN SHADOW BOX

I played around with one of these last year and had so much fun that I knew this would be on my "Halloween create list" again.   This is meant for the little ones to enjoy so not too fussy and not too scary!  The 7.5 x7.5 base is from Maya Road, a perfect size for an afternoon project and not too expensive to mail.  I've used Dylusions Ink Spray to cover, Graphic 45 papers for the backgrounds, vintage Scrabble tiles and tray painted with Luminarte Silk and a variety of brads, stamps, stickers and embellishments from my stash!  I can't get the photo to show the right colours, honest the background papers are all shades of orange - no pink included!

ILLUSIONS COLLAGE FACE - HALLOWEEN

Haven't got the right text quite yet - any suggestions?   Magazine ad face painted green with H20, background Tim Holtz stencils, Dylusions Spray Inks, flowers and skull Deviant Scraps (Halloween Micro Kits).

HALLOWEEN POST CARD "ESSEY THE WITCH"

Are you familiar with Deviant Scrap?  Check out the series of micro (with a micro price of $1.50!) Halloween kits being offered.  I picked up the first two a few weeks ago and I am going back for more LOL Of course they are digital divas at Deviant Scrap  but all of their image kits include jpegs for those of us who cut and paste!

HALLOWEEN CARDS

There's nothing better to me than keeping my nose into the Halloween stash and only coming up for air!  A few more simple cards done..

Tim Holtz/Ranger products - Halloween Kraft Resist for the background, inked with Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink, Silly Face Diecut coated with Rock Candy Distress Paint and outlined with Platinum Stickles.  The outlining provided a surprizing amount of depth (it appears to me that there is a strange image in that larger eye).  Brads and charm are Making Memories.  I stamped the bit of Distress stained ribbon - everyone has been doing that for ages except for me LOL  I am not a great stamper but I can stamp ribbon - who knew!

Tim Holtz/Ranger - Halloween Kraft Resist background inked with Spiced Marmalade Distress, Spider Web mask sprayed with Dylusions, dangling spider diecut covered with Rock Candy Distress Paint and diecut layered rosette.  Recollections sparkly borders.  Micro fine glitter from Glitter Ritz.

Tim Holtz/Ranger - Holiday Paper Stash background, diecut layered rosette, Platinum Stickles, cat stamp from Happy Halloween collection stamped with Black Soot Distress Ink and clear embossed.  Glitter tape from Recollections.

Provisions.  While I dream of a perfectly organized studio full of beautiful vintage furniture and supplies arranged in adorable vignettes - that is a long way off!  I have had this galvanized metal tiered container for sometime but just recently figured out it's perfect to store my acrylic paint tubes, PanPastels and H20s.

ILLUSIONS COLLAGE FACE

I've been taking a three week course at LuminArte, "Illusions" by Marah Johnson.  It's now week three and these are my first "faces".  I can feel a lot of these coming on!

HALLOWEEN CARD "GRUNGY EEK"

Still playing with the same basic elements - Halloween Kraft Resist paper, Grunge alpha/blocks, diecut, Distress Stains, Dabbers and Crackle Paints from Tim.  Added more sparkle to the mix, suits me better!

HALLOWEEN CARD "GRUNGY BOO"

Oh I am slow to get into Halloween this year!  I typically send more Halloween cards than Christmas cards so I sat down yesterday to start digging through my Halloween stash, push some paper and bits around and see if the mysterious mojo would come.

Here I used mainly used Halloween Kraft Resist, Grunge Blocks and Letters, spider diecut, White Distress Stain and Shabby Shutters, Orange Spiced Marmalade and Grape Distress inks - all from Tim of course.  This isn`t likely ``the`` card for this year but a fair start, I am liking the grungy letters.

 

VINTAGE SCHOOL IMAGES FOR FALL

Hope you can make use of these!  All are original size, double click on the image and save the larger second image for best results.  Enjoy !

The browning on this one is the result of a non-acid free bookmark being left in the book over the years.  I don't redo my images...I like the authentic image best for the most part and I am unwilling to spend to the time and brain cells on learning PhotoShop LOL

ALMA AND ETHEL "PICK A LITTLE" - A JOURNAL PAGE

Jessica Sporn recently did a two-page journal spread and a post on the topic of gossip which really resonated with me.  With her agreement, I thought to do my own take on this subject and provide a link back to her post.  Here's mine;

"Pick a little, talk a little, pick a little, talk a little

Cheep cheep cheep, talk a lot, pick a little more."

Alma and Ethel, The Music Man, "Pick-a-Little"

Jessica has provided a lot of food for thought on the subject, I hope you will pop over and check out her post "Thou Shalt Not"

LIKE THE BIRDS SING - REVISITED!

Trying out some new techniques with PanPastels and gel medium in Nathalie's class.   I used pages from a 1947 edition of "A Field Guide to the Birds" for the first layer, thinking this might lead me to a more vintage styled page. Nope.  Perhaps it is just the first beginning steps and I will get better at this?  Do I need more layers?  Dabber paint circles?  More color?  Yes, I had fun doing it.  Yes, I will keep doing it.  I think that is what counts.

After some constructive feedback, I "revisited" this page.  Using a foam finger inker thingie, I stamped white gesso all around the birds.  Clouds!  Of course.

ANTIPASTO PASTA SALAD

Curiously I feel the urge to share a recipe today, curious because I have never before considered it LOL  I haven't been up and around enough for cooking much but this afternoon I made this salad, it's a potluck recipe so enough to share with a neighbor.   Pasta, provolone, salami, prosciutto tossed with a balsamic vinigrette and fresh herbs!

You can find the recipe here http://www.emerils.com/recipe/6733/Antipasto-Pasta-Salad 

An old one from Emeril Lagasse "Emeril's Potluck".    Check out the cookbook, it's still available and full of recipes you can count on.