It Has Been A Long Time

I am playing around with the IPhone and seeing if I can blog from it.....well I know other people can but the question is....can I?

Here's my latest find....all 700 pages of it....for cheap. I don't know what it is about these ledger journals but I love having and using them.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Remembering 9/11....I Will Never Forget

Yes, I remember that day very well and where I was........  I was in Oregon taking care of my Mom who has now passed away.

I had gone upstairs for something and when I came down, I could hear her trying to get my attention as she was unable to talk after having a bad stroke.   When I walked into the living room she was waving her arms and pointing at the television  trying to tell me that something awful was happening on tv.   When I looked over at the tv, I saw one of the towers coming down.

We sat there all day shocked like everyone else as to what unfolded on that horrible day where so many lives were lost, so many lives were changed from losing loved ones and life,  like we once knew it,  had changed from that moment on.

I hope we all have a few minutes to say a good thought or prayer today.

Come On Baby Let's Do the Twist....Round and Round We Go......

Had a fun night out at the 50's Diner.........a car show.......an old fashioned root beer shake.........lots of great music and fun with friends.    It was tolerable being out since the sun was down but it was still in the high 90's.

Some highlights..........

Poodle skirts is the attire for the restaurant.

55 Nash Rambler

Pontiac

1967 Volkswagen

  Corvette 

In the 30's but don't remember what flavor it is.

Early 70's Chevelle

65 Mustang

Sorry about all the hoods up but that is a requirement if you want your car considererd in the run for a trophy.   

Hope you have a great Labor Day weekend.  

From This to That......Gears Anyone?

Some days, it just doesn't pay to go out in this horrific heat but then some days it really does.    I took a class with Tim Holtz at least two years ago altering this wooden bird  with gears on it.   I not only love the whole piece but I fell in love with the gears on top of the bird but never was able to find any that large until last week.   Well I take it back....I did find some on the internet but they wanted an arm and a leg for them and I just told myself to wait.     Tim had a huge collection of gears for us to choose from which was a lot of fun and I just kept it in the back of my mind hoping that someday I would find some for myself.       

Then the other day when I walked into a thrift store,   I saw these clock pieces.   I wished I knew exactly what kind of clock they were from but I don't have a clue.   If you know, please leave a comment for me.   When I picked up one, all I could see inside were gears of all sizes.   My heart did a little pitter patter sound and I took a deep breath and then I said "thank you".  

It went from what is on the left side to the pile of gears on the right.   In some of the clock pieces, some of the gears were as large as three inches across and went down to a small size.   I was surprised at how relatively easy it was to take these clock pieces apart.   I did have to ask for assistance at the very end when he had to cut a couple of the gears off but for the most part, it was all a matter of unscrewing some little nuts and washers.  

This is what it looked like inside one of them......not the best picture but you get the idea.

Some of the smaller gears.

And here is a mixture of the large and smaller gears.

The moral of this story is to never give up on something you want.........whether it be something insignificant as this or something much more important............   I truly believe it is out there for you.  

I truly hope you have a great day and a wonderful week.  

From Table Runner to a Book Bag

In the last post, I showed you my Leather Antique Photo Album that I made into a journal thanks to Mary Ann Moss' class, Full Tilt Boogie.  

Yesterday, as I was sewing up some other items, I decided to make an appropriate bag for the antique photo album journal.   I cut up one of my vintage table runners and thought it went so well with the journal.

It was actually pretty easy to do and I liked how it came out.   

I worked on other items all day yesterday but will show at a later time so as to not spoil some surprises for a swap I am in.

Have a great evening everyone and thanks for stopping by.  

Antique Leather Photo Album Journal

This started out as one of those very old Antique Photo Albums which contained cabinet cards.  This one is all leather covers which were really in good shape considering that the spine wasn't.    The spine binding was all torn so this was a good album to use for the open spine binding method.     I cut the photo frames which were all intact and used them for the journal I just posted about yesterday.  

In this journal, I used watercolor papers, vintage ledger papers, vintage music sheets, vintage wallpaper, some heavy Tim Holtz paper packs of heavy cardstock and vintage papers with vintage fabrics on them.   I also made pockets out of vintage wallpaper and vintage papers to add  to the pages so I can store items.   And one last important thing is that all this inspiration of these books is from Mary Ann's classes Remains of the Day and Full Tilt Boogie.

 

Here are some pages of the seven signatures that are in this book.    A lot of them are from vintage papers, vintage fabric, vintage wallpaper, vintage music sheets, vintage catalog pages.   The only papers that are not vintage are the watercolor and Tim Holtz paper packs.

Vintage Fabric Over Vintage Papers

Cut Out Pieces of Vintage Fabric that was glued to Vintage Papers.

Some More Vintage Fabric Over Vintage Papers to Make Pages

Vintage Wallpaper

A Fold Out Page Using Vintage Ledger Paper

A pocket made out of Vintage Fabric Over Vintage Ledger Paper

A page made with an old page of a Sears Catalog which glued onto heavier paper.

A pocket made with Vintage wallpaper.

Vintage Music Sheets

A pocket made using a Vintage Doily which was glue to Vintage Paper.   The whole thing is sewn on even though there is that wonderful ruler tape there.

On the other side of this ledger paper is some old fabric that I fused together.

Thanks everyone for stopping by and I hope you have a great day.

Antique Frame Journal

I made this journal  using a block of antique photo frames from an Antique Photo Album that was in pretty bad shape except for the fact that all the photo frames were still all glued together so I cut them from the covers.    I am using the covers of this book for another project which I am almost done with.   I just got sidetracked making this journal.  This is one of the many style of books we are learning to make in Mary Ann's class called Full Tilt Boogie.    This is really a great online class.   

This is the front cover but not the best picture in the world.     I used a page of a Sears Catalog and attached it to a manila folder to make it more sturdy.     Then I added a layer of lace on top of that.   And then on the inside I added another page of a Sears Catalog.   I did the same for the back of the book. 

For the spine binding on the book I used a strip of black leather and sewed a piece of lace on top of it. 

For decoration, I added some fancy buttons to the spine leather piece and also added some mannequin form die cuts to the front of the book.   The ribbon is tied around the mannequin form before I glued them to the front of the book.  

This is a picture of the inside of the front cover using a page from an old Sears Catalog.

This shows the Frame Block better.   Sorry for  lousy picture.

Now that I have the covers and book put together, I will continue to work on each page/frame.   This book is by no means done.   I can't wait to have more time to work in this as this is going to be so much fun to collage, rubber stamp, paint, stencil, etc. each page.   

Fabric and More

For some reason, fabric is slowly coming back into my life........who knew that I would use a sewing machine again.   It actually started a couple years ago when I took an online class with Mary Ann called Remains of the Day.   It was a fabric journal........I loved it as it combined my love of paper and fabric.   I made several of the journals and will always love the concept of this class sewing all kinds of things together.  I know I have said this before but it truly is one of the best on line classes I have taken and our yahoo group continues to flourish.   I learned to sew when I was in grade school/high school.   I can still remember that reversible pleated wool skirt that I made........a lined yellow suit and a fancy brocade dress among many other things.   Then I got back into sewing many years later when I would take a week off work and sew up a bunch of outfits on my old Kenmore sewing machine.   Then I got away from it for many years until a couple years ago.   Who knew that I would be looking at and loving fabric again.

Last week I went to this thrift store that I don't go to a lot just because of its location.......so glad I did because I found some neat things and one of them was this beautiful piece of fabric...........which was so outside my vintage followings but I loved it.   It was marked that it was a 70's piece of fabric.......I don't know if it is.......I was just drawn to it so I got it..........   Maybe the reason I liked it so much because it reminds me of Hawaii.........

Then I picked up a  a couple old Look and Life magazines from the 50's and 60's to use for collage and some other things which I will mention later on.    I also got some old Bingo slider cards which are quite heavy.........the first thing I saw when I looked at them were that they would make great covers for a book with an open spine binding that I learned in Mary Ann's new class, Full Tilt Boogie.....they will be a lot of fun to work with.

Hope you all have a great day.   I need to get going and do a couple errands and some grocery shopping.

Paper Tape on Vintage Wooden Spools

I've had these Vintage wooden spools that are about 7" tall and it just hit me today that they might make a great holder for some of my handmade paper tape.   I know there is a lot of paper tape out there but it just never seems to be in the style I want.   I wanted some done in some original ledger paper so I made it today.  All I did was cut strips and ran it through the little Xyron "X" machine that is 1.5 inches wide.   I also made some with some license plate cardstock and then tried it with Vintage wallpaper.   They all turned out great.   I just took the film off and left it on its backing and rolled it onto the Vintage wooden spool.   I like how it turned out.   Might have to do some different designs on another spool.  

This is how it looked with the thread on them.........

This is how it looked with the tape on one of them.   It holds three different designs.

That's it for today.   Hope you have a great afternoon/evening wherever you are.  

Treasure Hunting

If I could go treasure hunting everyday I would but I can't and besides right now it is just way too HOT.   I actually haven't done as much of this as I usually do but thought I would just share a few items that I have picked up recently.    For the spare time that I have, I have been spending it working on my Full Tilt Boogie classes and making books as they are so much fun to do.   Here are some of the items.........

I have never seen a Sudoku game like this in a wooden box with drawers for both the little number wood tiles and the large wood number tiles.   I love it.

Quite a collection of paper items that I will use on my Remains of the Day pages.  I love this old wide ruled paper probably very old and used in school to learn writing.   I love it.   The Sukoku calendar is brand new too and lots of room to write on and will be used on pages for journals.   The brayer was brand new....can always use them.   The Watercolor Sketchbook Kit was quite a find and still wrapped up like new and looking at the paints, the kit appears relatively new.  

All of these items will be used for Remains of Day and Full Tilt Boogie journal pages.   They are all big tablets and the box of postcard labels is brand new and full.  

Who doesn't like to find vintage patterns, big spools of good thread and a jar of buttons.  

The one cigar box is vintage and the other is relatively new but was different inside so I picked it up.  

Here are those same two cigar boxes filled with stuff that can be used in altered art.   Notice the dividers in the second cigar box....kind of different.

Well that's it for today.   Hope you have a great week ahead.