JUST BECAUSE.....GIVEAWAY

I belong to this great group of ladies who are taking Mary Ann's class, Full Tilt Boogie.   We are learning so much and having so much fun.   About a week ago, Mary Ann gave away a Japanesse Screw Punch for one lucky winner and, at the time, I thought that was such a cool thing to do. You can use an awl to punch the holes for the book binding but it really is so much easier to use a Japanese Screw Punch.


After thinking about it for a few days, I thought I needed to do something myself so I purchased a Japanese Screw Punch on my own to give away.    I got it at Bonnie's Best, an online store, which sells a ton of stuff and it is all fantastic.    I am not affiliated with her at all except for the fact that I have gotten some great tools and supplies from her for over 12 years.

The Japanese Screw Punch comes in a neat case and has 7 bits from Size 1.0 to 4.0.   There are fakes out there but this is the real deal.

The only thing you need to do to enter this giveaway for a chance to win a brand new Japanese Screw Punch is leave a comment by July 17th.   I will use the random generator and announce it here on my blog on July 18th.   

Good Luck everyone. 

Boogie On

Well this has been a long time coming but I finally got a book done for my Full Tilt Boogie on-line class with Mary Ann Moss.     This is an incredible class and I highly recommend it.   What's nice about this online class is that you can go at your own pace and the videos are available  for a long time after the initial four weeks of  lessons are presented.     

This is practice book #1  and I have practice book #2 started.        After I do a couple practice books, I will then do my vintage photo album.   Then I will go on to the next style of book.  

In this particular book I used a children's book called Anne of Green Gable from a thrift store.  The binding strips are of fabric.   The pages are a combination of pages I received from my Remains of the Day page swap and some vintage papers I added.   I also added some heavy cardstock pages for the beginning of each signature so I did not have to glue the decorated swap pages together.   There are six signatures.

 I hope you all have a great evening.   We are having monsoon rains and lots of wind.  

The Little Things Really Do Mean A Lot

I hesitated about posting this because I don't want it to come across like I am "the cat's meow" or "tooting my own horn" etc.  I am not.   I am just a person who has faults, does weird things, and very much a free spirit, etc........but I am posting this because I was reminded the other day that you just don't have to do a lot or have a ton of money sometimes to make someone's day.  

The other day I was at a thrift store when it reopened after being closed for a month.  I try to visit this store once a week as I occasionally find some really neat stuff here.   On that particular day, I had a few items in my arms and was looking around when a lady came up to me.   She pointed at the remnant piece of fabric I had and asked me where I found it and related to me that she had been looking and looking for some of that fabric to finish a project.   I told her where I found it but that I didn't think there was anymore of it.   She said something like "oh shucks and oh well" and started to walk away.    As she started to walk away, I called out to her and said, "here you can have this fabric".    She was shocked and said, "are you serious" and I was.   As she walked away, I heard her say to her friend how surprised she was that I gave it to her.    She was happy and trust me I was happy.   I was reminded again that it just doesn't take a lot to make someone's day or mine either for that matter. 

I hope it is cool wherever you are because it is blazing hot here.

Thanks Bryanna

If it wouldn't have been for my IPhone I probably would have missed out on this trade with Bryanna Lenan of Fayettville, AR.    About one week ago, I was in the car and ready to pull out when I just had this thought of looking to see if there were any interesting emails.     I belong to a yahoo group for our wonderful class called Full Tilt Boogie by Mary Ann Moss and I saw this email message from this lady who wanted to do a one on one trade so I instantly replied to her and said that I would love to trade with her.   Lucky for me, I was the first to reply to her message.      The quality of the trades/swaps on this group and Mary Ann's other class group called Remains of the Day are wonderful and a step above a lot of them that I have done in the past on other groups.    Mary Ann has just posted a few of the albums/journals that have already been made in the Full Tilt Boogie class on her regular blog and they are spectactular.....go see here....you won't regret it.

Bryanna and I talked back and forth via email and decided to get our packages out right away.   It only took a few days to get that accomplished and received our packages within a week.   Yesterday in the mail, I received the most awesome package from her.    We sent them on Tuesday and both arrived on Thursday.   Just incredible.   There was not one item in that package that I did not already have......and she related the same as far as what I sent her.   My only problem with this is that I am going to have a hard time using some of it. 

Here are some pictures of what I received...........

She made this beautiful bag,  which this picture doesn't do it justice at all,  just for me.   Wow....what a kind gesture that was and so meaningful to me.   It is actually two layers of fabulous fabric goodness with those beautiful roses on the front.   Inside was a stack of the most beautiful pieces of fabric ever.......all tied up with a beautiful piece of lace.   Wow is all I can say.    Here are some pictures of the fabric.

The fabrics are all high quality and just beautiful.   I had mentioned to her that I would be interested in some fabric pieces because she related that she sewed a lot.    She is, indeed,  a beautiful seamstress.  



Vintage Greeting Cards..........all tied up with a beautiful piece of lace.   I may have a few of these but really not anything like this at all.   She sent a lot of them.   The ones pictured are only a select few of the many that she sent.   Unbelievable.

Here is a picture of some of the other items I received. What was so wonderful about everything is that she so beautifully packaged everything. She sewed old vintage wallpaper to make envelopes that contained vintage ephemera, clear packaging with ribbons and bows that contained wonderful items such as old flowers, a beautiful bird she made out of clay etc.   It is just impossible to adequately give her the proper credit she deserves for all the work she put into this package she sent me.    The larger envelope made out of vintage wallpaper at the bottom of the picture contains a wonderful assortment of vintage items.   I love it all.   The smaller envelope at the top of the picture also contains wonderful vintage cards.  

On the bottom left side of this picture is a package containing a Swan.   She made these in memory of  her daughter, Swan Grace, who she lost.   It will have a special place in my art studio.  

I just can't figure out how I got so lucky meeting her and doing this one on one trade with Bryanna.  Thanks  for such a wonderful trade.   And thanks to Mary Ann for this wonderful yahoo group and class that is bringing all of us together.  

The Beginnings of My FTB Vintage Photo Album

There are just not enough hours in the day lately.   We are all having a great time in our Full Tilt Boogie Yahoo Group.   The swaps have started and some people have actually completed their first journal already.  Not me.   Too much is going on here, too many things to do, too many social functions, etc.   So what else is new, it always happens that way.

I have chosen my album I am going to use.....I have cut the straps from my black leather scraps I recently found and starting to assemble some of the pages that will go into this journal.   This is going to be an exposed spine.    The reason I chose this journal was because the spine was gone so there was no loss as we needed to get rid of the existing one anyway.  

This is the front cover of the Vintage Photo Album I am using for the first journal we are going to make in our online class.   Alongside it are strips of back leather that are going to be used for the binding.  

These are potential pages that I am going to use.  They are all different but they are all vintage linens I got last year at a friend's estate sale.   They are all at least 100 years old and I have adhered some of them to old papers just to see how they would look.

And all of these are adhered to something else to make them more sturdy so that I can use them as pages in the book.

So there you have the beginnings of my journal.   I think at this point, I am going to keep this pretty neutral in the colorway of the pages, etc.    We will see as I gather up more papers for the signatures which I will do next.   

Hope you all have a great day.

Vintage Paper Die Cuts

As some of you know, I am a big thrift store person.   Well, I am always looking for old newspaper articles, old Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs, old books, old ledgers with beautiful writing, old ledgers with accounting pages, etc.  The more aged and tattered they are, the better they are to me   While I find most of these items at the thrift stores, I have never found the large ledger books there that are full of wonderful handwriting, etc.   So a few months ago I found a really good deal on three large ledger books from the 1880's on E-Bay and have been using them to use in my journals and then realized they would make great die cuts.    The one problem with some of them is that they are fragile and really need to be glued to something for support.    Here are a couple links where I solved that problem by gluing them or adhering them via fusible webbing to manila folders, cardstock, fabric, or other fragile papers thereby making them very usable for pages, etc.

There are two ways that I have been doing this.   I started out using the Collage Pauge by Traci Bautista and then, after discussion on the Remains of the Day Yahoo Group, I started playing with the Pellon Fusible Webbing.   This is what I found

 Using Fusible Webbing.    This can become pretty expensive if you do a lot of it like I have been doing   It is much faster than the Collage Pauge though   I will say that when putting the two side by side, they really look the same.   I used Pellon 807 Wonder Web Fusible Web.

 Using Collage Pauge.     This method takes a lot more time because of the drying time, having to flatten them out and give them time to dry.   The fusible webbing is instant gratification but more expensive.

I actually started doing this so I could cut out some tags, labels, frames and other items out of old papers to use in Mary Ann's class, Full Tilt Boogie, using Vintage Photo Albums.   I just thought it would be the perfect fit.    These items will also work well with her Remains of the Day online class

So I set about making up a bunch of papers and then die cutting them in my new Vagabond Electronic Die Cutting Machine designed by Tim Holtz   What a difference this was compared to my Sizzix Big Kick hand cranked machine   You can cut more paper at a time and it takes thicker items than the other machine.

One thing led to another and I ended up with all kinds of ziploc bags full of frames, tags, flowers, leaves, labels, tickets, you name it.  

So one day I decided to send Mary Ann a package of vintage papers and lots of die cuts  because I wanted to just thank her in a little way for all the work she has done in her fabulous classes that I have enjoyed so much.   Of course, she was surprised and thankful and related that these would really work great in the new vintage photo album journals that we were going to do in her new class.    So I got busy and made a bunch more and sent her some of her favorities    Now I am busy making some for me and also to include in other packages that I send out either as a trade or as a Random Act of Kindness

Here are some pictures of the items I ended up with.   There are tons more but time and energy ran out.

This is a Sizzix Die called Regal Crest designed by Tim Holtz.

These are little frames from the Tag Die designed by Tim Holtz

This is the Sizzix Flower Die designed by Tim Holtz.   This is fabric that was glued to a Sears catalog page.

This is the Form Die designed by Tim Holtz   It also comes with a spool of thread and a button.

This is a Sizzix Mover and Shaper Label Die designed by Tim Holtz   Some of these were cut out of a crocheted granny square that had been glued to manila folder.

I believe the top die is Tim Holtz  and the botton is a Sizzix die.   The top die is cut out of Irish Linen that was glued over a piece of Sears catalog page.

This is a Tim Holtz designed die called Cabinet Card which I think is perfect for our FTB class  One is out of a Long Island Express ledger sheet and one out of an old Sears catalog.

The top one is cut out with the Cabinet card die where a granny square was glued onto manila folder   The bottom die is a Sizzix die cut out of ledger paper over manila folder

These two fram dies are from Sizzix.

I believe these are also Sizzix Dies cut out of ledger papers.

This is a Leave Die designed by Tim Holtz   The one is cut out of ledger paper and the other is some exotic paper I glued to a manila folder to give it support

A gear die and a tag die designed by Tim Holtz and cut out of ledger papers.

I believe this is Tim Holtz die and I used a granny square that I had glued to a manila folder

Here is the form die again designed by Tim Holtz and the granny square material was used for this one.

Pictures of some of the insides of the frame dies use Sears Catalog papers and Long Island ledger papers.

Here are some tags cut out of manila folders, dictionary paper and linen glued over a ledger page.  These are #8 Size Tags.

These are the insides of the cabinet card die designed by Tim Holtz.

This is an Altered Trading Card Die designed by Tim Holtz.   And the negative of it makes a great frame.

So this is some of what I have been doing of late......a lot of gluing, ironing on fusible webbing and cutting up a bunch of items to use in our journals or for trading/giving away.

I buy all of my manila folders at thrift stores.   I used old cardstock that I have become disinterested in.   I used vintage linens and other fabrics.    Anything works and especially if it was cheap.

And remember the negatives of all the die cuts make great frames too.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

  

Some Thrift Store Fun

I did not go to as many stores as I normally do on a Wednesday but a couple of them lended themselves to some fun stuff and not all of it is pictured here.  I will probably do another post on the other stuff.    I got tired and it was way too hot to be out anymore even though there is air conditioning in most places.  No thrift store shopping today.....I want to work on a couple projects and it is so nice and cool in the house too.   I think the high is going to be 104 today....Ouch.  

I just love it when I come across an old Bingo game.   This one was dated 1960.....good enough for me.   The price was even better considering what they are selling for on Ebay or Etsy.   I got this from a job I don't frequent a lot but I think I did to start going there more often as it is not that far from my house.   And their prices aren't all jacked up like some thrift stores do these days.   That ole' supply and demand thing.

This is an old tin filled with old button vintage.   Way too cool.   Love the tin as much as the buttons.

I am attracted to old boxes, etc. and this caught my eye as it was quite different from anything I have seen before.     I guess that is what I liked about it.  I don't know if it is old or not.   When I opened it up I was really surprised to find a ton of seed beads which all are not showing in this picture.   There were also some more old buttons and a set of 12 vintage crochet needles.  I have never seen them come in a little box like this before.   Way too cool.

This picture doesn't adequately show how much there was in it but it is a plastic grocery bag filled with lace, belt buckle kits, rik rak, seam binding and at the bottom of it was another set of those old crochet needles.   There was a price tag on the bag that said $1.25.    And surprisingly enough that was the price of it.   Another good deal.  

A bag of old metal cars from the 50's, 60's and 70's.   Thought they would work well for different applications  or displayed in a shadow box.   One of the cars is a 57 T-Bird.

One other item I got from this store was a ream of white cardstock which in the retail stores goes for about $14 or so.   That is my favorite kind of cardstock as you can do so much with white.   Combine some ink sprays, acrylic paints and stencils and you have very nice paper to make things out of.   I can spend a whole day just doing this.   The packaging was torn but that was the only thing wrong with it.......all for a mere $2.

These items were all from one store........you know the one I told you that I rarely go to.......well I guess I will change that and check this place out more often.  

When I checked out, the gentlemen looked at me and said.........boy you just got here at the right time as we just put out all of this stuff just a few minutes ago.   And I looked up at the Heavens and said Thank You.

I hope all of you who stop by today have a great day.