New Tag Collages

This week, I thought I would do some colorful tags because it's spring. And since it's Easter sunday, I used colors that reminded me of Easter eggs. I colored the tags with rubber stamp pads. It gave a rather nice texture in the back. I collaged with mostly hand made papers but I included a vintage revenue stamp on the yellow tag.

Tag 22 Pink

Tag 23 Yellow

Tag 24 Green

Tag 25 Aqua

New in the Shop

A new card for my Etsy shop. This image was inspired by the cactus plants I have on my windowsill. I have them in ceramic pots and am trying not to kill them. The card is letterpress printed from my hand carved linoleum blocks in black and green ink.

New in the shop

Scenes from the Pop Up Shop

I had a wonderful day today at the Pottery Barn Pop Up Shop. It was a great location and I was surrounded by lovely Pottery Barn holiday items. It was a rainy day so lots of people were out and about the Oaks Mall in Thousand Oaks, CA. I was set up on a buffet that I would have loved to take home if it had fit in my trunk.

New Collages

I've been in a collaging mood so here are two new Japanese inspired collages.

The first one is made from a vintage photo of a Geisha layered on a page from a vintage Japanese book, combined with handmade paper and an engraving of a moth.

Geisha and Moth

The second one is also layered on a page from a vintage Japanese book. In addition, I used  hand made papers, some old labels, and a tea pot letterpressed from my own illustration.

Japanese Tea

New Collages

I've been working on some new collages. All are done on vintage Reader's Digest book covers - they're a nice size and the board is good for gluing. I used a variety of vintage papers, rubber stamps and hand made papers.

"Tell Me Little Boy"

"A bird sings of Italy"

"Classical Documents"

"Admit One"

Letterpress Exchange

I am participating in a letterpress exchange with the Ladies of Letterpress (LOL). Our assignment was to come up with a broadside using a poem or a quote. Here is my submission.

Letterpress broadside

The quote is by the 13th century Persian poet Rumi. The broadside is printed in 5 colors on a speckled white recycled card stock. The pattern on the bird and the type were printed from metal blocks, the leaves and solid part of the bird were printed from my handcut linoleum blocks, and the star shape in the background was printed from a wood block (purchased from Virgin Wood Type). This was printed in an edition of 60 with 50 going to the Ladies. I have a few of the extras in my Etsy shop for sale.

Collecting Buttons

I have a small collection of buttons. My favorites are the carved mother of pearl but I have a lot of glass ones too. They fill up several boxes and jars. I also buy buttons to use on craft items that I sell at shows and I like to buy the more colorful ones for that purpose. Sometimes though, they just don't work so I've ended up with lots of odds and ends. Last weekend I got out my bingo cards (I admit, not an original idea) and started to lay out buttons. I had made one of these a while ago and tried to get one button in every square but that soon went by the wayside. Sewing the buttons on the cards was not as easy as I thought it would be - some of the buttons didn't come out in the correct position and some flop a bit due to their weight. But overall a fun, easy project. I had a vintage tobacco tin and the bingo cards fit perfectly. A vintage metal flower frog works great as a display stand.

Tiny mother of pearl buttons in every square

Blue themed

Shades of red

Pinks and purples

More mother of pearl buttons - belt buckles too!

Mixed bag

Buttons displayed in a vintage tin. The pin cushion was purchased from Etsy shop Namolio

Excuses, Excuses

Wow, it's been well over a month since my last post. Let me list my excuses.
1. Busy designing and making my sister's wedding invitations (I will share those as soon as I photograph them!)
2. Sick. I actually got an ear infection which I haven't had since elementary school. I thought my ear was going to explode. And a cough which wouldn't go away.
3. Went on vacation (and coughed my way across 4 countries in Europe.) More on that later with pictures.
4. Sick again. Lingering ear ache and sore throat for WEEKS!!! Enough already. At least the cough is gone.

So now that I am relatively healthy and not too busy, I will share a project I did last year.

As seen on papyrusonline.com

I was contacted last year by a lovely person from Papyrus who wanted to know if I would license some artwork to them. "Of course!" I said. Papyrus is the really nice stationery store that you can find in many fine malls across America. And they have a website here. Anyway, that's my design in the top left corner. They are note cards in a coordinating gift box, printed on kraft paper. When I returned from vacation, a box of samples was waiting for me. Here is another peek. Feel free to pop on over to papyrusonline and pick up a few sets for yourself!

Eco Folk Florals Boxed Notes

New Collage

I had a craft show this past weekend and as I was putting together Collage Inspiration packs to sell, I got inspired myself. Sometimes a handful of elements just fall into place.

Collecting

I have a small collection of vintage tin boxes and here are a few of them. I don't really care if they are in perfect condition. If the color and the graphics attract me, what's a little rust and dings. I just got the 1940's Jigger Clothespin tin at an estate sale. It originally came with a clothesline, clothespins and two bakelite anchors to hang the line from. Sadly, mine is empty but the graphics are really fun. (It is for sale in my vintage shop!) The other tins shown include a typewriter ribbon tin, a small round tin for kidney pills, a candy tin from Eastern Europe and a tin that once held dyspepsia tablets.

Vintage Tin Collection

Type Collage Letter A

I've been working on some new designs for my Two Hand Design shop but I did find time to do a new collage. I started with a vintage Reader's Digest book cover and layered on the type - an old receipt, rubber stamps, postage, German money and other bits and pieces.

Type Collage Letter A

Vintage Book Find

I went to an estate sale yesterday and came home with this lovely vintage book. Written by Charlotte Zolotow with illustrations by Yoko Mitsuhashi, the book was first published in 1964. Other than the cover, the whole book is printed in pink and black (and shades of both). I liked it so much that I had to scan the whole book to show.

front and back cover

Love Always

Happy Valentine's Day!
I did this "Love" collage using layers of tissue paper and Japanese decorative papers.

Last But Not Least

My last collage of the year! Due to illness, I didn't quite make all of the 52 collages but I did manage to do 49 of them. Week 52 collage is another one done on a vintage Reader's Digest Condensed Book cover. These book covers were nice for collaging on - they were inexpensive at my local thrift shop, usually about 50 cents a book. One side is patterned and one side is a solid color so each book gives you two options. All of the books I purchased were falling apart so I didn't feel too bad about cutting them up. Maybe next year, I should do 52 collages just on book covers... now there's a thought.

This collage was done using my usual favorites - vintage type and music (from a marching band) Japanese rice cake and Chinese soap wrappers, vintage postage stamps, bus tickets and rubber stamps.

Collage week 52

Merry Merry

Holiday Card 2014

Nasturtiums

My collage for week 51 isn't very wintery but it will cheer you up on a blustery day. I've collaged a vintage nasturtium seed pack onto a Reader's Digest book cover. Orange decorative paper and rubber stamps are layered with the seed pack and a bit of an old gardening book. Apparently, not only are nasturtiums easy to grow but you can also pickle the seed pod! Who knew.

Collage week 51

Numbers Game

Week 50 collage is done on a vintage Bingo playing card. The background of type and numbers is interesting to layer on and I like the size (3.75" x 6.5"). I combined it with some type (from a House Industries type catalog), a vintage postage stamp, decorative paper, a rubber stamp and a ticket from the Yellow Cab Company. Wow, only 10 cents for the ride!

Collage week 50

Tiny Little Bird

My collage for week 48 is a tiny little bird collage done on a tiny little canvas. The canvas measures 2.5" x 3.5". It's collaged with rubber stamps, a vintage letter, paper from an 19th century French ledger, star tissue paper, and a bit of handmade paper made in India. The bird is a rubber stamp from the set "Birds & Nests" by Cavallini Papers & Co.. They have lots of cool stationery items - check it out here.

Collage week 48

Collages Continue

I've finally been able to get back to my collages and this is week 47. I love doing type collages using my vintage documents so that's what I've used for this collage. It combines mostly French documents, rubber stamps and a vintage postage stamp. The calligraphy on the documents is so beautiful - I wish my handwriting was half as nice.

Collage week 47