Patchwork Santa Ana

Yesterday was the Patchwork craft show in Santa Ana, California. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and the crowds were out. We had a great location in a corner spot.

My booth mate, Gilded Moon sells beautiful jewelry (I bought a pair of earrings at the show last weekend and have my eye on another pair!)

Here's my table stuffed with cards, bookmarks, notepads, paintings and a few more miscellaneous items.

After the last show, I decided our booth needed some jazzing up so I made bunting. I saw bunting on a blog by South African artist Heather Moore (etsy shop skinny laminx) and thought that it looked really quick and easy, which it was. At a local quilt shop, I purchased for $10 a pack of 42 pre-cut pieces (Moda, California Girl) with the edges pinked. I simply cut each piece down the middle and had enough pieces for 3 strands of bunting. I pinned and sewed the fabric onto 12 foot lengths of twill ribbon. It was an easy one night project. Here's the result:

I like to walk around the show and check out everyone's booth and product but I rarely have the chance. Before the show opened I snapped a few pictures as people were setting up. Here are a few of my favorite items and displays. 1. Beautiful necklace made from vintage parts by Bazaar Latino (I purchased one from her etsy shop just last week)

2. Eye catching display from Bazaar Latino's booth mate Hephzi Creations. I love the way she lined the vintage suitcases with fabric to display her jewelry.

3. Huggable dolls from Imaginery Friend. (You can reach her at Girlalwaysfallin@aol.com)

4. Cool things made from vintage items- like these paper art dolls. I love the one in the middle with the sheet music skirt (darn, I think she sold!) These are from You Are It and you can see more at www.sewsweetnsimple.wordpress.com and at missvickyb.blogspot.com.

Two weeks until Patchwork Culver City! More show inspiration to report then.

Craft Show Product

Since my first craft show of the year (Patchwork Long Beach) is this coming Sunday, I thought I'd make some items using my new collages. I've done 6 different note cards, and a few decorated Moleskines with matching bookmarks which will be sold as a set. If they do well at the show, they'll debut in my Etsy shop in a few weeks.

Spring Craft Shows

It's time for the spring craft shows and so far, I have 3 scheduled. Patchwork Long Beach on May 20, Patchwork Santa Ana on May 27 and Patchwork Culver City on June 10. These are all great shows with music, food trucks and way too many cool things to buy. (It's a wonder I make any money!) You can find out more about all three shows at patchworkshow.com. I did this new promo postcard to hand out and I think it came out pretty well.

Alain Grée

I purchased these cute blocks and matching box from Etsy seller Pomme de Jour. She lives in France and finds all sorts of fun vintage fabrics, books and bric-a-brac. She also makes things from her finds, like these blocks made from illustrations by French author and illustrator Alain Grée. You can read about him and see many of his illustrations on this website www.alaingree.com.

Pomme de Jour has a blog, ebay shop and boutique (as well as her etsy shop) and often sells books and other Alain Grée items. Check it all out at www.pommedejour.com.

Monsters Rule!

I don't know why, but I have a thing for monsters. Cute ones, of course. A few years ago, I did a monster carved from an eraser and I made these cards.

Recently, I finished this Monster Matching Game featuring 12 different monsters. It was fun to do but really time consuming cutting out 24 squares for each game, laminating the squares, and cutting them out again. I also created a "meet the monsters" card with a description of each monster. For a few weeks, I was thinking up monster names.

The really cute green and blue monster figures were purchased from Etsy seller Happy Moon Belly. I sent Jennifer at Happy Moon Belly a picture of my original eraser stamp and she made a custom big green monster for me. The little blue guy with the heart was so cute, I couldn't resist him. You can see more of her monsters and beasties here. Both the monster cards and the game are available in my Etsy shop.

Vintage Sand Pail

This adorable tin sand pail was originally a promo giveaway for Safeguard Soaps-free with a certain amount of soap purchased. It's is sooo cute! It shows children on safari with a lion, elephant and kangaroo. The colors are so bright and the illustrations so retro. The inside and bottom is pale aqua. I believe this dates from the 1960's or early 1970's.

Janos Kass, Part 2

In addition to children's books, Hungarian designer Janos Kass also designed postage stamps. The following images were designed for the International Year of the Child in 1979.

These stamps were purchased on Ebay for a few dollars and are fairly easy to find. One hint- don't search for Janos Kass-instead look for Magyar (Hungarian) stamps, or Year of the Child.

Janos Kass, Part 1

I discovered the Hungarian artist Janos Kass on Kristina Klarin's blog and since then, have been searching for some of his books to buy. Janos Kass(1927-2010) was a graphic designer, artist, animated film director, printmaker, and book designer. I followed Kristina's links and saw several books on this Japanese website but with the yen-dollar exchange rate, they were a bit expensive for me. Another link led me to this Hungarian website and I ended up purchasing several children's books. The website is both in English and Hungarian with prices in Hungarian forints. You can pre-order out-of-stock books and they will answer emails in English. The following is one of the books I purchased. I have absolutely no idea what it's about but the illustrations are so cheerful.

books.

New Artwork

I have some spring shows coming up and I sell not only my stationery products, but also some original artwork. Here are a few collages on paper that I've been working on. They're made with vintage papers and ephemera, handmade Japanese papers, rubber stamps, and finished off with some stitching on top.

Around the Neighborhood

You never know what you're going to see when you go walking. Today, I passed a house in my neighborhood and saw a pile of legs! I HAD to go home and get my camera.

Around the House

When I go walking, I like to collect interesting dried bits-seed heads, pine cones, twiggy pod things. Then, they get displayed around the house. The square vase in front is ceramics and was purchased at a street fair. The large vase in back was purchased in Maine and is made from a beach rock. The vase on the right was also made from a stone but was a gift from my sister and is from the east coast of Canada.

Love is in the Air

It's almost Valentine's Day! I have for you today, "The Fireside Book of Love Songs" with pictures by my favorite illustrator duo of Alice and Martin Provensen. The book was published in 1954 and has some great full color as well as 2 color illustrations. And some are pretty racy for 1954!

Hope you have a good day with your sweetie!

In My Office...

Owls! I have a number of owl items and here are a few.

The Kleenex box on the left was designed by Cori Dantini. You can visit her blog here and her Etsy store here. The ceramic owl in the tree was purchased on Ebay and the picture with 3 owls was done by Canadian artist Susan Black. You can visit her Etsy shop here.

Card Designs

My cards come from all sorts of inspirations but the following designs were inspired by mid-century fabrics.

I created my leaf card (on the right) after seeing this Scandinavian influenced 1960's bark cloth. (on the left)

I did this one (pink birdie on the right) after seeing a fabric by designer Lucienne Day (on the left) that dates from the 1950's. What inspired me was the rectangular shapes and the line art going through them and what evolved was this bird and flowers. The following are two books from my collection, each with great mid-century reference.

"Fabulous Fabrics of the 50s (And Other Terrific Textiles of the 20s, 30s, and 40s)" by Gideon Bosker, Michele Mancini and John Gramstad was published in 1992 by Chronicle Books. "1950s Fashion Print" by Marnie Fogg was published by Batsford in 2010

Angie Lewin

One of my favorite contemporary artists is British print maker Angie Lewin. Her artwork has so many layers that create new shapes and patterns within the composition and make the images infinitely more interesting. Most of her artwork depicts plants and landscapes of England and Scotland and feature close up details of weeds and plants gone to seed. I was so excited when a book about her was published in 2010 and I highly recommend it! (I purchased it on Amazon here). The following images are greeting cards produced by Art Angels and purchased from British shop One Brown Cow (they have an excellent selection online). You can visit Angie's website here to see more of her inspiring work.