Cecil

In honor of Cecil the Lion, I'm posting this tea towel by mid-century designer Tammis Keefe.

RIP Cecil

Retro Find

I found these cool retro sake bottles at an antique mall in the middle of Ohio. I have a few vintage Japanese kokeshi dolls so I thought they would fit right in. The bottles are made of glass with metal lids topped with hand painted wood heads. They date from the 1960s and originally held flavored Japanese sake. One of the bottles no longer has its tags but the other bottle held melon flavored sake. Made by House of Koshu, they originally came in a set of 7 different flavors and were given to first class passengers on Japan Airlines flights. That would have been a really cool souvenir!

House of Koshu sake bottles and vintage kokeshi dolls

I've got the bottles for sale in my Etsy shop here

Record Album Art

Sometimes when I'm bored at lunchtime, I stop by the local Goodwill to see what's for sale. This week I found 2 fun vintage record albums.

The first one is The Adventures of Peter Cottontail and dates from 1951. The graphics are nice and would look great framed in a child's room.

The second album is "Big" Tiny Little's Honky Tonk Hootenanny. Even the name is fun! Big Tiny Little was a piano player and a regular on the Lawrence Welk show in the 1950's. His bowler hat was one of his signatures. I'm not sure the date of this album but I believe it is from the 1960's.

Lavender Love

I love lavender - anything lavender scented is a favorite. So, I've printed some designs on fabric and sewn up some lavender sachets. They're filled with California-grown organic lavender buds and are for sale in my Etsy shop. I think they came out pretty well.

Lavender Sachets

Poodles

Another find at the flea market was this vintage paint-by-numbers picture of two adorable poodles. I'm not usually a fan of this style but they caught my eye and had to come home with me. I'll be putting them up for sale in my Etsy shop as soon as I find a shipping box.

Paint-By-Numbers Poodle Painting

Flea Market Find

Last Sunday I went to the flea market and found this fabulous mid century box. I had to have it. I didn't even care about the contents - a little brush and scoop for dusting up table crumbs. The pattern reminds me of something done by Swedish designer Stig Lindberg but since neither the box or the contents are marked in any way I'll just have to wish. The cat was an ebay purchase and is done by Swedish designer Lisa Larson while the white pitcher in back was long ago flea market find.

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

New in the shop

I've done some prints and they are for sale in my Etsy shop. They are all done from my black and white illustrations and have been digitally colored.

Owl Dance

Spring Garden

Bird Duo

Love Always

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

New Year, New Product

I have some new product in my Etsy shop. This bird image was one of the images from my 2015 calendar. It's now printed on a linen pouch and comes with a set of matching note cards.

Pouch and Card

Linoleum Block and Card

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

Christmas Gift

A few years ago, I saw on Ebay a really cool vintage lamp made using wood letterpress type blocks. It was way too expensive for me to bid on but I've thought about this lamp for a long time.

As seen on Ebay

My husband like projects so I asked him to make me a base so that I could have my own letterpress lamp. And for Christmas this year, I received ...

a gorgeous lamp base for my type. What's really great about my lamp is that the wood type fits in the sides (it stays put thanks to some removable sticky squares) and doesn't need to be glued down so I can still use the blocks for printing. The base even rotates so I can admire it from all angles.

sides 1 & 2

sides 3 & 4

Maybe I'll get a matching one next year - hint, hint, hint...

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

Very Pink

My collage for week 49 is a cheery combination of pinks and lavender - perfect for a rainy week. I used an antique postcard from Belgium (post marked 1873), a bit of vintage wallpaper, Japanese decorative papers and rubber stamps.

Collage week 49

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

2015 Calendar

Let me start by saying I got the flu which turned into pneumonia and I have been pretty much in bed for the last 3 weeks which is why I have missed my weekly collages. I hope to get a new one done this weekend - keep an eye out.

I did manage to finish my 2015 calendar before I got sick, so here it is. All of the images are printed from my hand cut linoleum blocks. The calendar is available in my Etsy shop here.

Cover

January thru April

May thru August

September thru December