Collage Tag Challenge

I did 4 new tags, all using my little coffee filters. The filters get really nice patterns from the coffee (they smell good too!) and the transparency is nice for layering.

Tag 16

Tag 17

Tag 18

Tag 19

Flea Market Finds

I went to the flea market and what did I see....

Vintage record albums for adults

this one I purchased

and children

Chippy wood toys

skittles

baby rattle 

Dala horse

items with color

and a vintage  bag by Enid Collins (?)

Collage Tag Challenge - More Polka Dots

One more tag with polka dots. Tag 15 is an oversized tag made with a page from a vintage book, a part of a vintage post card, coffee filters and hand made paper. And polka dots.

Tag 15

New Designs on Vida

I've finally gotten around to posting a few new designs on Vida. There are lots of new products including scarves, totes and shopping totes that fold into a zip case. You can see all my products here.

Scarf design made using cut paper

Scarf design made using cut paper and a white background

Scarf design  "Pattern Play" based on my Spoonflower design

Scarf design  "Pebbles" based on my Spoonflower design

Collage Tag Challenge - Scraps and Polka Dots

Two more tags, this time using polka dots and pieces from my scrap box.

Tag 13

Tag 14

Collage Tag Challenge

This week for my collage challenge, I did 3 tags all with an Asian theme.  All use a variety of hand made and vintage papers. I dyed the string a muted peach.

Tag 10

Tag 11

Tag 12

Pysanky

The Spoonflower design challenge this week is Pysanky - Ukrainian decorated Easter eggs. Using wax-resist to create the folk art based patterns, each egg is an intricate work of art

Decorated eggs can be found all over Europe.  I visited Budapest, Hungary and purchased some eggs as gifts. A Polish friend made me this one many years ago.

Hand made decorated egg from a Polish friend

For my Spoonflower pattern, I intended to paint a variety of eggs but completely ran out of time. So I decided I didn't have to be so literal and painted folk art inspired designs that might be found on the eggs. I used one of my books, Folk Art of Europe (by Helmuth Bossert) for inspiration. So while my designs may not be traditional Ukrainian designs, I tried to give them a folklore feel.

Art painted in gouache

I painted in gouache on Bristol board, then scanned to my computer to put together the repeat pattern. I added eggs in the background, as though the birds and flowers had popped off them. 

My final design

The voting ends tomorrow, February 19. You can see all the submissions (and vote) here.

Tag Collage Challenge

I am so behind on posting my tags! So here are 2 for this week.

First is Tag 8, a Love themed tag that was intended for Valentine's Day. I used a vintage postcard to make a tag and then added a Japanese washi paper heart, the word "Love" stamped on an antique document and a cute red vintage label with XO.

Tag 8 - Happy Belated Valentine's Day!

Last weekend, I exhibited at a paper show and purchased some cool tags from one of the other vendors, A Stamp in the Hand. (I would link but their website is down). The tags are made to look like old postcard backs and are larger than my usual hang tags. For Tag 9, I used some vintage wallpaper, a fortune from a fortune cookie, a print of a bird and an old postage stamp with a kiwi bird from New Zealand.

Tag 9 - sending good fortune

Spoonflower Color Challenge

The Pantone "Color of the Year" for 2019 is Living Coral. Spoonflower, the website for custom fabric, presented this week's design challenge with Coral at the core. We were given 4 specific colors (Goldenrod, Midnight Blue, Coral and Gray) and had to include all 4 with no black, white or variations of the color. I drew the circles in pen and ink, scanned them and created my design in Adobe Illustrator. My first design looked great but I had a white background and after double-checking the rules, had to do a re-design. Here's what I ended up with.

Spoonflower Color Challenge entry

The voting is now open and there are over 700 entries! I was amazed at how many awesome designs there are and how many similar design themes. You can place your vote on the Spoonflower website here.

Tag Collage Challenge -Tag 7

This week, I collaged my tag onto a vintage Reader's Digest book cover. I used some vintage wallpaper, hand made paper and a print of a butterfly.

Tag 7

Tag Collage Challenge -Tag 6

I used bits from my Scrap Box for Tag 6. Olive green and shades of blue, with a green striped string.

Tag 6

Collecting

I used to make tiny note pads from vintage playing cards and sendup with a small collection of ones that I liked too much to use. Here are a few of them.

Tag Collage Challenge -Tags 4 and 5

Got busy this past weekend and collaged 2 tags.

Tag number 4 uses hand made papers, a vintage document and a coffee filter that I stamped. (The coffee filter is a tiny one that fits a Keurig machine. The filter is the shape of the basket and has a round top which I tear off. Perfect for collaging!)

tag number 4

Tag number 5 uses some hand made marbled paper, a vintage document and a postage stamp.

tag number 5

Tag Collage Challenge -Tag 3

For tag number 3, I used vintage music, an antique document and a piece of a cigar label. I added a bit of gold paper and some rubber stamping in gold.

Tag 3

Tag Collage Challenge -Tag 2

My second tag uses part of a vintage Austrian postcard, Japanese wash paper and a rubber stamp.

Tag Collage Challenge -Tag 1

Here is the first collage of 2019.

Vintage document, handmade papers, rubber stamps. The eye is from a Swedish matchbox label.

Tag 1 of 100. 99 more to go....

New Year, New Challenge

Time for a new collage challenge. This year, it's the "100 Tag" challenge.

I purchased a box of 100 shipping tags, made by Avery. (Avery Manilla "G" Shipping tags 4.75 length x 2.37 width). Now I have to say, I used to buy these all the time and a box of 100 tags cost me less than $5. I believe these are a discontinued item (not available on the on the Avery site) so they were hard to find. I was only able to find boxes of a thousand tags and that's a lot of tags! I purchased this 100 pack on Ebay for about $13. For some reason, on Amazon some vendors are charging over $300 for the same item... so shop around, 100 packs can still be found. Also, I like the ones that come with string, not the wires which I purchased by mistake (item number 11005 has the string, 11011 has the wire).

Stay tuned for the first collage!

Avery Manila Shipping Tags

Santa is Exhausted

Too many presents to wrap and deliver, too many cookies...Santa deserves a break.

Vintage Christmas

The Snow King

Every once in a while, I see something online that I fall in love with. This book is one such item. I kept searching Ebay and one day, there it was. With my name on it. And the price was right. The stars were aligned.

The book was printed in Ploland in 1968 and I have no idea what the story is other than it involves a King, a princess (?) , a polar bear, birds and a scarecrow. I believe the name is The Tale of the Snow King (or The Ballad of the Snow King), written by Tadeusz Kubiak and illustrated by Zbigniew Rychlicki The illustrations are frosty and perfect for the holiday season.

front cover

Back Cover