Tag : vintage
14 posts
A few months ago, one of the knitting ladies casually asked me if I could use any buttons in my art. She had come across her mothers collection while cleaning out the attic and wanted them to go to someone who would appreciate them. The next time I saw her she had the stash hoard with her. I was shocked! It was a huge box. Over the past few months I’ve slowly sorted through… cleaning and throwing out broken bits from the several pounds of buttons.
This is just a very small fraction. Seriously.
I thought it may be fun to make some necklaces so I turned on Netflix then started sorting and stacking.
I kept auditioning different buttons until I found a stack that that spoke to me.
I used E6000 to adhere a bail to the back of each stack as well as gluing the buttons together.
I also saved out a few fancy mother of pearl buttons to try out some wire wrapping. So far my results are less than pretty with that endeavor. Practice, practice.
I’ll share the completed pendants when they are good and dry.
Welcome to T stands for Tuesday…grab a cup while we chat.
We have way too much sugar left over from Easter. Thank goodness I don’t like marshmallows or these would be dangerous sitting all unwrapped begging to be eaten.
This is my weakness…chocolate.
“My weakness is strong.” ~Patton Oswalt
Maybe fueled by sugar or just that spring cleaning and purging mode but I have dug out a box of items that have been squirreled away for far too long.
Back in the late 90’s I used to sell on eBay. This box was forgotten in the back of our storage room until now. I also went thru my cookbook collection…some of it just has to go. Recently I’ve started selling a few things on eBay again but the fee structure is pretty steep. But you can’t sell just anything on Etsy.
While I work…Gracie watches the world go by.
I did get creative this past week as well. This 6×6 canvas makes me quite happy. Its a recycled canvas…meaning I hated the first painting I did so I covered it all up and began anew.
I’ve also worked in my coffee theme AB again but you’ll have to come back tomorrow if you want to see that.
I’ve got lots on my list today, more than I’ll ever accomplish.
What are you doing today?
I spent some time on YouTube last week….likely sent there from Pinterest. (See why I try and stay away from the screens…I get lost…sidetracked…and waste oodles of time.) I often like watching “fast forwards” of journal pages, collage and painting. I’m most interested in seeing how people go from blank page to competed project. Not the particular products they use. Not to emulate what they did. Just the process. The stumbles. The bad choices of color or image and how they kept going and turned it into something amazing…or not.
I often search out new unique ideas in an effort to continue to use the stacks of book pages I’ve torn from my journals and salvaged books. Since I’d been using some paper flowers on my cards and other projects recently, I thought I should potentially make them from book pages myself. I found a rolled rose tutorial. The technique is very well explained yet I immediately deviated a bit from what she said. I’m not big on following the rules and directions. I prefer to make it up as I go along. 
This first one is made mostly like the tutorial states…so it’s a tightly rolled flower.
These are more my own style and lay much flatter…more useful in a variety of projects.
But the ones used in the project below are my first blossoms. I just had to see how some spray mists would look on them. Gorgeous! Now what…
Well…I had picked up a bunch of embroidery hoops at a garage sale a couple weeks ago to add to my ever growing collection. I have a thing for circles. I can’t seem to pass them up. This hoop happened to roll onto my work surface and land on some glimmer mist splattered paper. The idea I had seen on YouTube popped into my head. An embroidery hoop as a frame. Of course, that video used 3 hoops and was a wall hanging scrapbook layout. Like I said…I use videos as inspiration…not copy.
It’s a little bit vintage… a little bit shabby chic…and a whole lotta me. ;)
I fear my best option for digitizing the remaining 100 or so slides I have from my childhood might be this technique. Me, holding the slide up to the window and taking a photo against the bright white backdrop of our snow covered yard. I better to get to it since Spring is just around the corner….supposedly.
Then each of those photos will need to be cropped in Photoshop to a printable size. UGH! That’s a lot of work but since I seriously can’t ever remember seeing any of these slides…ever, it will be worth the extra effort.
Yes, that little toe head is me. The slide says ’79 but I’m sure it was from a couple years before. More like Summer of ’77 if I’m correct with the location of the photo. I guess I was allergic to a hairbrush. ;) I’m surprised my beautician mom let me go around like that…much less get my picture taken.
The slides I have been scanning aren’t in the best shape.
This one was from 1951. Many of them are this blue hue. I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to salvage the color and that I’d just have to make them into B&W images.
Through the magic of Photoshop, I’ve been able to coax some of the original colors back. Now if I can just figure out how to tone down the brightness on my dad’s face without darkening the rest of the photo.
I’m working my way through a crazy amount of vintage slides. Ranging in age from the 1930’s to 1970’s. 
I have the vast majority in slide trays already. That makes it so much easier to go through and mark with a china marker which slides I want to scan. The bummer is that my projector bulb just bit the dust…
I found one on eBay and am now waiting for delivery. I can’t tell you how fortunate I feel to have been able to find one at a reasonable price. When I pulled out that blown bulb with a very weird connector I thought…”oh man do I have a big job ahead of me looking at each slide individually to determine it’s value”. Thank goodness I thought to look it up!!!
I have to mention what a treasure these slides have been so far. We started doing slide shows with the neighbors on the garage door several years ago. It was so much fun!! Ok…so we maybe we are easily entertained. But it was fun. My neighbor and I even picked up some slides from garage sales and would make up stories to go along with them as we had the slide show. So much fun!!! Again…easily entertained.