Happy Earth Day.

Happy Earth Day To Everyone! Earth Day is the day when we should just stop for one moment and reflect about the natural beauty that surrounds us every day. You know, the things that are there everyday but often go unnoticed because of our busy schedules and daily obligations. For many people it could be appreciation for the mountains or a favorite garden flower.

For me it is birds. Yes, I am an official card carrying BIRD NERD and have been for many years! I have the professional binoculars, all the field guides and bird journals. I read the birders magazines and even have Cd's that identify the calls of the different species. I have the long range camera and even a birding clock that sounds off a different bird call every hour. Yes, I am a bird nerd and loving it.

The very sight of them sends a warm feeling of peace and contentment around my heart. So in celebration of Earth day I thought I would share a few photos of the birds that visit my backyard bird oasis on a daily basis.

AMERICAN GOLDFINCH

BLACK PHOEBE

AMERICAN RAVEN
CEDAR WAXWINGS

ANNA'S HUMMINGBIRD

HOUSEFINCH

EUROPEAN STARLING

How will you celebrate today?

Vintage Stationary And A Little Mel Torme' For Ya.

Aaah, the lost art of letter writing you say? Yes. You know that archaic way of communication that existed long before email, text messaging, instant messaging, web cams and virtual phones. Letter writing was regarded as an art form way back when. One could expect the average letter to contain hand printed correspondence written on beautiful paper and embellished with whatever the sender fancied such as sweet perfume, dried flowers or a tucked away treat of some kind. Give this lost art a personal revival by simply right clicking the image and printing out your own vintage stationary.



On another note I just came across this cool photo of a very, very, very young Mel Torme'! This was a first for me as I have never seen a photo of him under the age of 40! He couldn't have been more than 2o here! Mel Torme' has always been one of my favorites. He was one of those great singers with a cool style that was all his own and could not be duplicated by another. As a matter of fact he was known as "The Velvet Fog" for his smooth as silk croonings and snazzy stylings. Yet another one of the greats that will live on in our memories forever.

Free Images For Use In Your Art.

The above is a gorgeous vintage collage sheet courtesy of Flikr. They may not be used for any commercial purposes whatsoever such as for use on image Cd's or collage sheets for sale. I love the soft pinks throughout and the way the photos stand out so vividly even if the elderly woman at the bottom looks a little scary....

I thought this vintage woman was so beautiful. Look at her porcelain skin and soft features. I guess sepia tones can really bring out the beauty of a person. Please enjoy.

Vintage Satin Lollipop Flowers.

My oh my, were these fun to make! After stumbling across Arlene's video tutorial at Mybutterflykisses12 on Youtube I knew I just had to give these a try! They are made from scraps of satin fabric that you can find in the remnant bins at any fabric store. The technique requires you to burn the edges of the circles that have been cut from the satin to form the lollipop shape. There are so many ways to use these in your artwork. I made several to adorn albums and even a few to wear as brooches and hair clips...I just love them! Check out Arlene's video below to see the exact technique that will have you on your way to creating some of these babies yourself.

Altered Composition Notebook.

Here is yet another altered Mead Composition Notebook. These are so fun and absorbing to make. For this one I used another image from my collection of Lunagirl Vintage Image CD's. I just loved the spunky pose of this gal. I painted the spine and then covered it with K and Company paper from the Mckenna Collection. I matted the photo and used my Martha Stewart punch to trim out the border in cute little flowers and added a pearl to each flower center.

Then I went crazy with the silk flowers! I initially intended to add a few at the corners as an accent and ended up just adding one after another until I was satisfied. I added a few silk leaves and a satin ribbon (which you can barely see underneath all the flowers...hehe) to the spine.

Here is a closeup of the Martha Stewart Pansy punched photo mat. The closure is made of a plastic vintage button looped through a paper clip on the inside of the book. The back of the notebook has an elastic hair band looped the same way on the back cover allowing it to be pulled forward and secured around the button. For a complete tutorial on this technique see Weezie's Youtube Video on the link.

I cut the chipboard swirl using my Cricut Expression and an empty cereal box of all things. The cricut cuts cereal, cracker and other chipboard boxes excellently and they can be added to any project. I only wish that it would cut the really thick chipboard but the poor machine would probably blow up if I tried it! Anyhow, this will be a gift for a friend and I hope she loves receiving it as much as I enjoyed making it.

Girls Night Out.

Last night our city hosted a local "girls night out" sponsored by all the local shops and little boutiques in our area. It was a great time. The shops chartered stretch limousines to drive everyone around from street to street to visit each shop at no expense to the patrons! My sister, 8 year old niece and I shopped to our hearts content. Below is my sister and niece entering our stretch limo.
All of the boutiques put their best foot forward and offered great merchandise at reduced prices as well as a myriad of wine, food and drink for each customer to enjoy as they browsed the store. My sister and niece pose in a shop window for me as I take their photo.

This little boutique had the most outrageous hats and clothing that I just couldn't resist getting dolled up for a photo. The leopard print jacket was faux-fur and floor length! How fabulous was that!

This boutique had a "Red Carpet" entrance to make you feel like a true VIP! All of the employees were dressed in glitter and glam outfits with sequins and jewels from head to toe. My sister and niece pose for a paparazzi photo on the red carpet below.

My niece asked to have her picture taken with one of the glittery dressed employees of the shop who graciously accepted.

By the end of the night we were all three exhausted! Goodies in hand we headed to the closest possible restaurant for a late dinner. In this photo my sister is just about on her last leg with exhaustion from our shopathon!

My niece and I enjoying a little hug and cuddle time as we decide that we are officially pooped out for the evening.

Although I managed not to spend very much money, I did walk away from our fun filled evening with some gorgeous beaded trim to use in my projects and a beautiful pair of glamorous earrings.

It was great fun and I look forward to doing it again next year.

Bling It On!

Yesterday afternoon I made two very large mistakes. Number one: Thinking that I would have the willpower to just browse around the vintage jewelry and bead shop without needing to buy anything. Number two: Asking my husband to come along with me. Now, of the two mistakes the latter was the most dastardly! Not only did I NOT simply browse the shop, I had the store owner help me load bins and bins of broken jewelry onto the table for me. I then-like a scurvied pirate in search of treasures-proceeded to sort meticulously through each and every piece. On a sort of treasure hunt if you will!

At first my husband was very patient and thought the whole process was interesting but after the first hour it was all downhill. I dug with a fervor trying to stay two steps ahead of his annoyance while also trying not to crack up laughing. Anyhow, I did manage to find some very nice pieces to use in my mini albums and collages despite the conditions....lessons learned.

Changes! Changes!

I was just not liking the way the finished journal cover was appearing so I made a few changes. I ripped off the extra leaves and added more flowers. I removed the extra peacock feather and added seed beads around the image using sticky tape. I like this version much better. :)

Handmade Journal Cover.

Hi friends! I know I've been hit and miss the last few weeks but I just can't seem to get caught up! I am so behind on projects needing to be finished that it has my head spinning. Several of these projects are requiring much more time than I had anticipated with a few of them being given as gifts over the next few weeks.

I did however, finally finish the above journal cover that will be going to a very close friend for her 5 year wedding anniversary next month. She wanted a vintage feel and that was right up my alley. I used a gorgeous vintage image from my LUNAGIRL CD collection and a sheet of the Classic K boxed paper collection from K and Company for the background.

I created the flower embellishments by taking a sheet of aqua blue card stock and glimmer misting it with a pretty blue and then wetting and wrinkling it several times. I did the same thing with a darker shade of handmade paper and trimmed all the layers with stickles. The centers are rhinestone cluster brads from Oriental Trading Company. The cover will go over a coordinating backing attached with binding rings and filled with lined journal paper. I am seriously relieved that it is done and on to the next project as we speak.

Having Fun With Project Overload!

Hello Vintage Vignetters! It has been a while since I have posted because I have been very busy finishing projects that I want to share with all of you. Although mixed media art pieces are more my genre, I have recently picked back up on my love for scrabooking as well. I have been dabbling in creating vintage mini albums in particular and as a matter of fact I would love to share with you the latest one created for my February swap partner over on Life On The Scrap Beach. If you get a chance why not pop over and check out this cool site for yourself. Anyway, let me know what you think!!

*Remember to pause the music at the bottom of the page below.