It's been a while

Hello friends
After many months of silence, mulling about blogging, I've decided to attempt to be a more regular writer. However, the posts will be briefer and will reflect what I've been making (or thinking about making)  :-).

So . . . I happened across some cards recently online that struck my fancy. They were made with a Stampin' Up set called "Sketches" and after investigation I learned the set was "retired" in 2003 (!). The "dog with a bone" in me came out and I hunted around on eBay, found it (ta-da!) at a reasonable price and it flew into Connecticut last week.

Here's a card I made using one of the images in the set - stamped, tore around the edges, and added a bit of color with Tim Holtz Distress markers and a wet paintbrush. Found some paper among the thousands of sheets in my craft room and there you have it.

I was quite pleased with the results and sent it off to a friend . . .

Til next time . . .

Cheers!
Susan

Silhouette tags

B-Line Designs is a stamp company I recently discovered through Beautiful Impressions stamping store. The many vintage style stamps in their catalogs fit with my mindset at the moment.  The catalogs can be viewed here.

I used several of their silhouette stamps to make these oval gift tags/hanging ornaments or decorations which were added to gift packages sent off recently.  Neat, aren't they? In another colorway they would look fabulous on a holiday tree.

Cheers!

S.

Vintage Style Note Cards

Hello friends,
Recently I was invited to a golf outing  . . . for those of you not into golf etiquette, it is customary to bring a gift for the person extending the invite (or invite her back to your own club) since she is covering the invitee's costs.  When I was asked to play, my hostess quite forcefully said "And I don't want a gift!"

Oh that can not be!  I can not appear "empty-handed!"  This lovely lady has been quite intrigued by and supportive of my creative pursuits . . . and was instrumental in my being included as a presenter in the Adventures in Lifelong Learning program at Three Rivers CC.  Since she enjoys writing and mailing notes and letters, what better gift than an assortment of note cards?

So I ruffled through my supplies (yes, it took some time), and made a set of six cards -
two of each design.

The branch with berries (Stampin' Up "Simply Sketched") was stamped in green ink with red dots and the edges of the paper torn.  The portrait of the 1920's lady (B-Line Designs) was stamped in black and cut into an oval shape. The pear image (Stampers Anonymous Classics) was stamped in sepia ink and squared with a paper cutter.  All edges were inked with Distress Ink in Tea Dye color to provide visual depth and interest.

Script paper was cut to size and layered onto a cream colored card base. The images were mounted to the patterned paper and voila!  Note cards.

Paired with matching cream envelopes and accompanied by the vintage thank you card described in yesterday's post, they were a home run with the lovely lady.

Just for the record . . . I experimented using sepia ink on the portrait card, but it does not work at all with the background paper. So it lives in the file labeled "Experiments - close but not quite"  until I deconstruct it and stick it on a different background.  Sigh - I can't just throw it in the trash . . .

Cheers!

Chiara: Paper Doll of the Day

There have been eight groups of Julie Nutting Mixed Media doll stamps released  . . . I haven't bought many since release two . . . but in a visit to Papercraft Clubhouse in Westbrook last weekend, this gal was calling to me.  I tried to ignore her but was pulled back to that endcap. Sigh, must be fate. Her name is Chiara and I love her hair, stylish waist wrap and flippy skirt.

She had been stamped and dressed (twice!) before I went to bed that night. 

Chiara in the stripe dress is the original stamp image - I had this paper with a chevron design so took advantage of it. Chiara with the plaid leggings (love them) has trimmed hair and wears a slimmer skirt (snipped off the flip) which is more in keeping with a legging look.  The waist wrap is great . . . I made one to add as a neckline accent on one of the jointed gals . . . dresses up the pink tunic, I think.

I plan to draw up some trousers and bermuda shorts for Chiara - I think she would make a great golfer. :-) Most of the Julie Nutting doll stamps are in dresses or skirts and are "striking a pose" in the fashion sense. Their legs aren't trouser ready, so to speak, but Chiara is one who is.  

I'm beyond excited to be going to an all day "Painted Paper Collage" workshop on Sunday at Papercraft Clubhouse  with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer (whose blog I've been following forever). INFO  I have done very little with paints so this will be a true learning experience for me. 

 An art journaling workshop is Julie's Saturday offering but that didn't call to me.  Journaling daily is way too much pressure in my life. Do a set task every day?  I'm not even good at taking vitamins!  The man of the house says I never do anything the same way twice. Lol. And I forgot to put my FitBit on today after my shower. Sigh.

Still to come - making a jointed paper doll (as soon as I take the right photos).

Cheers!

Paper Dolls Part 1: A China Head Doll

In the days when I was still playing with dolls, I wanted a porcelain doll desperately.  A catalog of porcelain doll kits came in the mail every so often (addressed to Mom) and I would spend hours poring over the choices of heads, arms and legs, picking out the ones I wanted to order.  The dolls were different sizes with black or blonde hair in various painted on styles. Owning one of these dolls was my heart's desire at age 10. The answer was always no. And life went on.

Doll similar to my heart's desire

Fast forward half a century  . . .  in my meanderings through cyberspace, what should I find but an online purveyor of rubber stamps offering a clear stamp for a china head doll named Lottie. All of those longings for a porcelain doll came surging back. Without hesitation I placed the order. Immediately. As a bonus, a template for Lottie's body as well as a basic dress were available to download.

Lottie from Pink Persimmon

The padded envelope containing Lottie arrived, I printed the body and dress templates and broke out the ink, paper and scissors.

Three of my paper dolls are shown below. Lottie is 8" tall with movable arms and lower legs. Small brads attach the arms and legs to the body and also secure the dress to her at the shoulders.  In traditional paper doll fashion, the dresses could be made with the fold back paper tabs of long ago, but I didn't choose to do that.

I have tweaked the dress pattern a bit, digging out my paper doll dressmaking skills from long ago and have several additional outfits in the closet. Lottie's skin is colored with Prismacolor colored pencils in shades of peach with pink cheeks and red lips.  A bit of blue dots the eyes. These are artist quality colored pencils (available at Michael's) with a waxy lead that can be blended to achieve many effects. I also extended Lottie's boots  to her knees with a black Sharpie marker.

So there she is. My first foray into paper dolls fas an adult.  (yes, there are more).

If you would like to make your own Lottie, you can find the stamp set HERE on Etsy or I can be convinced to share!

Cheers!