freebie images - dictionary pages 2

Batch #2.

freebie images - encyclopedia pages 1

I bought a bunch of old dictionaries and encyclopedias while in Visalia. Two encyclopedia volumes had fabulous full page drawings of a variety of things. I tore them all out, scanned them at 300dpi, and hereby make them available to you. They'd be great printed over top of old wallpaper patterns or flowered papers. Perfect for layering in collages or gluebook pages.

Here are the first three pages. I'll share many more over the next week or so.

Please don't sell the sheets of images but you're welcome to sell items you've made using them. I'd love it if you'd link back so others can find and use these. Enjoy.

steampunk mailart

I just finished a doodled postcard swap for swapbot. Once you were assigned a partner, you looked at their profile, then doodled something they'd like on their card. No need to be a great artist, it's just supposed to be fun. My victim partner was into steampunk and as I thought about it, I knew I didn't want to just doodle something on a piece of cardstock.

It needed atmosphere.

I poked thru my old books and tore the back cover off an old edition of Treasure Island. I glued an aged blank page from another book onto the cover, then lettered the word(s?) 'steampunk' onto it. I sort of tangled the letters a bit, stamped a couple images and some sequin waste, then glued on a few old metal bits from my little collection of junk, including an old key. Put grommets in the top corners in case she likes it enough to hang it on the wall, plus an extra at the bottom just for the hell of it. Maybe she can add her own chains and charms or whatever steam punkers are into.

The other side is the inside back cover illustration of a ship on the high seas. Some previous owner made a check mark that I just ignored.

I gave it a good coating of gloss gel and varnish to protect it a bit, and I'm mailing it off tomorrow. God know if it'll get there in one piece - it's old and somewhat brittle. We'll see.

free images - from an old book

I tore these from an old book some time ago. The lady with the monkey fascinates me. A monkey? Maybe they were more common as house pets back then? And I love the couple on the stairs. What's the story there? He has her parasol in one hand and some books. On the way to the park? Or they're back from the park and she's peeved with him for some reason. He looks like he's trying to placate her, doesn't he? Come on, honey. I just glanced at her for a second.

Click on the pic to embiggen, then right click to save. scanned at 300dpi

just give me a gun...

I said, get back in the kitchen and finish them dishes!

I believe this is Bonnie and Clyde, but the caption is gone so I'm not sure. It was stuck in an old Life mag I bought while in Visalia. He doesn't look real worried so maybe he knows the gun isn't loaded. I like her shoes.

Winnie and the great pumpkin

A friend at work gave me a pumpkin the other day, left over from Halloween with her kids. My intent was to whack it up, bake it, and make pumpkin puree so that I could make some of the yummy-looking pumpkin recipes that are all over the net right now.

But after wrestling the thing around the kitchen for ten minutes just trying to get it cut up and gutted, I cried 'uncle' and gave the bottom half to the bird. Winnie is about 5 inches tall, a small mean as a pit of snakes African red-bellied parrot with a bite like a barracuda, and the pumpkin was about 14" tall and in diameter, so the bottom half was huge and at first he was a little scared of it when I plunked it on top of his cage. But Winnie is nothing if not foolishly brave, so after a couple moments he climbed up onto the edge. He stayed up there for about 20 minutes, ripping hunks off the rind and flinging seeds around the kitchen and picking pumpkin slime off his feet. He didn't jump in and wade around the middle of it like he did with my plate of spaghetti last year and my bowl of cereal last week.

I made pumpkin fries (along with sweet potato fries) and pitched the rest over the fence for the wild critters. I'm sure homemade pumpkin puree is wonderful but I'll take mine in a can, thanks. My poor hands just can't handle the weight and gripping that goes into cutting up a big pumpkin.

See the big bite marks in the foreground? I have scars shaped just like that.

I got pumpkin slime on my feets.

That thing at bottom left is a flip-flop that he's been working on for a month or so.

free images - Christmas postcard

Here is the front and back of a lovely old postcard that was among my maternal grandma's things. I especially love the green border on this one. It's embossed, as you can see from the back. If you make something from it, I'd love to see.

Click on images, then right click to save. scanned at 300dpi