4-legged house guest

While walking Maggie a week ago Thursday, a woman stopped her car by me, rolled down her window and said, "Is that your dog?"

I looked down at Maggie, standing at the end of her leash and replied, "Um... yes."

 "Not that one," the woman said. "THAT one," pointing back over her shoulder at a little white dog sniffing a bush about 100ft away.

"Nope, not mine," I said, hoping that would be the end of it but knowing I'd go rescue the dog. So we walked toward it, me talking in a dog-friendly voice and Maggie wagging her tail off at the thought of a dog to play with. It came right to me and since I happened to have an extra leash with me, I snapped it on her. Luckily she had a collar but no tags. TAG YOUR DOGS, PEOPLE!

I proceeded to walk the neighborhood for 30 minutes hoping to find its house. No luck, so I went home, took her pic, made flyers and set out in the car stopping everyone I saw to see if they recognized the dog. Still no luck, so I took her home and there she stayed until Saturday evening when her family finally called. We named her Betty for no reason other than she looked like a Betty and lit up when we called her.

She and Maggie ran themselves silly in the back yard for hours, and while she was with us, she fit right in like she'd been here for years. Maggie sleeps with us, in a dog bed down by our feet, so I wedged another dog bed in, pointed at it, and Betty hopped right in and slept the night.

In the evenings, we sit on a love seat-sized La-Z-Boy and watch the tube or read. She jumped up, found a spare lap and flopped down. Too funny.

When her family called, I gave them a brief earful about being a responsible pet owner. But they seemed like nice people and Betty (aka Charlie) was thrilled to see them so I gave her back. Turned out she lived about 75ft from where I found her, in one of the few houses whose door I didn't knock on. If she'd had TAGS, I could have called them within minutes of finding her.

art+athletics=ATCs

With the Olympics on, I can't seem to stay away from the TV, so I packed a bunch of art stuff out to the kitchen table and made ATCs for several evenings. Here's the results, complete with notes about how and what. All are for trade except "rather wistfully" and the bluebird.

Watercolor background, torn bits of old book pages and maps, inking.
The woman is a vintage image that I layered over an old book page in photoshop,
then printed. "Adventurous" was part of a pack of printed words that I got
from someplace a long time ago. Seemed to fit with her determined expression and the map,
like she might be getting ready to set off for The Continent or something.

Background is an ancient ledger page showing onions, tea, 28 (lbs of?) sugar,
cracked corn, 2 cans of something, 3 breads. Amazing to think it was all
set down by hand, in pencil, and that was what everyone went by.
Inked thru a paper doily on left but you can't see much of it.
The brown strip is old tissue paper from the back of a frame.
The cucumber is from an old page of a gardening book, layered onto a bit of map.
"Buy the giant size..." is from a 1954 LIFE magazine layered onto a bit of
heavily inked book page.

Watercolor background with some old torn paper  and a couple pieces of washi tape.
Inked thru sequin waste for the dots. The image is a copy of an old photo
that's in poor shape and faded but I love his hat and bicycle.
"The very latest craze" is from that pack of printed words.

Watercolor background. The little girl is from a swap, I think. I had some
washi tape in a plaid with exactly her colors in it so I used that plus a polka dot.
"Mischievous" from the pack of words. This one is totally not my colors or style
but I think it's kinda cute.

Old ledger background with inking thru stencil waste and some old tissue paper.
The woman is an image that I've used before and just love for her
confident expression and soft colors. The jeweled headpiece is from a
Cadillac ad in that 1954 LIFE mag, as is the wording at top. Love the colors in this one.

Watercolor background with stamping and some washi tape.
No idea where the girl came from, prolly a swap. The phrase is from an old book.
I have a bunch of vintage books and just page thru them until I find a word
or phrase that works with what I'm doing. Love this one.

The background is watercolor with old torn paper and some inking thru drywall tape.
The girl came in a swap with little Miss Mischievous above.
The bluebird is from a set of digital images of vintage logomachy cards
I bought from Mary Green. This one cracks me up.
Looks like she was just woken from a nap by that damn bird.

Old ledger background. Cut the wall image from that 1954 LIFE mag.
The girl is a scanned old image. Cut her out so she could sit on the wall
instead of the chair she was on. "The cutest" is from the LIFE mag.
Drew some little circles with a white gel pen.

Emily knew...

Gail of Shabby Cottage re-opened her challenge blog, Mind Wide Open. I didn't know it in its first life, but jumped right in when she announced a new challenge. She gave us a gorgeous image of a girl with a butterfly tattoo on her face, on a lovely background. I went digital again, since I'm in photoshop mode today.

I liked the aqua in her tattoo so I started with three different green/aqua backgrounds, added two overlays of grungy frames and one of old film, two leaf edges, a couple glitter swirls, a butterfly image and I can't even remember what else. Did all sorts of tweaks with filters and layers, and ultimately ended up with this:

I just love the colors in it (been on an aqua binge for months now) and the overall look. I still have a long way to go to be proficient in photoshop but at least I'm now able to create art that I'm happy with.

Those of you who enjoy challenges, go check out Mind Wide Open. If she keeps up with these types of images, I'll be there every time.

gluebook pages

Every time I see some gluebook pages on Mary Green's blog, I get inspired to make a few. My husband was out of town last week for 3 days, so I hauled a bunch of stuff out to the kitchen table and made a big old mess while I watched the Olympics.

My mom being held by her dad, around 1925.
The circus is in the background.
Love the pop of orange postage stamp with the blues.

These things do well as an assembly line item so I made up 6 backgrounds one evening, patching together old book pages, maps, sheet music and misc papers until I had the cardboard covered. Then I smeared gesso over everything, and stuck some masking tape onto the gesso while it was still wet, a la this tutorial. I was on a roll and didn't have the patience to wait until it was dry, so I peeled it off after I stopped and ate a cookie, so about 15 minutes after I put it on. I had to be careful not to pull the whole thing apart, as she warns, but it worked out fine. I layered them in cereal box liners (FREE! and what I use instead of roll after roll of wax paper) and stacked them under a heavy book for the night since they tend to warp.

Loved the pic of the horse looking thru the gate so I used him with half
of an old Italian postcard that had a horse statue on it.
Added red to pick up the red in the ledger paper.

Next evening I put most some very little of my previous supplies away and got out postage stamps, people pics, and a box of vintage-y ephemera. I laid out all 6 backgrounds and just started putting items on various backgrounds as I dug thru my files and boxes. Pretty soon I had loosely themed piles of goodies on each card. Then I picked one and rearranged, discarded and added stuff until I liked it. Glued it down and went on to the next one. So in two evenings, I made these 6 cards. Gluebook pages offer an excellent payoff in time vs product!


Which one do you like best??


I'm keeping the first three but the last three are up for trade. Anybody interested? They're 5x7 with no holes punched yet, and I haven't finished the backs but will before I trade them.

My mom sitting on the steps of a porch in Dayton Ohio around 1925.
Had those little squares of paper left from doing the backgrounds
so I used them here. I really like this one.

I think the woman is a Vanderbilt daughter. I had originally saved her for using in
Lenna's vintage greeting card swap but didn't.
The flowers are an original page from a small 1932 book of wild flowers
from my yard saling friend Moneka.
The torn bits at top are part of a napkin taken apart to its three layers.
Love how it blends right in.

The girl is an original little card from an old album.
Layered her on part of an old book page.
The stamps are originals. Love how they pick up the colors.

The girl is an image from an old book layered onto edges from a map
I used in the backgrounds. The dictionary page had been painted green
for some other long ago project and the ticket was from a swap.

savvy traveler

Mary Green and her monthly collage challenges are back! Yay! As always, you must use at least part of all three images. Like the last few, I went digital with this. I love paper and glue but merging 3 such different elements is a lot more fun for me in photoshop.

Used the map as the background, with two overlays - a grungy one and an old film one. There are various other things in the background - newspaper in the top left corner, part of a handwritten letter along the left edge, a collage of health product packaging along the top.

Made the woman from various parts and pieces, and then put a frame around her head. Duplicated the ticket a couple times. Dropped a frame onto the fig label and then put it on a red background so show it would show up against the grungy map.

The savvy traveler (yes I know it's spelled wrong in the collage but it sooo looks like it should have two Ls doesn't it?? and by the time I realized it, I had already merged the layers) font is "crow scratch" from Crowabout Studio B and the other elements are from Tangie Baxter and Deviant Art.  I'm really working on adding lots of elements and packing more onto the page, not for the sake of using lots of stuff, but to make it more interesting to look at, and I'm pleased with this one. Glad you're back, Mary! Bet you never envisioned your elements ending up like this, huh?!? LOL

Miss Underwood 1934

   

a tour of my guest room

The guest room is the one place in the house where I can go nuts with the antiques and the grunge and the lace. The one place that doesn't get messed up regularly by actual living, and doesn't need to be practical and easy to clean. It's a display room for all some a small part of the fun stuff I've collected over the years. 

This picture apparently wants to be at the top so badly that I can't convince
Blogger to move it so we'll start with it. This is the far corner as you come into the room.
Dresser to the left, desk and cabinet to the right.
Old family photos in their original frames, lacy side table and doilies all over the lamp.
I'm not showing the bed this time around because I have it stripped down to the
mattress pad so the dog can look out the window and bark at anyone
who has the nerve to use the sidewalk.  

This is the left side of the window, at the foot of the bed.
I bought this oak dresser when I moved out of my mom's house in 1970. I was 17
and still in high school but had a good job and a car. I paid $85 for it, a fortune at the time,
at the antique flea market they used to have in the parking lot out in front of the
Cunningham's drug store I worked at. The mirror tilts and I never had the
silvering repaired, altho I thought about it often enough. That dresser has lived in Michigan,
Illinois and California since I've had it. No telling where all it was before that.

Some old sewing goodies. The large round thing hold several spools of thread
 with a pincushion in the center. I'm a prancing horse in the photo and
my cousin Dea is about to shoot me in the head with her pistol. 

My mother is at front right standing in the washtub with the other neighborhood kids
around 1927. That's her dad in the frame at right. My grandma's little bitty
address book in front of him with her spidery writing. Old leather hair curlers
in front of the kids and a triangle chicken I made at left. 

If I could find a whole set of these dishes, no telling how much I'd be willing
to pay for them, but I've never even spotted another piece at all the
 flea markets and thrift stores I've been to over the years.
Lovely old dresser scarf.

A long shot of the dresser top. I layered 4 or 5 dresser scarves.

A reproduction wall cabinet with various salt and peppers on top.
A large set of made in Japan shakers on the first shelf and
an old pitcher and jar of Leslie's Foot Cream on the second shelf.
Close ups below.

Standing over by the dresser. I put a shelf with pegs above the closet
and hung a garland that my friend Moneka and I made years ago.
Closer shot of the shelf below. Picked up the old wooden ironing board
at a yard sale just the other day.
They said it came with them from Connecticut, but not way to prove it.
That's an old crazy quilt hanging from the cabinet. Close up below.

Part of the crazy quilt and a pin I made years ago.

Chair at right of dresser with pillows I made from old quilts.
The small crazy quilt is one I made during and after a class with
Betty Pillsbury. It was about 100 that day and 14 crazy quilt ladies
were packed into Julie's family room.
That's still one of the top 5 weekends of my life.

The small drop front desk from Steve's side of the family.
His mom entrusted me with a lot of the old family things
because she knew I loved them and would really enjoy having them.
I've had the mirror for years, love the shape of the top edge.
The bed is immediately to the left.

I have so many old doilies that I can't decide which ones to use, so I layer them. 

I bought this old doll at least 30 years ago for a couple bucks.
I know she's quite old but I don't know anything about dolls
and have never had her appraised. I forget if there are any maker's marks.

Another made in Japan shaker. I absolutely adore this one.
The pink and brown, the crazing, the raised work - everything about it.