One World One Heart 2011

Once again it's that time of year when bloggers all over the world come together to visit and share and get to know one another. This event is hosted by Lisa of A Whimsical Bohemian and as this is its final year you won't want to miss it! Last year was my first year participating and I had so much fun and was so inspired by the many blogs I visited. For those who don't know me, my name is Linda and I live in a small town in Washington. I love all kinds of paper crafts especially ATCs, collage and mailart. So, welcome...spend some time looking around and then be sure to check out One World One Heart to find the list with all the participating blogs!


Now, as a thank-you for stopping by I'm giving away a set of Cavallini rubber stamps...Birds and Nests. These stamps are just gorgeous and I find myself returning to use them time and time again. I know you'll love using them. To enter just leave me a comment on this post. Be sure to leave your email address so I can contact you should you win. At the end of the event (February 17th) I'll post the winner on my blog. Have fun!

Vintage Notecard Swap

Lenna's latest creative swap is all about vintage note cards. This is my second swap with this wonderfully creative group and I've had so much fun watching the cards arrive on Lenna's blog. Even though we're all working with the same theme everyone's take on "vintage" is different. I really enjoy seeing the different styles used by each artist...I get so inspired! Be sure to stop by the Creative Swaps blog, say hello to Lenna and have a look at some of the beautiful cards that have come in. Here are the cards I created. The swap was for three cards with envelopes but I chose to make an extra one for Lenna as a small thank you for hosting the swap. A year or so ago I took a workshop offered by Mary of Green Paper called Artist Class. The images I've chosen for my cards were used in one of the Artist class projects. I thought these four women would be perfect as a set of vintage note cards so I decided to use them again here. I've layered the images on some vintage book text and a piece of old flocked wallpaper, added a little vintage lace and a heart charm and there you have it...a set of vintage note cards!

Playing in my Gluebook

I was cleaning off my desk today and happened upon (you know how that is) some papers I had made a few weeks ago. I was inspired by a tip Mary had shared in Your Vintage Gluebook about layering images. I took a botanical print and layered it onto a page out of an old dictionary. I had made these two pages to frame as a gift for my sister's birthday (she liked them!) and made a few extras to play with. So, today instead of putting them away I pulled out my gluebook. This is what I really love about my gluebook...whenever I'm inspired (especially when I should be cleaning my craft room) I can create a little piece of art that makes me happy. Here are copies of the papers I made...feel free to use them. The flower images are courtesy of Carolyn at Antique Images. Go play now!

Happy Homemaker Tagalong

Elizabeth of Bluebird Papercrafts is hosting a year long tagalong and she was gracious enough to let me play along! She is a talented artist and infuses everything she creates with warmth and whimsy. For this swap we'll create two tags each month...one for a partner and one to keep. We are each to choose a theme in keeping with the Happy Homemaker idea and continue that theme throughout the year. One challenge Elizabeth has set for us is that we can only use one paper pack or 10 large sheets to last the entire year. This is what will make it really interesting.... we'll have to get very creative in our piecing of things as the year progresses. Every month on the 10th we'll reveal our tags on the Bluebird Papercrafts blog. Elizabeth also asked us to share a little about the choices we made...theme, paper etc. and our process. Here are a few photos of what I've chosen. I chose the Happy Homemaker paper pad from October Afternoon mainly because I had just purchased it and I love the nostalgic patterns and colors. I had some old red file folders that are the perfect weight for the base of my tags. The rest of the supplies are things I have on hand...rick rack and lace trim, buttons and bingo markers, paper doilies and old labels. We'll see what ends up on the tags!



Thank goodness I had some helpers to keep me company!

I knew I wanted to do something vintage that included children but I had a little trouble narrowing down my theme. I dearly love vintage childhood illustration and have several precious old magazines from the 30s, 40s and 50s. So, I decided my theme would be "As Seen in the Magazines."

For my first tag I've chosen a funny illustration of a young girl learning to knit. My take on this illustration is that it's January, she received her own set of knitting needles for Christmas and she's determined to teach herself to knit. Can't you see that determination in her face?

I love old sewing notions so I couldn't resist adding an old button, some rickrack and a few black snaps. I may add some glitter here and there yet but for now I haven't...we'll see! So, here's my tag for January.
Be sure to stop by Bluebird Papercrafts to say hello to Elizabeth and see the rest of January tags. See you in February!

Red Lead A Stitch in Time Tag swap

The latest swap at Red Lead is called A Stitch in Time and we're swapping large tags. The base of the tags are made with these wonderful Alteration Tags...you can get them as a set online at the Red Lead site. They're fun to work with and I can already dream up so many things to do with them! I colored my tags with distress ink then stamped a Red Lead Polka Dot stamp at the top. Then I covered the entire tag with old dress pattern paper, resized and collaged some old patterns I had, stamped the Dressmaking Trimmings stamp and raised her up on foam tape, added some lace and rick rack, an old button and a safety pin trimmed ribbon and voila...there it is!.. There's still time to join the swap...just check out the Red Lead group and play along!

Alteration Tags

Green Paper January Collage Challenge

Well, it's the first of the month and Mary at Green Paper has a new challenge posted. She's given us a beautiful collage sheet to work with again this month. Her challenge is to use at least a piece of each image in the collage sheet to create a new piece. I've used the sheet in my vintage Gluebook. My Gluebook is getting so fat it won't lay right on my scanner any longer so I have to take photos of it on my desk. I made a two page spread with the images Mary gave us and some other paper bits. The piece at the bottom that looks like a gate is actually cut from some Christmas wrapping paper from one of my presents. I thought it was so pretty and saved it hoping to use it in something and here it is! If you'd like to see the collage sheet Mary is offering and play along be sure to visit Green Paper to take a look!

Happy New Year!

Peace, health and happiness to all of you in the New Year!