Showing posts with label rubber stamp. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rubber stamp. Show all posts

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Patience can be a virtue...when you don't know you're waiting





I was pleasantly surprised to receive a notice in the mail that I had been published in Stampington and Co's summer 2011 Catch Up issue. But then I wracked my brain trying to remember what I had submitted. I didn't remember submitting any cards, and Catch Up is strictly for rubber stamping.

Turns out my memory was fairly accurate, because the card that appears on p. 56 in the new issue was submitted at least two years ago, if not longer. In fact, it might have been in a batch of beach cards I sent in 2007.

Nonetheless, I am always thrilled to have something published. When I started this blog four years ago, getting published was only a dream. Something I wished very hard for, and worked very hard for, until it came true. The thrill and honor are always the same, maybe more so when it is a surprise.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Vintage Goodness Found in Michigan

















































I have passed through Schoolcraft, Michigan (seen here in a photo from the Kalamazoo Gazette) on US 131 monthly for 15 years, usually at about 6:30 a.m. on Mondays or Tuesdays or about 6 p.m. on Wednesdays or Fridays, all times at which the many antiques shops along Main Street are closed.



Recently I came through on my way home from my office at a decent time on a Friday afternoon and was able to stop at two shops I had been eyeing for years. The red brick shop Abby's (see photo) had a beckoning window display, and I bought the two vintage bathing caps right out of the window. I had one like these when I was about 12, and later in high school when we were required to wear them for swimming lessons during gym class. County Living magazine recently did a feature on beach house decorating and noted bathing caps as a hot collectible.

I also got the household labels book, nearly intact, and a children's book printed on linen and supposedly dating before the Civil War from the owner, as well as the vintage Q-tip box (with Q-tips inside). We talked a lot about antiques because she had many things in her shop that reminded me of not only my childhood but of the years spent working in my brother's antique shop--something I did from about age 12 to 18. So there was a lot of deja vu for me at Abby's.

The other goodies above, including the rubber stamp set, I found on the other side of the street at an antique mall, Norma's, I believe. The cool stamp set in an open case was only $15, a true steal. I also found the vintage medical tins there, the child's paint set, the pink gloves, and several more little treasures to put to use in my altered art and mixed media creations.

There were many more shops. So many goodies, so little time.






Saturday, December 15, 2007

Fruitcake Page Featured on Kit Club



While enduring another sleepless night, or I guess I should say morning since I woke up at 3 a.m. ready to go (where?), I found some of my art featured on Paula's Kit Club http://www.paulaskitclub.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=KIT_COMMENTS. Paula Montgomery, formerly of Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers has absolutely the best scrapbooking, stamping and card-making club around!


She offers several choices of kit size and frequency as well as stamp options of mounted, unmounted, etc. But they key is, her kits are cool! No cutesy crap, no foo-f00. Instead, there are cool retro, chic, kitsch-y and otherwise funky elements. Plus, you just have to read Enzo's Report Card on her site.


I used her recent kit to make a 6 x 6 book page for an ebay group BkNq page swap. Haven't done a lot yet with my November kit, but I am enjoying the vintage cheese labels. Now, my December kit is winging its way to me. More motivation and inspiration, in a box.


Here's a pic of what I made or go check the link and see more cool stuff. The page now belongs to Rainbow869 Betty in Wisconsin.

Sunday, December 9, 2007

The 4 x 4 Friday Theme is the Always Popular Miss Mona Lisa


The theme for 4 x 4 Friday http://4x4friday.wordpress.com/ is Mona Lisa, always a fun countenance to work with. Leonardo obviously thought so, and she's endured for about 500 years-pretty popular, I'd say. I rubber stamped her on a transparency and mounted that over patterned paper. I found the word "create" already in funky type and added the typewriter key stickers. You can follow the link above to see interpretations from all over the world.
This is about all the art that got done this weekend as I had to do some actual Christmas shopping. I also packed up boxes for swaps with Miss Vicky http://www.cut-it-up.com/ and Linda J for our Blythe swap. She has a wonderful blog at http://adventuresofmolli.blogspot.com/. Her Blythes, Molli and Zelda, went shopping for mine, Lilly and Maggy. More at http://bly-me.blogspot.com/.
Now back to the studio for me. I have a project due tomorrow for Shabby Cottage Studios. http://www.shabbycottagestudio.com/. Go check them out- the design team is busy making samples of something cool you can buy to alter.
P.S. Here's a weird thing: My 17-year-old cleaned his room today- sweeper, dust rag, the whole thing, even the feather duster. Is he sick? I wondered. But no, his girlfriend was there directing the show. How cute and wonderful. I was so glad she found the stray laundry behind the dresser, too! Hopefully, he won't do that again.

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Finally! Time to Get My Hands Dirty Again!






Yippee! Finally some time to spend on art after a one-week hiatus. Where to start? It actually took me awhile to get going. Everything I started on looked bad. I just didn't feel like anything was working. So, I took a break and hooked up my new color copier, scanner, printer which had been sitting in the box for two weeks. It was super easy to set up, but my laptop died, then my second battery died, then I discovered my power cord went missing from my suitcase, having been right on top when I left Florida. So I hooked it to our other computer, and being wireless, it will be easy to hook to my laptop when I getting it going again.
With that accomplishment out of the way, I went on to finish my page for the All Originals Fat Book monthly theme swap. As the theme is pink and breast cancer awareness, you can see my contribution. Be sure to visit www.savethetatas.com. I also photographed two of my entries for the ARTchix Pink Post contest. Can't wait to hear the results of the Pet Post contest!
Still on a mini-roll, I assembled nine of my background pages for the Altered Abbey Skinny Book swap. I have 27 finished (obvy) double-sided pages due in less than 3 weeks. So, a lot of pages left to make, and finishing these pages is yet to come. Don't have any idea yet what I am going to do. A lot of the coolest pages I've seen have birds on them, but I'd like to think of something myself. Maybe I'll think of birds!
Finally, these rubber stamps were on my work table, just asking to be photographed. My Stampin' Up monthly club order came, as well as a cute crow in a dress from Invoke Arts. So much to do!

Saturday, September 15, 2007

I'm a Happy Camper



What a great day! Started with two hours of thorough house cleaning, always a good feeling, and then a trip to the rubber stamp store, consignment shop, antique mall and a trip to Stamp Camp.


Cris Marsh http://sassafraslass.blogspot.com/, my Stampin' Up demonstrator, and her sister Angie Higginbotham, collectively Creative Cottage, offer a monthly stamp camp for their customers. All the pieces and parts are provided, along with refreshments and door prizes, while attendees go table to table, making various cards and things.


Here you can see the cards I made. One is actually perforated and includes a tear-off book mark as a thank-you. There is a darling Halloween card, and then we decorated a bottle of bubbles for a great gift. Finally, we rolled a pen in decorative paper and micro beads for a cool result. Such fun!


Saturday, August 18, 2007

Art Treasures and More

When checking for my next book club assignment with the international ZNE book club, I was thrilled to see my results from assignment #1 posted on the home page of the Book Club http://www.znebookclub.info/. It not only is gratifying and makes me feel my art can't be that bad, but it helps to bring other visitors to my blog. So, the art world continues to go 'round and 'round. I was pleased to have this same artwork featured on another related site ZNEBlogz. Also, a great new feature at the bottom of this page on my blog is the ZNE Site Ring. Click on next or random to be directed to other wonderful ZNE members' blogs.

If you're loooking for other inspiration, Stamping Day and Night, in Fort Wayne, Indiana (linked at right) is having a week-long garage sale of other artists' and crafters' cast-offs of supplies, rubber stamps and scrapbook materials, publications, etc. The sale started today and lasts a week. I am trying to keep myself out of there, so I can just show up next week and reap (and spend) my rewards. I took a great batch of stuff, so hopefully someone will want it all!

Speaking of shopping (I should blog just about that!)....I had the opportunity to go to Schoolcraft, MI yesterday. The cute old downtown is lined with antique malls and shoppes. I hit the jackpot with a box of antique dominoes still sealed in their original package for $2 and three old magazines, including Better Homes and Gardens from 1933 and a fabulous McCall's from 1955. I was sad the Betsy McCall paper doll page was missing - that was a monthly highlight from my childhood. I don't know who looked more forward to the subscription arriving each month- my mother or me. I also found a glass baby bottle and a very old hair dye box.

My other treasure, which arrived today, was a package of ephemera I had ordered from ArtChix Studio, possibly the most wonderful source of collage and ATC supplies ever! Check it out: http://www.artchixstudio.com/.

I will post some pictures here soon. I just took a break from reading the old magazines and tearing out pages for collage (which I sort of felt bad about, but that was always the plan). The reading is so entertaining as well....BH&G in 1933 was encouraging readers to break out of their ration habits and start spending more to beautify their home and yard, to help the overall economy after the war and crash...little did they suspect another war in the offing.

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Hello Adoring Fans!


Hello, adoring fans- yep, that's over the top! Especially when I consider there may be zero persons reading this. In any event, welcome to my blog, formerly found at memory-works.com. That did not give me functionality and it kept dropping postings, about the same as posting droppings- because it was irritating!


This blog is to support all my nasty habits, like scrapbooking, card-making, rubber stamping, altered arts, collage, mixed media, water colors, crocheting, jewelry-making and, well, I can't remember right now what else I do! It will also be for information on my business as an independent consultant for Memory-Works.com. If you'd like more information, just let me know.
The collage above is my new favorite piece. I've got prints of it on ebay right now. I was so excited to get an offer to join some ebay art groups. I'll post links to those when I have them. There are so many cool groups on ebay. Just type any of the following in search: ATC, ACEO, ZNE, AAMM, IWAM, AWLA