Characters from Dickens Novels – Digital Downloads

I’ve spent a large part of the day scanning and enhancing some cigarette cards that we have and after much to-ing and fro-ing between Picnik and Photoshop I’ve managed to remove most of the signs of age from this set of Dickens Characters.

These cigarette cards were collected, we presume, by Alasdair’s Grandma in 1912 when they were first included in packets of John Player cigarettes.  I have to say I’m very attached to the cards and I’m sure the originals will have a special place in our home just as soon as we have a completed wall to put them on…long, long story that sadly doesn’t ever seem to get much shorter.  Anyway, I digress, the images are now neatly sorted into PNG files and a PDF and are available for purchase from our shop.

Also, just so you don’t think I’ve been completely overcome by capitalist urges…here’s a bit of a freebie.  The image below will be available to download for free until the end of May.  To get the file just right click and choose ’save picture as…’ and if you want the whole set, including some of our favourite characters from Oliver Twist, they are only $1.99 in the shop.

some unrelated updates

Firstly, there are now felt brooches in the shop.  Each one of these is entirely handsewn by me and available for a bargain price of $6.50.

I made my first Inchies this week too and am excited by the results.  The first set is for the A, B, C, D, E, F Inchie swap on ATCsforall and the second set is for the Beginners Inchie Swap on SwapBot.

Both are painted with black acrylic paint before being embellished.  The first set used dictionary pages handcut into letters that were then coloured with crayons and outlined with gold pen.  The second set used the packing tape transfer method again with various backgrounds (vintage book page, painted baby wipe, painting with kids poster paints, newspaper).

vintage fashion atcs

I’ve decided to start swapping again.  The first of the swaps I tackled this week was to create two Vintage Fashion ATCs.  Here’s my interpretation and a bit of a how to.

I love this effect and it’s really quick and easy to acheive.

First find an old dressmaking pattern that you are done with or don’t mind never using again.  For my purposes I have a huge box of vintage patterns for size 10 clothing…even with the best will in the world I’ll never fit into these so they’re perfect for other crafts.  The background I used actually has two patterns stuck to it as the one I had with words on it didn’t look old enough for the effect I was trying to acheive.

Using a glue stick, stick the pattern pieces to a plain postcard.  Wait for these to dry before the next part, otherwise they will tear and the whole thing will be a mess.

The figures were applied using the packing tape transfer method shown in the video below.  Pay particular attention to removing all of the white bits, unlike me who did this in a poorly lit room and missed bits!

I photocopied the pattern packaging and coloured in the figures with crayon and coloured pencil before sticking it to my “packing tape”.  The green one is crayon and the red one is coloured pencil.  Crayon gives a more vibrant finish, although I prefer the washed out appearance from the coloured pencil.  I guess anything would work as long as it’s waterproof.

The cool thing about this method of transfer is that ech time I’ve done it, the packing tape (or sticky backed plastic in my case) stays sticky even though it’s been wet, which is perfect for finishing the ATCs.  I just smoothed it on and rubbed my scissor handles over it to get a really good contact between the transfer and the patterned postcard.

The back is finished with another plain postcard for neatness.

what to do with all those vintage buttons?

Over the years I have amassed quite a collection of vintage buttons.  This morning I set out to sort my buttons, after all what else is there to do on a wet and windy Sunday afternoon?  The following pictures show the results of a day of hard labour with the button tins.

first I organised them by colour

then I took some pictures

then I sewed some onto a piece of fleece and put it in a frame

and Alasdair took some arty pictures.

I have literally thousands of vintage buttons.  They’ll either be made into arrangements like this or sold as sets once they’re sorted and cleaned.

book review: Bent, Bound and Stitched: Collage, Cards and Jewelry with a Twist (paperback) by Giuseppina Cirincione

Bent, Bound and Stitched: Collage, Cards and Jewelry with a Twist by Giuseppina Cirincione I have to tell you, I fell in love with this book even before I opened it. The front cover reached out to me with it’s vintage quality that told me the contents was to be worth the wait to get home before I could open it. If you can’t wait, clicking on any of the links here will take you to Amazon where you can look inside this wonderful book. I wasn’t at all disappointed. Even if all you want to do is drool over pictures then this book still won’t disappoint. The author has turned her creations into very appealing and easy to follow projects that teach the basics of the techniques she uses. I have already spent many a happy hour thumbing through the pages and I have only owned the book for three days. Amongst the many projects in the book, the author shows how to turn a single piece of metal wire into beautiful artwork and then use that art to embellish a multitude of projects. She also demonstrates how to effectively use sewing to enhance papers that you probably have lying around anyway and how to turn found objects into stunning, individual pieces of jewellery, presenting the perfect way for me to use some of my button stash. Without a doubt, my favourite project is the last one showing a simple technique for etching images onto copper and then using the etched copper to create a book using wire and rivets, not forgetting an opportunity to recycle any leather you happen to have in your home. There are plenty of step-by-step photos in this book and coupled with the easy to follow instructions I would say you’re guaranteed success. The book goes way beyond the projects contained therein though; the techniques you learn will serve you well for your own creations and your imagination will be well fired once you’ve explored the content for even a few minutes. The author has also written Collage Lost and Found: Creating Unique Projects with Vintage Ephemera. It’s not to my taste simply because I don’t do ephemera; however still well worth a look if you enjoy mixed media collage.