Gathering Dust

Tag Swap Evolution

 
When I got to Karla's for craft day on Friday, she had my Bird Song tag book ready for me- the book was wrapped in a page from a bird watching book, a pretty flower and a tag made by our friend Nora.

 
I was absolutely amazed by the tags.  I started doing tag swaps about 8 years ago through Yahoo Groups.  I know some people have had horrible experiences with swaps, but I always got nice tag art back- but it was almost always a decorated & collaged manilla shipping tag. 

Tag swaps have really changed.

 
Karla painted a watercolor bird for the covers, glittered the bird cage bars to make them 3-d, and added a flower and a charm.

 
The back of the cover was covered in one of my favorite vintage wallpapers.

 
This tag was made by Tina McGarry.  Look at all the details.

 
The little door actually opens- this tag had so many great elements- vintage wallpaper, script paper, sewing, stamps- and look at the little bird on the roof.

 
Even the back was completely decorated.

 
Fun use of corrogated cardboard by Lilla Le Vine.

 
Vintage laces- all fabric and embroidery by Barbara Burkard.

 
Another fabric tag- sewn and embroidered by Susan Norwood.

 
A sheet music nest on distressed paper with a bird stamped on a fabric background- love the low color of this.  Made by Jill Sibbald.

 
This tag was embossed on metal- AWESOME.  The tag is signed but I'm sorry, I can't read it.

 
I'm not even sure what this tag is made of- but it's amazing- a board and batten bird house with shake shingles by Cheryl Comfort.

 
The evolution of tag books swaps is incredible- the materials used, the techniques- and the books  you end up with are  collaborative works of art. 

What a wonderful world to be part of- thanks to Karla for all the work, late nights and long days she put into this- this kind of swap generates a lot of good karma- and gives me a lot of new blogs to look at.

Ancient Art

 
I was digging through my craft room, looking for supplies for craft day tomorrow and ran across a journal/glue book I started in 2006. It's not really a glue book because I used paints, stamps and inks; and it's not really a journal because I didn't write in it.  More of just a place to play.

Five years ago- I hadn't really thought about it, but I was surprised to realize that I've been cutting, tearing, gluing and pasting for that long and it was interesting to see what kind of changes I've made.

 
...like this page- what a mess- I can't imagine making something like this today, but I think I was just experimenting- using stamps, tissue paper and handmade paper.

 
Remember when every other collage had a pointed hat or wings?

 
Even this dog has a hat- but he always reminded me of my dog Milo.

 
This was done after I started reading blogs and realized that collage could be "pretty".  I was used to the darker, more abstract style that Somerset was featuring back then.

 
Another piece using some stamps, brighter colors and florals.

 
Even five years ago I was into the "low color" palette.

 
More low color.

These pages were the best of what I found in the book- there were lots of bad collages- bad color, bad composition, bad experiments in inking, stamping and watercolors- but that's ok- its all about playing, trying new things and having fun. 

This is the journal cover- I wouldn't make it exactly like this today, but one thing hasn't changed- sewing is still one of my favorite themes.

I Bet You Didn't Have Any of These at Your Family Reunion

 
Besides a family that loves to get together, plenty of food, a talent show, a beautiful lake setting and babies to hold, what can really add fun to a family reunion?

*A four person water ballon launcher.

 
*A "potato gun"- made by my nephew when he was in junior high.  PVC pipe, hairspray, a Bic lighter and a 10 lb bag of potatoes.  The goal- see if you can shoot a potato across the lake.  Don't try this yourself- I'm not even sure that it is legal, but it was fun.

By the way, the nephew that made the gun is now an aerospace engineer. Maybe it is ok to let some of your kids play with fire.

 
*An eight year old nephew willing to retrieve potatoes that didn't disintegrate or make it into the lake.  BONUS:  Even though he's from Minnesota, he's wearing the KU Jayhawk t-shirt he got from his aunt and uncle in Kansas.

 
And if you came to my blog looking for crafts- check this out- Rapunzel hair knitted and decorated by a very clever Granny.   I want to make one for myself.

Weekend Dittying and Restocking the Antique Booth

 
With the temperature at right around 100 for most of the weekend, I really just wanted to spend the weekend at home in air conditioning- but I know that the only way to have a successful booth at the antique mall is to restock and "re-verve". 

 If I ignore my booth, it ignores me.

 
On the way to the mall, I spent 30 minutes in road construction to travel about a mile and a half.  Somehow, looking at people working out in the sun, on the asphalt doing heavy lifting made me think "what am I complaining about?"

 
After all, when I got done with my work in an air conditioned antique mall, I got to walk around and take pictures.  Like these from is Gail Trittin's booth.  Her booth is one I've shown before- because she always has awesome stuff.

 
Like these turtle shells.

 
Another one of my favorite booths- Susan Greer Walters.  I know this isn't a new trend, but you see a lot of antlers at antique malls these days.

 
Great shrine made from an old clock case.

 
More bits of nature- starfish table decor.

 
Cork collection from French by Design.

 
Paint brush collection- if you saw them in someone's garage you probably wouldn't notice them, but displayed on a black table, they really catch your eye.

 
Travel display.

 
Think Pink- the display that greats you as you walk in the front door of the mall.

 
When I got home from the antique mall, it was so nice to know that I didn't have to leave the house- so I had a chance to sink into my craft chair and sew.   Finished a journal and  some ditty bags- you can find them in my Etsy shop Gathering Dust .

Party Crasher

 
Today is the third annual Where Bloggers Create party, and once again, I'm party crashing.  There are hundreds of bloggers attending the on-line party, but I'm kind of shy about big parties- and my craft room is...messy.

But I haven't posted in awhile, and I know there are at least three people that miss me if I don't post, so here's a "checking in post", and a peek at one little place that I do some crafting.

Although I have a whole bedroom that I can use as a craft room, I looked around my house and realized that I do a lot of my creating in "my chair" in the living room. Just like how Archie and Edith had there own chairs, hubby and I have always had reserved seating- we always sit in the same place- me in "my chair" and he's on the couch.

 My knitting basket is on one side of my chair, and on the table next to my chair is a pin cushion and a little basket of trims.

The embroidery on the chair is a dresser scarf that had some holes, so I've done a little patching and stitching and I'm going to turn it into a tote bag.

 
This is a wrap I'm knitting out of a soft fuzzy yarn and a very thin yarn with little bits of sparkly ribbon every few inches.

 
I sew all my ditty bags in this chair- I have some new ones in the works that I've added images printed on fabric.

 
This little guy is sitting on a heart shaped candy box.

 
Sometimes, I do some cutting and pasting in "my chair"- I have a little lap tray that I use as a desk.

But no matter what I'm working on you can count on finding evidence of it - in the form of slivers of paper, snippets of thread or bits of yarn scattered on the floor around my chair- all signs of some pleasant time spent in "my chair".

Lace Ditty Bags Update

 
Several people have asked me to let them know when I made more lace ditty bags.  I've added some to my Gathering Dust Etsy Shop.

 
I've also added some journals that are full of different papers.

 
New paper, old paper, scrapbook book, magazine pages, hand written music, vintage and newer wallpaper.

 
I think it would be fun to use the books as the base of your own altered book, or glue book. Or you could  pull out the papers you want to use for another art project, and add whatever papers, collages or journal pages you might already have. 
This is probably more pictures of paper than you needed to see- but you know how I love my paper....

 

Crafting on a Long Weekend

 
 
Besides having an extra day this weekend, we've had the "bonus" of incredibly hot weather- too hot to go anywhere - so I decided to act like I was snowed in, and spend the whole weekend crafting.

My first project was  tags for Karla's  Birdsong Tag Swap.  I love the Audubon and nature study type bird images, but I've used them a lot lately, so I went with something different and used a simple image from an old elementary school reader.

 
While I was working in my craft room this morning, my husband came down the hall to ask "What's that noise?" I was sewing the background for the tags- he's not used to the sound of a sewing machine.

 
My next project was Mary's July Collage Challenge.  I resized some of the images and tinted an image on her collage sheet and printed it twice- once on card stock and once on vellum. 

 
The brown ticket and floral background are on vellum.

 
I added the collage to this book that I've been working on since March- actually, I haven't been working on it since March- I started it in March, and just needed  one more page to finish it off.  Karla gave me a bunch of trims she had made- the rhinestone silk and tulle at the bottom is one she made.

 
Here are a few more pages.

 
The classic Bingo card page...

 
Some more of Mary's images, and a bird I printed on a book page.

 
The book is in my Etsy shop Gathering Dust.

 
I found another "Pink Lady" estate sale this weekend and added some pretties to my other Etsy shop SugarPinkMoon.

 

The sale had lots of florals, Florentine, tole and pretty linens.
 
And I've got a soft spot for vintage baby books- the illustrations are so cute.

I've also been doing some destashing, so if you're looking for lots of buttons, lots of valentines, lots of sewing notions with great graphics or lots of vintage needlebooks, check out the links.

 
One more day of crafting on this long weekend, and I'm going to spend it playing with Mary's new catalog image collection.  Mary gave me some pages from the collection that she'd had printed on extra heavy paper and I don't think I can cut them, I think I should frame them.

 
I might not cut the large prints, but you can bet I'm going to play with some of the millinery pages- love those hats. 

 
This is just a tiny sample of the collection- it's not just great images, it's a peek into everyday life (and prices) in 1914.