Christmas Paper Crafts

Wishing you all a most wonderful Christmas, eating holiday food, engaging in family traditions, and visiting family and friends!!

I finally got the courage to try my hand at one of these.  There are some.  The ones out there from other artists I've seen just made me swoon.  Mine not so much, but I learned a few things about the technique.  One, next time I'll use a fresher/newer book.  I used an older book which makes the pages a bit too delicate and the piece can get crushed with time, so a newer book will keep it looking fresh and crisp.  Two, you layer the cones on top of each other in neat rows instead of randomly as I did.  Use a glue gun to adhere the cones for quick work.

This one I will be gifting for Christmas.

I also finally decorated these trees which I had purchased last year for Christmas.  At first I had planned to all 3 in the same style.  I quickly changed my mind because it just seemed boring to me to do it that way.

 

 

The one thing that brought them all together was the glittered buttons on the bottom

This is a very cool idea for me being a night owl and otherwise unencumbered for New Year's Eve.  You might want to check it out too.  Sounds like a lot of fun.  I just found this blog through my Google alerts and it's super cute and pack full of inspirational paper crafts.  Go visit Paula's Palace and join in.

All Night Craft Along

 

 

'Till next time,

Altered Vintage Glass Bottles - Shells

Current completed work.  I love altering these tiny bottles.

 Upcycled vintage bottles from a yard sale, antiques shop and/or thrift shop.

Shells from the beach, lace, vintage images, glitter

Broken jewelry pieces (a pin), vintage book pages, So Sweet!!

Do you have a favorite art book you use for inspiration?  I'm always in search of mixed media, collage, altered art books that might be new to me.  

Do you have 1 or more that you love, used, or found very inspirational and want to recommend on one of your blog posts?  I'm planning a link party soon.  Let me know if you're interested.

 Until next time, have a wonderful day!

 

Books for Trade, Altered Notebook and Giveaways

Interested in trading for books you might have that you no longer want?  Here are a few that I have to offer up for trade. I've linked available titles to Amazon so you can take a look.

Books for trade

1. Making Scrapbooks: Complete Guide to Preserving Your Treasured Memories - Vanessa-Ann
2. Scrapbooking with Memory Makers - Gerbrandt and Arquette (mine is a hardback)
3. Treasured Memories: Over 35 Inspirational Ideas for Creating Heirloom-quality Memory Books - Mary Maguire
4. A Year of Scrapbooking - Debbie Janasak & Anna Swinney
5. Type Cast: Creative Page Design Using Words, Type and Letters - From The Editors of Memory Makers Books
6. Scrapbooking Projects - Bay Books
7. Out of Bounds: Scrapbooking without boundaries - Jodi Amieci and Torrey Scott 
8. Making Memories: Scrapbook Ideas for your Treasured Photographs and Keepsakes - Penny Boylan

I'd be interested in Mixed Media, Collage, Altered Art books. Also for Somerset Magazines: Life, Studio, Home, Apprentice or possibly others from Somerset.  Make me an offer and I might be interested in what you want to part with.

I found this notebook at the Dollar Tree.  I liked the cover as it was, so I just added the chipboard label holder thingie after glittering with this awesome blue color, a piece of vintage doily and the Spanish word for pages, paginas.  I thought it turned out pretty adorable.

Here are some beautiful giveaways from those generous bloggers we all love.  Let's celebrate with them!

Celebrating 300th Post

Life is a Beautiful Place to Be

 Celebrating a Blog Anniversary

Blue Creek Home

Another Blog Anniversary

Kandeland

Have a fun rest of the week and good luck on those giveaways.  I was lucky to win 2 awesome giveaways recently. I'll show you the goodies on a future post once I receive them.

Altered Book Photos

I'm learning so much about altered books! I'm so grateful to Elizabeth of Altered Book Lover for giving so much of her time and talent to teach this class free of charge. She's touching of many techniques and really challenging me. I've used gesso for the first time and I love the look. Loved doing the pockets and next lessons which I'm late with involved a zipper and another buttons. Thanks again, Elizabeth!!

'till next time,

Dance Cards and Antiques

Finds at a small/crowded antique shop at the Green Dragon flea market and auction

25c buttons for 75c. Oh well, they're sweeeet!

Adorable mini book. I'm currently working on a children's fairy tales altered books so I especially love finding this one.

Another classic. Isn't the cover wonderful!Sweet graphics and I just loved the chapter number in color instead of the usual black.

This one was a larger book and surprisingly stapled. That's the method of binding for this book. I thought it was quite unique for me anyway.Inside of A Tale of Roses.

Cards I received for the dance card swap Nancy/D from the Altered_stArt yahoo group.

Gift card from Nancy who organized this swap

Check how clever the inside isFrom Holly Willis

The beautiful inside

From Peggy Horan - See the metal ball attached to this one; it opens up like a locket to put 2 tiny photos. So neat!

From Nancy

Inside of Nancy's

Thanks for stopping by,

Dia De Los Muertos and Show &Tell Sunday

Hi all -- I'm late on posting my Dia De Los Muertos entry due to technical problems with my PC. But here's an altered frame honoring both my Mom and Dad. A candle lit inside this triangular frame will finish it with a nice glow. Hope you like it. Below is my Show and Tell Sunday entry. I'm new at this and hope you forgive the double entry and lateness.

Thanks for visiting.

My love for paper and vintage has been evolving into this collection, although a very young collection. I can't seem to get enough of it, especially the most precious vintage children's photos.

Click to see these postcards to see the close up and check out the really funny ones.