Indulge Your Shelf

Here are some postcards I made for a swap with my Facebook group Vintage Crafter's Cafe.  Scroll down to see all those I received! Mine all have the same vintage wallpaper base. Besides the wallpaper, I used vintage ephemera, rub ons, and stamps. Also, reproductions of vintage images, and some "new" embellishments. Here are the lovely cards I received in return:  And, individually: by Michelle Hill  by  Edna Nathan by Cathy Forbes  by Jeanne Morton by Ruth Wood

I received my wonderful package from Kim for the Altered Paint Sample Card Swap!  It really is a feast for the eyes! I just adore how Kim put the tags together, and then embellished them with this fabulous paint brush to go along with the theme! Under that, the beautiful pink tag with the pom pom trim and the birds was made by Kim.  The next tag was mine; I created them using a sassy "vixen" theme with scrapbook cards showing women in lingerie! Here are the tags I received: Sweet embossed pink paint card! I really love how this one was done in "steps" over each of the shades of paint! Softness and a beautiful button!  Bountiful flowers and dyed ribbon! And here they all are again -- drool!  I rarely do, but this time I FORGOT to take photos of all my finished tags before mailing them off for the swap!  So I can't show you the rest of the ones I made, but they were a hoot!  Isn't swapping fun?

Kimberly at Art Joy Stuff is having a paint card swap -- and I'm going to join in.  How about you?  It looks like FUN!  Info on her blog  here . (photo by Kimberly Laws) I'm also doing a fabric "Perky Pins and Pendant" swap through a Facebook group,  Rag Bag Gals .  I am excited to dream something up for that theme.   I think the deadline has passed to sign up for it, but if you'd like to do future swaps, visit them on Facebook and request to be a member!

Has one of these creative reuse, recycle, upcycle CRAFT stores popped up near you yet?  Oh my goodness, I visited this one today and it was like heaven! It was as if you were in the sewing/crafting section of your favorite thrift shop and found something amazing for pennies...except, EVERYTHING was amazing and everything costed pennies! I spent a total of $6 and got all of this: Vintage Hallmark embossed wrapping paper - perfect for Valentines! - an unopened vintage tissue roses kit, beautiful old card box, NIP Dept. 56 garland...  a bride and groom cake topper that I've been looking for for a project, pretty old pin box...  3 yards of fabric with finished edges -- perfect to make table runners from...  and a bag of all these finished quilt squares, plus extra pieces... someone worked very hard on these, and most of the fabric is raw silk.  I'm thinking pretty pumpkins! Not shown: a stack lovely blue deckled writing paper, some large ma...

I spent some time yesterday marking down many of the items in my shop !  Here's a sample of what is now at a new, lower price:   Cherub   Wall Hooks   cafe curtains   Paris print belt Please share with your friends who love vintage! I also made two "be well" banners for my shop, after people who saw the one I made for my friend who recently had surgery encouraged me to make some to sell! banner These are introductory-priced at $19.     This is the 2nd banner I have for sale (above) I am planning to post again this week with more updates. Nothing as yet on our dismal unemployment situation. Thank you for the well-wishes and prayers; we are trying very hard to keep positive!

I had so much fun putting together an Easter banner; I made it almost exclusively from vintage Easter greeting cards I found in a thrift store grab bag. The other day I put together the panels of the banner... and then I didn't do anything else with it, because I have had a cold and when I get home from work I just have to rest -- no time for creating, darn it! But today I took a day off and stayed home sick.  Doing so *really* hurts when you are a temporary employee and have no sick time, but sometimes you just have to take care of YOU. After resting all morning, I got up the energy to finish the banner!  Didn't it turn out so sweet? I had posted a couple of photos of the pieces on Facebook when I started it, and a lot of my creative friends asked to see it finished.  So I decided to scan each panel and post them here.  That way, you can have a banner of your own: just right click on the photo to open it to full size, save it to your computer, and ...