Vintage Tag

When I first decided that I wanted to start doing paper crafts, I found this web site and was immediately hooked. I haunted the gallery for years, but never really posted or participated.

Then one day there was drama. Swapping drama! It hit the "Hot Topics" and well, people were getting pretty heated. What was this? I mean I had seen grown women arguing over politics, shopping carts and the endless Stay-at-Home Mom versus Working-Mom debate, but this was different. They were going at it over paper crafts!

I admit, I found it pretty awesome; and the way I feel about my crafty supplies, I totally got it!

Anyways, that was my introduction to swapping. I started small, with a St. Patrick's day ATC and a Rainbow inspired tag. A very nice hostess named Alaina let a newbie join her swap and once I started, I haven't been able to stop.

Look ~ my first ever ATC and Swap

I am still learning some hard lessons about myself, time management and forced creativity, but all in all I'm so glad I found this outlet.

One of the latest swaps is a vintage inspired tag swap. Every month, there are two categories, with the requirements being that you use vintage inspired images along with 5 - 7 techniques or embellishments.

The first group due is "Vintage Lady" and I chose a Geisha as my inspiration.


The first thing I do is go through my stash for things that might work with my current theme. I am still not sure why I feel the need to do this as I tend to get overwhelmed with too many choices, but I do. Then, to add to the mix, I shop (and shop, and shop some more) for that "perfect" thing that will make this swap better than any other. In the end, I just seem to end up with a lot, and I mean A LOT, of extras. I swear, I could complete about 20 vintage / Asian inspired swaps and still not use everything I have.



For some reason, I was determined to make these Hors d' oeuvres picks that I found at World Market in to a frame for my image. After purchasing 2 styles of toothpicks, 2 different packages of chop sticks, bamboo beads and bamboo paper, the picks won out! It was more work than I ever imagined. But once I got it started and figured it out, I glued them together and then bound all the corners with gold embroidery floss as an accent.



I decided I had to use my vintage dragon dominoes. I drilled a small hole in the bottom of each one and added wire wrapped beads and a coin charm. The tag shape was taken from my Tim Holtz Sizzix die. I love this shape, but unfortunately it was not the right size for the tag. I enlarged it in my copier machine and hand cut the tags from a light chipboard. Covered both sides with Basic Gray paper and inked the edges with black gold.



I assembled them using some vintage kimono fabric I had picked up at an estate sale, ribbon, vintage buttons and skeleton leaves.



I have recently fell in love with Perfect Pearls and added some in a deep blue to spruce up the image, which I printed on some vintage manila paper. I added a small flower to her hair, distressed and inked the edges in gold, and she was ready to go.


On the back, I used some die cuts and a vintage Nippon Stamp to create a holder for my swapping information. I transferred a vintage post card image in to Photoshop and added my details before printing it out on more vintage manila paper.

I struggled a bit with this one. We had a LOT of time to get them done, so of course I kept thinking my creative mojo would kick in and put them off until the very end. But thankfully Priority Mail will save me and they should arrive to my lovely hostess on time.

Off to package them up and finish up the Halloween group before 10 am tomorrow.........

I Love a Good Junk Drawer

I have become addicted, addicted I tell you, to estate sales.

It started simply enough. I joined a swap on one of my favorite crafty sites and instead of swapping paper goods as usual, it was a vintage / thrift store swap. How clever! Buy items for each letter of the alphabet and mail them off to your partner. For instance, J is for mini Jell-o mold; A for a chenille angel ornament, etc. It was a scavenger hunt and boy was I game!

Here are a few of the groups that I sent......

M is for Millinery.
K is for Keys.

P is for Poker Chips.

O is for "Over the Garden" Pamphlet.


Of course, I ended up spending MUCH more than the $1-$2 per letter. I was going to those "Antique Malls" we have here in Texas because I didn't know any better. I hadn't much thought of it before, just assumed that there was some special and secret source for their inventory. A source that would never be available to me. Even though I was paying retail prices, it seemed worth it because I could never find or inherit these lovely old things. Don't get me wrong, I still love them to death, but,

.........Cue the clouds parting, the chorus singing..............

EstateSales.Net

Mecca, Nirvana, the Holy Grail for thrifty, vintage loving girls and boys.

I check this site daily, sometimes more than once, just to see what is going on. As the sale days approach, I check it again and again. And usually, just to be safe, one more time. You know, just in case.

Where to go?
What to buy?
Where are the hidden treasures?

As much as I admire the antique furniture, the lovely depression glass and the vintage clothes, my favorite finds are often the strange little bits of life that you find tucked away here and there. I find that the best estate sales seem to have one person working there that is of like mind. They go through and put together little bags of this and that and I can't seem to resist.

For a few dollars or less, you get small treasures and special trinkets which seem to beg me to question them.

Why was this saved?
Where did they find it?
How many homes has it had and how many years has this been hidden away?
What memories does it invoke?

I can assign whatever value I want and I tend toward the fanciful. It seems appropriate.

Here is one of my recent favorites.........

Small set of carved wooden feet, the black metal poodle, a ship in a bottle, vintage ink, a wooden rubber duck, a tiny windmill......... aren't they all just lovely?

For some reason, it reminds me of being a child, collecting shiny bits and hiding them away. A wooden letter in a pants pocket, a mailing label secretly taken from someone's desk, a metal lighthouse that Grandpa gave, taken to school in a backpack.

I guess I like the thought that they carry their own secrets, an unknown history and that maybe I am now a part of it. I like to think that some day, some where, after my time has come and gone, another person puts down a dollar and carries them on down the road to their next adventure.