June In My Vintage Room Swaps

These are the swaps I finally completed for the June Swaps I hosted in my yahoo group. I have my June Altered Tag, front and back, my Steam Punk Dad LFB, front and back, and three Mermaid ATCs. The tag and LFB images were cut out and collaged from a 1953 magazine called The Saturday Evening Post. The ads and images in it are so retro/vintage and fun to read and look at. I combined several to create the tag and LFB. The mermaids are ladies from a Lisa's Altered Art collage sheet with their legs cut off, and I use pattered paper and metallic gel pens to create their fins. Miniature seashells, key charms, pearls, jewels, and champagne glass glitter (Stampin' Up), complete the pieces.

LFB Inspired by The Beatles

Miriam, from In My Vintage Room Yahoo Group hosted a Beatles LFB swap this month. Her hope was that the titles of the songs and the lyrics would create some great art...and it was a neat idea for sure! I created these LFBs with a 12x12 collage technique at our Captured Moments LFB club...then it worked out that the Blackbird lyrics fit perfectly with them.

Fun at Captured Moments LFB Club

This is the LFB page that I created during this month's meeting of of Little Fat Book Club. Peggy brought in these clear little chalk boxes which we filled with beads and doo-dads and inchies we created from Melanie's collage sheets. It was a ton of fun, and I'm so pleased with how mine turned out! I layered papers, images, and patterned napkins with gel medium for the lfb base.

Cricut Critter Creations

"Bee Yourself" LFB Page Front & Back

"Smile Squirrel" Card for Aly

Well, I have a very generous friend who came to acquire a Cricut machine that she did not need and passed on to me. I won three cartridges on Ebay, and we decided we would share our collection between the two of us...and two of the cartridges that I ordered came in the mail today so I pulled it out to play. I figured it out pretty quickly and made a pile of cut-outs for future use, and put a few to work on the card and little fat book page above. The trees, branch, and clouds are from the "Serenade" cartridge, and the Smile sentiment and animals are from the "Create A Critter" cartridge. The Bee Yourself stamp and bee and hive are a CTMH Petite Perks incentive stamp set.

I NEVER thought I'd own a Cricut because I never wanted (or really could afford) to foot the expense. I'm so lucky to have someone to share my passion with, and someone who knows I will put to good use and appreciate "hand-me-down" items. I feel very blessed. I've enjoyed exploring some of the creative options of the machine today.

April Showers LFB

Here is the little fat book page that I made for Fran's April Showers swap in the In My Vintage Room Yahoo Group. The pink umbrella paper on the back is actually vintage wrapping paper from the Washington County Antique Show, and its flocked! I have to admit, the back is a bit lame otherwise because I just put a few spring-y Jolee's boutique stickers on it to finish it off. I didn't want to cover too much of the pretty paper!

November LFBs

Here are the dozen November LFBs I created for Ginger's In My Vintage Room Yahoo group's 12 Months of LFBs swap. I got assigned November and decided to commemorate Veteran's Day instead of going with perhaps the more obvious Thanksgiving theme. We will each get one of each month out of this swap, completing a whole year's worth of LFBs into one cute little book. Glad I finished in time for the exchange, June 5th.

April Swaps for In My Vintage Room

Storybook LFB front
Storybook LFB back

Glasses/Sunglasses ATCs

Carrot Oatmeal Muffin Recipe LFB

Front
detail

back

This is the LFB that I made for Elise's first monthly recipe LFB exchange in the In My Vintage Room Yahoo Group. She set this first month's theme to breads/muffins. I found this recipe online and it sounds delicious, though I've never made it before. I'm not much of a cooker or baker...she is, so I know she'll love this one. I only wish she still lived here so when she makes it I can try it! The 3x5 recipe cards slide out of a pocket I created in the back.

All The World's A Stage LFB

front
back

I created this Little Fat Book page last night for my "Curtain Call" LFB swap. I knew I would be swapping them out today and wanted to be able to participate even though life has been incredibly hectic. I wasn't sure what would come together, if anything, because I was so exhausted, but I managed this. I played with some images from a collage sheet I purchased from Lisa's Altered Art, some old book paper, Making Memories acrylic frame, Tim Holtz adage ticket and game spinner, printed tissue paper, sequin trim, a print out of a stage, and some new Golden Mediums and Molding Pastes from a sampler box I bought at Michael's. My favorite thing about the backside was using the old paper, which was a page out of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. I mixed red paint into light molding paste and gooped up the edges and then stamped with bubble wrap for some interest and texture. But what was even more fun was picking out words in the play to put a box around with fine line marker and then color in to highlight. I almost made my own poem out of the highlighed words in the text: "Henceforth, Juliet, is my lady. Too bold the fairest stars, her eyes were stars."

Birthday Art for Lori

Birthday Card

Altered Blocks

Little Fat Book Page

ATC

Recycle It! LFB

This is the LFB that I made for my Recycle It! Swap in the In My Vintage Room Yahoo Group. The challenge was to create a piece of art predominantly comprised of recycled materials from around your home. I saved the waxed paper image of the lady from egg roll packaging, punched circles from the Chinese food Menu, used the gold coins from an old card I was given, beads and ribbon from an old sewing box etc. It was a challenge that took me outside of my Vintage realm.

Cupid LFB

front
back

This is the final little fat book page that I will be making for the Stampassion Little Fat Book Club. Sadly, the owner of the store where the club has been offered has decided to close her doors. I was taken aback by the news and will miss my monthly get-togethers with the group of ladies there. I remember the first time I went to Stampassion when I walked to the store from my college campus my first semester of school. It seems like the store has been there as long as I can remember, so its sad to see it go. Rumor has it that some of the girls are thinking of alternate locations to continue the group so hopefully it will all work out anyway.

This page is for the "Cupid/Angel/Winged-Person" Swap that we decided to do for February. I decided to depart a little from the pinks and reds and I think the blues and golds are just as elegant and lovely. This page is pretty simple but I wanted the focus to be on the pretty victorian images that I cut from a Cynthia Hart victorian calendar. I embossed the words "struck by LOVE" on the front using a CTMH stamp, but its not as legible as I would have liked.

Secret Valentine Beeswax LFB

Here's a LFB I made for my Secret Valentine while I had my beeswax out today working on 5x5 canvases (see next blog entry).

Valentine Inchie LFB

LFB front
LFB back

This is the LFB that I made for Fran's Valentine Inchie LFB Swap for the In My Vintage Room Yahoo Group. It required that we use three of the inchies that were traded back to us in her Valentine Inchie Swap. I used inchies by Helen, Ginger, and Miriam on my LFB. I also used vintage book pages and amusement ride tickets, dresden scrap I just purchased from http://vintage-ornaments.com, images from Cynthia Hart Victorian calendars, K & Company Valentine paper, and assorted rhinestones.

Bird Cage LFB

front
back

door opening

a peek inside

This is the Little Fat Book Page that I made for the Stampassion swap with the theme of "mechanisms." Something on the page had to move, or open, or do something surprising. This was challenging for me, as I had little idea which direction to take. I decided on making my own bird cage with the door opening to reveal a bird inside. I printed the cage in gray-scale so that I could trace over it with metallic gel pens, then I added German scrap trim to dress it up more. I printed the bird twice to that I could cut out one with the wings lifted out to pop up when the cage is opened. I added stamping and flowers to vintage music paper for the background, and found a pretty quote for the back. Lastly, I stamped a bird at the top of the cage over the "believe" sentiment in versamark and brushed over the ink with pearl-ex powders. I was proud of this one--several hours of work after a long day at work...I'm surprised I pulled it out of me!

Thankful LFB

Here is the LFB that I made last night for Ginger's "Thankful" swap. I used my new Martha Stewart scallop punch for the border along the bottom and then enhanced it with a squeezed line of pearls made from "Liquid Pearls." I used CTMH stamps for the sentiment and cornucopia and colored in the stamp with markers and Stickles. I added the chipboard title and felt leaves and voila! Instant fall! I am thankful that I get to spend Thanksgiving with my family before they move to NC in December. I will miss them terribly at Christmastime.

Jackson Pollack Inspired LFB

It's that time of the month again!!! Elise's Artist of the Month for November's LFB is Jackson Pollack. I had fun swirling around my favorite colors of paint, spraying on some black with a blow pen, and adhering a quote from Pollack himself!

Holiday Inchie LFB

Detail shot of front with shaker pouch of Diamond Dust
Back of LFB featuring Ginger's December Inchie

Front of LFB featuring Helen and Elaine's Inchies

This little fat book page was created for Fran's In My Vintage Room Yahoo Group swap. Earlier last month she had us each create 6 Holiday inchies to be swapped back and we were to choose 3 of our returns to create a Winter/Holiday LFB. This was a challenging but awesome idea! At first I thought it would be hard to pick which three to use, but after I saw which would work together best to tell a little story on the page it worked out. I used Elaine's sledding inchie with Helen's snowman to create a fun "Snow Day" scene. I found a fun use for the diamond dust and shaker pouches I just purchased from Stampassion too! Shake my LFB and it snows on the snowman! Yay! I added Making Memories Wordfetti stickers, Close To My Heart snowflake stamps, and some rhinestones to complete the page. Ginger's December Inchie matched my color scheme and made a great addition to the back of my page where I could put my info and carry over the snowflake theme.

Beeswax LFB, Black & White Theme

After Marilyn's Beeswax Collage Workshop at Lori's I went out and purchased all the supplies to show my sister Elise, and my friend Ginger how to do it (because they couldn't make it to the workshop) and I had so much fun. I was finally able to sit down with the two of them this past Saturday and unpackage my new tools and play. I decided to apply the technique to the 4x4 I have due for an upcoming Stampassion Swap themed "Black & White." It worked wonderfully and was a lot of fun. I thought "Pure Joy" was an ironic sentiment for this sour pussed woman who seems to not at all like the man she's sitting with on the bench.

My sister is so inspired by the endless realm of possiblities beeswax will open into her fine art. Ginger seemed to have fun too, even though she kept having to do all the supply finding when we demanded buttons or ribbon or phrase stamps since we were at her house. It was a great afternoon!

Halloween LFB

I stopped my lesson planning for the night and took a break to create a Halloween LFB page for Tuesday's swap at Stampassion. I want to try to go with Lori because I haven't been in a few months, and even though I'm busy with school, I miss her and the other girls. It will be nice to just take a night off from reading and planning to visit and create. I hope we will be learning a new technique and playing with some fun products.