Scavenging Haul : birthday soup

How much can you buy for 80p these days? A bar of chocolate, perhaps.

Well, today I got a whole lot of vintage lushiousness for my pennies.

Two beautiful porcelain roses...

recycled american forest animal folder separators...

and a Little Bear 2nd edition from the 1960s

-yet more bear-faced chic!

                                        
                                        

   What will I do with them? 

  Do I have to be that practical? 

The roses will be fab for prettying up my black shiny kitchen-here they are perched atop my fridge- and will make great props for photographing my remade vintage jewellery; I should probably sell the book but I might just transgress and cut it up for the most adorable handmade cards, and as for the folders...they might just lure me into some filing. Or I'll just turn them into cards too. Mwah ha ha evil laughter. 

Nothing is safe from my scissors, nothing at all. 

Book Haul-Not Afraid of Aardvark!

My latest find-a big stack of the most glorious battered antique books packed full of brilliant illustrations! Only 25p each, and enough to keep me in card-making material for the rest of my life. That'd be selfish though, so I'm thinking about running a vintage collage craft class/party. Then everyone can share the fun, whether its cards or art. See the tab at the top of the blog for more details.

'Not afraid of aardvark/hard work-
I've been writing my CV-can you tell?

The images are so old [well over 100 years]
that they dissolve when I cut them
if I'm not careful,
and the paper is musty and faded to a mid sepia. 

Its time travel.
What people believed to be true, how they presented the world;
 its a glimpse 'through the looking glass'
to a quirkier, quainter, and more inquisitive time.
Back then, cutting up books was for political rebels and madmen.
 Now a paperless revolution has been Kindled [ahem!}
and trees are more important than paper-its come full circle, baby!

Crammed full of sketches of peeved looking tribesmen.

So much potential...

To the rat-mobile...but had she paid her road-ent tax?

'Me, a poser?!Never'

Its a lot of fun leafing through the pages thinking up captions and scenarios for the different animals. 

Perhaps too much fun. 

You should try it. 

But not with library books. 

Although that'd be a great art concept. Hmmmmm, hang on a minute...I'm at the library now! Hold me back. Hold me back. Hold me ba... 

Vintage suitcases-Trunk Show

I was just thinking that I'd like some vintage suitcases. For one, they'd be the ideal mode of transport and display for my Mobile Vintage Craft Parties[see tab at the top of this blog for more details], and for two I'm having urges to decorate some with collage and/or paint. I had a pray about it all, and, a day or two later, chanced upon these beauties outside a shop in York. The staff were happy for me to take them, so I scooped all three up just before the rubbish men got there-perfect timing! They are now doing an excellent job of storing my card making stuff.

The smallest suitcase has a gorgeous faded rosy beige paper lining. I've filled it with my one of a kind handmade cards, and I'm guarding them with bears. 

The other, larger, suitcases are stuffed full to bursting with salvaged paper. This level of paper hoarding is quite normal [mainly among Wombles, admittedly]. Thinking about it, my mum always made sure there was a 'making box' too. She kept it in the kitchen, full of cereal boxes, newspaper, toilet rolls, anything we kids could use for craft. Ever since, I've never felt my home to be complete without one. And, although I've not checked, I like to imagine that mum keeps the family making box fully stocked, just in case!

anything but pink

Have you noticed how mums sometimes start colouring their entire life in pastels, the colours of the newborn? Their baby's wardrobe hues spill over into their homes, their fashion choices, even the colours of their makeup! It is a powerful testament to how strongly were are affected by the colours that we look at every day. 

I am able to report that two friends who have recently become mums have rebelled against this norm. They have cried, in unison 'anything but pink'. Both are doting mums of adorable little girls. They are both tasteful, intelligent and thoughtful.  Incidentally, they have never met each other. 

Sarah, one of these rebellious ladies, asked me to create a card in honour of a newborn [you guessed it, another girl]. The plea was, of course, 'anything but pink'. There were also mentions of somehow making it relevant to a belly-dancing Turkish mother and an Egyptologist father. I imagined that the mother, fresh from childbirth, would not want to think about belly buttons for a while, so I focussed on creating a child friendly but slightly exotic card out of vintage papers with the little girl's name on the front and collage hieroglyphics spelling 'congratulations' inside. Either the sleep deprived new dad will love it, or he will cry 'anything but pyramids'.