Sugar Blocks and a Shirt

 I've been doing more sewing than collaging lately. I thought I would share my last three blocks for the Sugar Block Club. This sunny block is the April block.

I love this May block. It is a gorgeous pattern! I had to make the smaller blocks with the pink stripe twice because they came out too small the first time. That is so frustrating ! I'm so happy they turned out right on the second try. 

This is the June block. I had to make one of the corner blocks twice. I'm not sure why only one decided not to work. Ha! I like how I'm blaming it on the block and not the seamstress. Not my fault!

This is a knit shirt I made.

I studied fashion design and dressmaking when I was young and then didn't use the education for anything but making pillows or curtains. I feel so rusty so I've signed up for several Craftsy sewing classes. This shirt is from a Sewing With Knits class. I really enjoyed it and now I am going to learn how to fit patterns for my curvier self. I made that skinny mannequin that is wearing the purple shirt back in design school. She is my exact measurements for when I was 21. That was 30 years ago. What??? I guess you can't really see how skinny it is under that baggy shirt. I have a photo of me wearing it but the censor didn't approve it so my mannequin modeled it instead. Tee hee!

My Paper Family

Hi!!  I haven't been giving enough attention to my little blog lately.  I would like to be here more often but it is not working out that way.   This is the only collage I've made in a long time. It was a gift for my mom for Mother's Day.

First I glued an old map to a large book cover. I copied old school photos of my brother, sisters and me. Then I attached our heads to Claudine Hellmuth's paper dolls and dressed them with the cute clothes that come with the dolls.

I even included our old boxer, Gypsy.

  This is me from third grade. The color on our faces got a little strange when I added the decoupage medium on top. I knew that could happen but I thought it would be worse if water got on the collage and ruined it instead.  Is there a way to cover things you printed without the ink running?? 

I added some clouds and a sun made from checkered card stock. Then I made a hanger with a doubled piece of wire and colorful buttons.

It was a fun project and my mom loved it.

Claudine Hellmuth has the cutest darn things in her Etsy shop . You must check it out!

Free to Flea

I haven't fallen off the planet or anything. I just haven't completed anything to show you. I finally went to the flea market this morning after the longest, darkest winter. My flea market, which is called Trader Jack's, is open all year round but if you go in the winter you find only a couple vendors there and you freeze your buns off. It was cold this morning but the forecast said it would get sunny and warm so off I went. I was thrilled to see tons of vendors there. I could smell the beautiful old stuff in the air!

I got this old photo album for only $2.

Yep, it's a mess but what do you want for $2? Can you see the wood frame peeking out at the corners? I see a good project here. Under the velvet is a layer of batting and then straw. I'll just put new batting in and recover it. Simple, right? Ok, maybe not simple but I think it will be fun to try. 

There were several photos inside and the beautiful paper frames. Most of them are torn but there are a couple that can be salvaged.  The photos aren't the best but do I have to remind you it was only $2.00?

Then I found these pretty silk rosebuds with the black velvet ribbons. Maybe they adorned a beautiful Victorian dress once. They cried for me to take them home. Do you ever see these old rhinestone clips? It doesn't matter if they are dress clips or shoe clips, I buy them. It doesn't matter if they are tarnished and missing stones, I buy them. Why? It doesn't matter, I buy them! I love them! Nuff said!

Check out this scrap book!

Nothing special, right? I'm so glad I looked inside.

Just inside the cover were these little clipped piles of comic strips from the 1930s. 

There is also this pile of GORGEOUS illustrations. I haven't even gotten to page one yet.

Look at the amazing color!

This one reminds me of my mom. She has short curly hair and is always reading a book. She also has lots of full bookshelves.

I have to research the artists that did these. They are all stunning! I only paid $5 for that book and it was well worth it! 

This week I need to finish a quilt square, hem a shirt I made and finish a collage. I am way behind on my altered dictionary. 

Have a great week!

Happy Easter!

M for Mallard

The letter "M" is the next one up for the Alpha Challenge at The Craft Barn. Actually we had to pick a word between MA and ME. Since I am running late I thought I would do something easy this time. Well, easy didn't happen but I had a good time.

I found the mallards in an old bird book and tried to make a background similar to the one on the page I cut them from. I took a sheet of white tissue paper and stamped it with my Tim Holtz Distress Ink pads. I used several colors and then spritzed water on it so the color would spread and blend together.

Here are my leftovers. I forgot to take a picture before I cut it up.

Then I cut it into tiny pieces and used a gel medium to glue them down on the page. I didn't have any yellow ink so I watered down some acrylic paint and used that on the tissue for the sun. Then I used some of the tissue as is to make the clouds. I bunched it up a little so you could see them because they were so light. I forgot to mention that I mixed some light blue paint and gesso to cover the dictionary page.

I like how the distress ink made such pretty colors on the tissue!

Thanks for visiting and thank you to The Craft Barn for adding my "H" page to the 

Wall of Fame!

Sugar Blocks

I'm just getting caught up with my blocks for the Sugar Block Club which was created by Amy Gibson at Stitchery Dickory Dock. Amy is using these gorgeous FreeSpirit solid color fabrics from Westminster Fibers. My sister bought me a stack for my birthday which is not till May but we wanted to use these for our blocks. They are so pretty they make me happy to look at them.

This is the January block.

February

My seam ripper saw a lot of action on this baby. Trying to match those points and seams made me nuts. I had to stop at "close enough" before I ended up tearing the fabric.

March

The fabric didn't come in till February so I got a late start. With the March block Amy announced a giveaway that we could enter if all three blocks were done. That was enough to get me moving. 

I'm happy to work with these bright colors since the sun rarely shines anymore. I really miss it!

H for Housekeeper

 "H" is the current letter in the Alpha Challenge hosted by The Craft Barn. I read all the "H" words twice before I saw "Housekeeper" and thought of my stash of Good Housekeeping magazines from the 50s.

They have the best advertisements in those magazines! I left the bottom of this first ad in tact and cut around the top and glued her in my dictionary. That was after some gesso and yellow acrylic paint. Then I added lots of bubbles or "suds" to help her promote her product.

This lovely housekeeper was part of a starch advertisement but I sat her on a new and improved General Electric iron instead.

She is probably a definition #2 kind of housekeeper.

I showed this to my mother and she said she liked to wear house dresses in the 50s but she said she never looked like that!

Check out the other creative entries here.

Have fun creating!!

Alpha Challenge Letter E

I'm working on the Alpha Challenge at The Craft Barn. The challenge is to alter an old dictionary one letter at a time but it does not go in alphabetical order. The current challenge is the letter "E".  I chose the word "Embroider."

It was a good idea in my mind but it was harder to do than I thought it would be. I had to limit myself to the running stitch so I wouldn't tear the paper. I did a little stem stitch too but then decided to keep it simple. The flower is my go-to doodle.

It needed more color so I added some chalk. Oh, I did double the page so it would be harder to tear.
Then I put a little ink on the page edges and a running stitch around the border.

I won't be doing any more stitching in this book but I am glad I tried it and completed it without tearing the page.  There are lots of beautiful creations with the letter "E" so check them out here.

Have a great weekend!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

For Love of "Cake"

I've had a hard time getting started creatively this year. I wasn't sure what I wanted to work on besides sewing. I signed up for two Block of the Month classes. Like I needed two! I am also taking some Craftsy classes to get me back into making clothes. But I needed something related to paper. I love cutting and gluing too much !  I stumbled upon this Alpha Challenge at The Craft Barn and I knew right away it would be fun for me to work on this year.

We're making an altered dictionary and I had the perfect tattered dictionary for the project. Since it is already a wreck I don't mind working in it.

Every two weeks a new challenge will be posted. They started with the letter "V" but I came in late so I started with last week's letter, "C." They are not going in alphabetical order so you can't go ahead of everyone.

I looked through the Cs and saw the word "cake" which is my favorite food so it was the perfect place to start.

I gessoed over the page but left the "cake" definition uncovered. It is split between the two columns. I covered that with some thin acrylic paint and then cut out some vintage pictures of cake. The woman is also from a vintage magazine.

I also added some little pieces of the index from an old cookbook where all the cakes were listed.

Don't you feel like having a slice now?  Great! I'll join you!

Here is the letter "C" challenge  if you would like to join in or to see what everyone else created. Don't worry if you don't have a dictionary you can alter. There are other ways to do the Alpha Challenge.

Now I need to do the letter "V" so I'll be caught up with everyone.