Been working on some new collages on vintage BINGO cards. Here’s the first, it’s got a pretty bird and German scrap paper nest, vintage silver button, lace flower and layers of felt and music paper with white washed scrabble tiles. It hangs from pink grommets and wire.

I’m sorry it’s been so long since my last post. The year has hardly begun and already it’s been rough. I’ve had alot of health issues and almost two weeks ago I unexpectedly lost my Grandfather (which has been terribly hard for the whole family).

But I’ve been trying to keep busy, mostly by redoing my work space. I’m almost done, it looks so great and functions so much better than before, I feel so organized! I’ll post before and after pics soon.

In the meantime here’s a few collages I’ve made recently with the thought of Valentine’s Day and love. I took white chipboard and cut out a heart shape (aprox. 5 1/2″ square) and adhered some vintage music sheet and patterned papers that I’d whitewashed and “sponged” with painted bubble wrap. I then added German paper scrap birds, vintage text, ribbons, sewed on buttons, etc. I punched holes at the top and added eyelets and wrapped cream wire for hangers. I think they turned out really pretty, they have a very shabby chic look to them. I love the blue one so much I might even keep it for myself:) The other two are currently for sale in my Etsy Shop.

Here’s a few more of the soldered pendants with vintage illustrations I’ve made recently………….

A little girl discovering a bunny, she’s on the front, the bunny’s on the back:

Two owls sitting under the moon:

A tiny bird nest and birds:

A fox in the forest:

and this one is a shadowbox with a silver bird cage charm inside with a teeny tiny blue bird in the cage:

These are all curently available in my Etsy shop.

I also have listed a smaller version (5″) of my vintage white button heart in an embroidery hoop in my shop as well.

For awhile I’ve been wanting to try something I haven’t before but I’d seen other artists do it and that’s cutting a section out of a chunky canvas and making a little box or niche inside the cut out. I was so worried I’d ruin the canvas I’d been putting it off. Finally I thought, well I’ll use a small canvas and just try, so I did and I’m thrilled with the results! I traced the shape I wanted to cut out on the back of the canvas and very carefully used an exacto knife to cut it. I then collaged the front like I normally would with vintage music paper lining up my paper with the hole and cutting that out too. I added a back to the canvas to complete the “box”, to the front I added the branch, bird, scrabble tiles and a piece of vintage wooden measuring stick and then added a nest I made out of silver wire and beads inside the niche. I will definitely be trying this again.

I recently found a couple more gorgeous vintage children’s books, one was in pretty bad shape and that makes it easier to cut it up:) They both have some wonderful illustrations that I’m turning into soldered pendants. Here’s a few I’ve made so far.

This first one I really love, the white cow is so sweet but mostly because I feel so clever with what I put on the back side:

This next one is a sweet Momma Cat and her kittens:

A birds nest and bird flying away (love this one!):

and this one is a child riding a horse under a full moon, really neat:

All these pendants are currently for sale here in my Etsy shop. And I’ll be adding even more in the next few days.

Here’s another small altered wooden box I did using Tim Hotz’ crackle paint with a little bird collage inside and a tiny wire nest with blue bead “eggs” and vintage game pieces for feet. See the previous post for another similar box and info on how I made them:

http://www.pisforpaper.com/?p=101

inside:

front:

bottom showing feet:

I wanted to make something a little different than what I normally make with my soldering and decided to make a wall hanging, it was inspired by a piece from Sally Jean who is an amazing collage and soldering artist. I took 3 glass panels, each 3″ x 1″ and cut backgrounds for them from vintage French book paper and added the words “Home” “Tweet” and “Home” to each, on the last one I also added a cute little bird nest with blue eggs. I soldered each panel with scalloped edge solder and soldered jump rings to each then attached the panels together with more jump rings, hung a chain from the top and a tiny silver bird charm from the bottom. I’m thrilled with how it came out!

back:

I’m totally obsessed with bird images lately and of course I’m always going to try to work a fairy in somewhere so I decided to put the two together in my latest set of ATC’s. The base is dark brown cardstock and vintage music sheet and I added a vintage image of a bird with a little fairy princess wearing a crown sitting on the birds back. I wanted the bird sitting on a nest but couldn’t find a good image of a bird nest and don’t have a stamp the right size but I did have some fake grass so I took a small amount and squished it into a sort of nest shaped, I think it really added alot of dimension and realism to the cards. I also wanted some text so I took very thin strips of white core cardstock and ran them through my label maker and then sanded the letters so they’d show up better.

“Fly Away”

“Take Flight”

“Soar High”

Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone! We always celebrate in my family because we’ve got a lot of Irish ancestors and it’s also my brother’s birthday. When we were little we always left a piece of cake out for the leprechauns

Sadly I don’t have anything green to share but instead it’s blue. It’s a bird shrine box. I took a small wooden box with a hinged and latched lid that also has a wire screen in the front and painted it blue then used Tim Holtz’ crackle paint and distress inks to age the box. I added a tiny tag to the front door with the word “fly” cut from a vintage book. Inside I made a tiny collage from an image of a blue jay on some vintage music paper and over the door added the words “three blue eggs” also from a vintage book. My favorite part is the tiny wire nest I made and glued inside. I took a very long piece of thin blue wire and ran three blue speckled beads onto the middle and just started wrapping the wire around and around and then pushing it down around the sides of the beads to form a nest shape. It’s the first one I’ve made and I think I’ll probably be going to get lots of wire to make more:) Then finally I glued three vintage game piece to the bottom for feet.