Floral Altered Book pages

from Fran's Floral Altered Book

These page layouts are from an altered book my sister made; her theme was Flowers.

On this page, she distressed the pages with purple and buff colored stamp pads, used a daisy rubber stamp, magazine clippings for the flowers and heart. The wavy floral paper scrap was from a drapery sample book, which she ran through a crimper. Also she stamped a tulip on a layered tag and used a bit of photocopied ephemera.

From Fran's Floral Altered Book

This is one of my favorite altered book pages of all time. The purple flower is a silk one, and I wouldn’t have thought of using it because it’s so thick and bulky – but it’s perfect.

Besides the silk flower, she used a purple stamp pad for distressing the page, embroidered ribbon, words cut from a magazine (Home Grown and Spring), rubber stamp, and a decorative paper napkin.

Vintage Doily Valentines

(Click on the image to enlarge – the words become legible.)

This page is from the February 1943 issue of Children’s Activities magazine. After working at Children’s Activities, Garry and Caroline Myers started Highlights for Children, then eventually bought C.A. The similarities are obvious – they are both high quality magazines with fun and educational activities.

I apologize for the quality of the scans. The magazine is oversized and won’t fit on my scanner so I had to take photographs and they aren’t perfect.

George Washington Silhouette

Here’s the George Washington silhouette that I promised last February. The above tracing is from the instruction page (last photo in this post) and enlarged to 200%. The nose is not quite right. If you prefer to trace your own, click on the instruction page to enlarge it, then click again on the magnifying glass.

It’s the closest I could find to the ones that we always cut out and used for crafts back in the early 60s when I was in elementary school at Mingo.

Go here for the Lincoln silhouette outline.

One additional note: an optional background is to print off the Declaration of Independence setting the darker/lighter button much lighter than normally for the font. For an antiqued look, use a tan piece of cardstock.

These pictures are all from Holiday Touches for the Country Home, Memories in the Making Series by Leisure Arts.

Mini Altered Book

My sister is an uncommonly thoughtful gift-giver. As a small Thank You, I made this little altered book for her a couple of years ago.
The F is for Fran and the running themes throughout the little book are the Christian faith and cats. Using black acrylic paint, I stenciled an F onto a piece of bookpage, then used a Sharpie to outline it with dashed lines. After gluing it onto cardstock, I distressed the edges in pink, as well as the edges of the whole cover. The kitties are stamped and are repeated on the back cover.

Backgrounds: magazine clipping and book page
Embellishments
Calendar – the Scripture
Magazine clippings – house, jewelry and butterfly; the stylized heart was cut out from a James Avery jewelry catalog
Stamped – the little heart, glittered swirl, girl’s face and clock
Photocopies – 1950’s girls were reduced from an old dress pattern
Sticker – cat
Misc. – swirls from a mini punch, daisies from a glitter set, vellum from a junk mail envelope, canceled postage stamp, colored paperclips

Here again, magazine pages were used for the backgrounds, as well as part of an old book page. The F was cut from a map in an old Book of Knowledge and glued onto cereal box chipboard; the pansies were from a stationery package.
Calendar – Scripture
Photocopy – little girl
Old greeting card – bird

Magazine – back of F, teapot
Stamping – cat
Calendar – Scripture
Misc. – canceled postage stamp

Magazine – Twinings tea ad, keys, cat, coffee cup
Calendar – Scripture
Sticker – cat with feathered hat

Backgrounds – jewelry/flowers from magazine; bookpage, and red cellophane from Valentine candy box
Magazine – 1950s Harlequin glasses, flower, ruby slippers, key
Catalog – jewelry from James Avery, then glittered
Stamping – You’re the cat’s meow!
Misc. – paper strip cut with decorative scissors, glitter, Kansas from Book of Knowledge

Backgrounds – gardening pages from magazine
Calendar – Scripture
Sticker – butterfly
Magazine clippings – basket of flowers, Attracting Birds and Butterflies, teapot
Stamping – cat
Misc. – canceled postage stamps

Backgrounds: magazine pages with jewelry,
Catalog – cross from James Avery, stylized flower from Avon book
Fabric – blue gingham ribbon, pinked edge drapery sample
Sticker – cat
Stamping – Everday is another chance to make your Dreams come true.
Misc. – plastic flowers, flower from old book, teapot from Bigelow tea box

Background – pink cardstock
Stamping – little girl praying, kitties
Misc. – colored paper clips, pink polka dot ribbon for binding

Household Greenery, Using What You Have

For years I’ve seen the hint in magazines and books about growing herbs and things on the kitchen windowsill, but they usually instruct one to purchase all kinds of things, like an already growing plant (have you seen the price of the potted herbs at the grocery store?). And all the special starting pots and fertilizer, etc. Not my way of doing things, so for years I didn’t even try it.

Houseplants don’t fare well in my care, so I quit buying them years ago. However, I still like them and decided to try and see what I could do with … well, with nothing fancy.

So I got to thinking about what I could do with what I already had; for instance that sack of old seed packets in the closet. (Even when I buy good quality seeds, my good intentions don’t always get me very far – like into the garden plot. But I’m too cheap to throw them away, because one never knows. Maybe they’ll grow even if they’re old. Well, they did!)

Obviously nothing was purchased for this little experiment. An empty tuna can, green beans can, a few old book pages, and some white glue. And thankfully, some leftover, good quality potting soil. Oh, yes, and lettuce seeds that were at least 5 years old.

While I honestly don’t recommend searching for outdated seeds, why not use them if they’re just sitting around?

Very pleased I was with the results!

Except that the can with the plant in it looked a little naked so I covered it with book page paper also.

Be sure to hammer a few nail holes into the taller can so it can drain.

What I learned from this step was to not cover the whole can down to the bottom with the paper. This puts it into the water line and it wicks up and stains the paper.

Voila! Edible houseplants! For free!

Update: For outdoor ideas of a similar nature, go to this post on Make Mine Beautiful. Polly is a professional and shares tons of ideas.

This post is linked to:

Food on Fridays @ annkroeker

Frugal Friday@ Life as Mom

Stenciled Christmas Cards, 2010

This is a Using What You Have post:

Yes, I know it’s already December 20th, and I haven’t sent out our Christmas cards.

In fact, until 8:00 a.m. this morning, I didn’t even have any.

What I did have was some white card stock, Christmas stencils of ornaments and snowflakes, white and navy blue acrylic paints, a stencil brush, some Christmas rubber stamps, a 15 year old blue stamp pad (never re-inked), some Stickles and a box of envelopes that my friend Donna bought for me at a garage sale a couple of years ago.

First I cut the card stock in half, then folded each piece once to make the basic card.

Then I mixed about 1/2 teaspoon of navy acrylic paint with 1 teaspoon of white. I didn’t measure it – I just estimated a 2 to 1 ratio because that gave me the light blue I was looking for.

Then, I placed the stencil over the folded card, and using a stencil brush with very little paint on it, stippled the paint on. After setting them aside to dry (which is really fast if not too much paint is used), I turned the envelopes over and stenciled a small snowflake or ornament over the point of the back flap.

Next, I used Stickles glitter glue to highlight parts of the design. After that was dry (and Stickles do take awhile to dry), my sister (who was here helping me by this time) ran the blue stamp pad around the edges of the front of the card to kind of frame it.

Then Fran and I stamped the inside message, either “Wise Men Still Seek Him” or “NOEL” and “Merry Christmas” along the left edge of the front side of the envelope.

Now I just need to sign and address them.

And of course, mail them.

Custom Made Chipboard Box (Book Page Covered)

On a recent visit, my sister left one of her alphabet rubber stamp sets. Their original box was the clear plastic kind which collapsed. I had put them into a sandwich bag, but since I’m not diligent about cleaning them after every use, they rubbed against each other and got pretty messy. Not only did they need to be thoroughly cleaned before I returned them, they also needed a new box.

First, I poured a little rubbing alchohol into a saucer and let them stand to soak off the dried ink. Then I used an old piece of cotton flannel rag (dipped in the alcohol) to clean the ink off of the wooden sides. I’m guessing that cleaning rubber stamps with alcohol is frowned upon by stampers deluxe. However, it works for me. It’s cheap, fast and it usually effective.

For the box, I realized that a macaroni and cheese box was the right depth (if laid down flat), but too long, so I emptied the macaroni into a clean jar and set aside the cheese packet.

Then I cut off the end of the box, leaving an extra 3″ (approximately) to fold back in to make the fourth side. After folding it in, I secured it with masking tape.

The lid was made with an extra piece of the box cut to width and long enough to cover the top and go over the back edge. I affixed it with masking tape, also.

Then came the fun part of cutting old book pages to cover the box, both inside and out, including the bottom of the box. Now I can’t remember if I used the JoAnn’s brand of tacky glue or the clear, fast drying Beacon’s, but it was one or the other.

To make a fastener, I punched small holes in the lid and another right below that one on the front. I threaded a bread wrapper twist-tie through the holes and then twisted the ends together.

My plan is to make a special twist-tie out of fabric for it, but I haven’t done that yet. I got the idea for the decorative twist-ties from Zakka Life. She made some from the decorative Japanese masking tape.

And speaking of cheap (this chipboard box project cost absolutely nothing), that work surface that the box is sitting on is indeed an old phone book. It’s ideal for me. When gluing, I don’t have to be too careful; if I get glue onto it (and I always do), I just tear off a page and then I have another clean, glue-free surface.

And free is a fitting word to use for this project in general.

Vintage Kitchen Altered Book Ephemera

These pictures are from the October 1, 1943 issue of The Family Circle magazine. Some magazines haven’t changed all that much over the years. Family Circle has changed a lot. In ’43, it contained only 20 pages, included current events and a movie review, a short story and was printed in black and white on paper which was not slick. The cost is not printed on the cover, but I’m guessing that it was about .05. (Click on the image for an enlarged view, then click again on the magnifying glass. It will then be readable.)

The Sweetheart Toilet Soap ad is particularly nice for me, because that’s the brand of soap my mother bought for our bathroom (besides the Lava that was for my dad. Boy, I only used that soap once!). Sweetheart was pink and pretty and had a lovely fragrance.

I’ll be scanning in lots of vintage ads, recipes and illustrations and will share some of them here. I’m working on an altered book. It’s been awhile since I’ve been in an altered book round robin, and my sister (Fran) suggested we invite Abby and Cathy to join us in one with the theme of “Vintage Kitchens”. We will each choose a more specific theme for our own books then write a few rules for the others to follow when they work on ours.

Fran has chosen the 1950s, with emphasis on the colors of turquoise and pink.

For mine, I’ve chosen a 1940’s look with red and white, and accents of green and yellow.

“Thank You for the food we eat”: a Dick and Jane Altered Book

Mother, Jane, Father, Sally, and Dick

Dick and Jane readers were a wonderful part of my childhood – I still get such a cozy feeling just looking at them. So, when my sister, Abby and I decided to exchange little handmade Thanksgiving books last year, I chose the Dick and Jane theme for the “We Give Thanks” book I made for Fran.

Dick, Jane and Sally

Thank you for the food we eat,

Spot, Tim and Puff

Thank you for the world so sweet,

Jane, Sally and Dick

Thank you for the birds that sing,

Mother, Dick, Sally and Tim

Thank you, God, for everything.

Jane

Amen.

First I photocopied illustrations from a Dick and Jane reprint that I’d bought a few years ago at Wal-Mart (these reprints were from the 1950s’ editions). I also have 2 copies of original editions, and I wish I had used them to copy because the pictures are much better. A copy of a copy is very often not a good thing. But anyway, I selected pictures that I thought would illustrate the prayer we learned in Kindergarten at Mingo School (before our schools became so God-less).

The title “We Give Thanks” is in keeping with the Dick and Jane series, for instance, “We Work and Play”,  “We Look and See”, “We Come and Go”, etc.

To give it the feel of a board book, I made my own chipboard pages from a Coca-Cola carton. I probably should’ve rounded the edges slightly.

The background layout for the illustrations were enlarged and photocopied prose pages from the Dick and Jane books.  The edges were distressed with blue ink; brown might’ve been better.

For the prayer itself, I photocopied a page of old penmanship-style scrapbook paper. Now I realize that I could’ve bought a whole tablet of that paper at Dollar General for about $1.00.  Anyway,to get the look of children’s printing, I used a pencil in my left hand (I am right-handed). As you can see from the “Thank you God for everything” page, I accidentally wrote “Lord”. I need to fix that.

To finish, I punched 3 holes on each page and used blue gingham ribbon to bind it. On the back I used a “Handmade by” stamp and signed my name.

Now I think I’ll make one to keep for myself.

Co-ordinated Bookmarks

Many of the books I read (both fiction and non-fiction) were either written in the past or are about the past. And since I’m very interested in cultural history, I like to make bookmarks that co-ordinate with the time period I’m reading about.

Last week, I re-read “Julia’s Hope”, a novel by Leisha Kelly, set in 1931.

I am currently reading “So Well Remembered” by James Hilton. It was published in 1945, but most of the story centers around 1921. When I looked in my paper stash, I found this image from a John Peacock fashion book and it just fit. The tag was one that an ebay seller enclosed with my purchase.

It’s a free craft because I use only what I already have and it adds a little extra pleasure to reading. And opening the book to a co-ordinated bookmark is a lot nicer than opening it to an old receipt or envelope (which I’ve employed many times).