1930's Valentine Banner Fun!

I love old Valentines.  I also love  homemade Valentines.  As a child my mother saved all the cards she received, along with pictures from magazines she liked, pieces of foil wrapping paper, paper doilies, ribbons, well, you get the gist.  I am shown here with my sister Joyce,  we loved searching the box of scraps and treasures for just the perfect bit.

My mother, shown above,  was evidently before her time as she had us upcycle these fun bits into charming child made valentines to give to friends at school. I am not sure they were much appreciated, as most kids were already doing the preprinted cartoon types that you tore from a perforated sheet, but we had a lot of fun making them.

This week I made this banner from color copies of the old 30's valentines I collect, as well as some of the same style that I got from Graphics Fairy.  I especially like the one in the middle, such a sweet blissful looking cottage.  I think that in the thirties, due to the stress of the depression, that art work is very blissful almost ethereal, and often home oriented.  I love this genre. Mary Engelbreit styled a lot of her art from this period.  In fact I sometimes see antique valentines from the thirties that look as if Mary E. were the artist.

.

Here is the entire banner.  Of course each Valentine is embellished with my home 'made' glass glitter.  What a fun and cheerful project.  I even made a few to sell at Treasures Antiques where I work. (They are all of $12) 

Thanks for taking a peak at my fun thirties Valentine project.  I hope it makes you feel as happy as it does me.

Hello Speampunk Man

 This was such a fun project.  I brought home this wood artist's mannequin from the store thinking he would make a great mechanical man for my upcoming Steampunk display.

First I decoupaged him with pages from an old book, then I cruised Graphics Fairy for some great Steampunk elements.

He has light bulbs on the sides of his head "Oh that's an idea" and a clock for his 'heart' just like the one the Tin Man got for his heart in the Wizard of Oz.

The display is still a work in progress but I love how my Steampunker turned out.

Paper Flower Wreath and Glass Glitter Tutorial!

I loved my project this past week.  I actually was shown how to make these awesome paper flowers by a a friendly woman at Festival of Trees in November, quick concept, but very, very time consuming.

My friend Wendy and I got together and spent the afternoon making these paper flowers (out of the pages of an antique dictionary) while watching Love Actually, a movie I adore (The cleaned up PG-ish version of course).  It took another three hours to finish it up, but I love the spartan look.  Of course I don't always want spartan, and this wreath lends itself to embellishments.  Let try a couple.

Here's the wreath all dressed up for Valentines.  Change the sparkly shreds to robin's egg blue and it would be a great way to welcome spring!!

This is my personal favorite, and is perfect to  'Ring in the New Year', or to use in a steampunk display.  The clock face was one of several available on Karen's great free graphics blog.  I choose this one because I thought the black background would be a great compliment to the overall 'gray' look one gets when using text. 

Another great thing about this project is that it was the first time I got to use my homemade glass glitter.  I love glass glitter, but was running low on my supply and didn't want to wait for more to arrive by mail.  (I have yet to find a local craft store that carries it.)  I was thinking that if I could just find some super thin glass, I could probably find a way to grind it fine enough for glitter.  The thin glass thought led to those silver ornaments  (remember a few weeks ago when I accidentally 'washed' the color from some vintage ornaments?) I had piled into my antique punch bowl along with pink ones for my center piece for Christmas.  I got on line and searched for 'home made glass glitter', and got some hints, though not an actual description from someone who had done it.  I doubled bagged (Zip lock) a couple of my great old silver ornaments, then smacked them with my rolling pin before rolling and rolling and rolling the shards into glitter.  The plastic allows you to see how small the bits are getting, which is helpful.  I did find that I would not be able to use the rolling pin for food again, however, as there was one tiny shard that cut through the bag and embedded itself in the rolling pin.  I grabbed a sharpie and 'christened' it my 'glass glitter rolling pin'.

This close up shot shows the glass glitter on the hands of the clock and around the outer edge of the clock face, but it is hard to have it 'show up' in a picture.

I am loving my clock wreath, and I am considering using it on a mantel with a few steampunked goodies, so if you enjoy steampunk, stay tuned.  It is also fun to know that with some hot glue I can change and customize my wreath for other seasons, holidays and events.