Vintage Treasures

I try to make it to our local flea market at least once a month, just to see what vintage items I can find. I was doing the happy dance when I spotted these! The top photo is a very old printer's case. Heaven!! I've been wanting something with little niches that I wan to alter in a unique way. I have some divine cigar boxes, courtesy of my brother-in-law Richard, (thanks, again!!) that I'm going to use for my art dolls, but I was wanting to find something larger with more openings. Voila! I was a sight to see carting THIS thing through the aisles! ;)

The next photo is a very old sewing cart. All of the contents were included! There are some very old rusty scissors (great for collage!), tons of ribbon, pins, buttons, fabric scraps, mending tape, etc. You can click on the photo to get a better view. This is a goldmine for collage. The vintage buttons are still on the button cards! I have to admit I was absolutely giddy when I saw this. The price on both of these items was a steal.

The third photo is a stack of vintage books. These are OLD. The pages are yellowed but not brittle; they are going to be altered anyway. I've been reading about a technique I want to try for altering vintage book covers with your own art. It involves removing the hardback covers altogether. But, I may leave the covers on these books intact and just make them into altered books. There are some great images in the French text book that I will definitely use.

So, these items are calling my name from the studio. I finished my digital altered book and sent the files away for conversion. When I get the link to the finished product, I'll post it here. Now, the only outstanding item that I need to finish is my zine. I've been playing with a few of the pages and am redoing them. I know, I know... let it alone already! But, I'm not happy with it and I still have time to tweak. I'll post my favorite pages when I finish with it.

I found the perfect background for the new ATC's on the '60's theme. I'll post it tomorrow! Stay tuned...

Flea Market Finds

Before I say anything else, I want to thank Lisa Bebi for her kind comment on my last blog post. Thank you, Lisa! I admire her work SO much and to have her take the time to comment on my paintover was a BOOST for me. So, I had to gush a little. ;)

These treasures were a combination of items I picked up on my last trip to the flea market here in town plus some of the little beauties my husband picked up for me in London. In one of my many art mags I came across an altered art project a while back on altering record album cases. Since then, I've had my eyes peeled for one and until yesterday had not seen them in any of the antique stores or flea markets. The article showed a really cool altering of one (minus the albums) and I was thrilled to come across this one. Great project for my to-do list. Then, the lady with the yarn was back and had bins of yarn 2 for $1. I couldn't load the basket fast enough. These are just a few. I'm too embarrassed to include all of them.

Then I came across this little music box. I'm trying to pry off the ruffles because I am interested in the face. I'm going to make a mold of her face and see what I can do with that. I have some molding putty that is supposed to make this very easy. You just knead the two colors they give you together for a minute then place it over your item that you want to make a mold of. We'll see how it turns out.

Meanwhile back in London... hubby ran across an old flea market there and thought I would like these little additions to the studio. I LOVE them! The first is part of an old wooden typecase. It is so cool! It says London across the top and has little cubbies for the type thingies (what are those called?) to go into. He also bought one with the image of scissors to put into it. Then, while he was visiting the Sherlock Holmes Museum (yes, there is such a thing and I insisted that he go if he was near it) he picked up a thimble with the image of Sherlock on it. LOVE it! At Stonehenge he picked up another thimble; this one with Stonehenge image on it. They fit perfectly into the little cubbies. So, I placed these on the shelf beside my table and they make a great addition to the studio.

A fellow Artella member sent me a picture of a beautiful fairy wearing an elaborate gown that she thought would be perfect for paintovers. And she's right! So, with all of this inspiration around me, I must get to work. Plus I'm wanting to get back to all of those zines I received last week. So many things on the agenda, stay tuned for what spills out...