Hat Pins and Holders

These are the hat pin and holders for a swap on Splitcoast. This was my first venture in doing these and I found them to be really enjoyable and easy to do!

Inchie canvas

I did this several years ago but I still love it. People still stop and take a look !

Pennant Race

I guess it isn’t really a race-I have until January to finish these!

This is a GREAT size to work if you haven’t tried it.

The only “rules” to these are the need to be vintage in theme.

These are all finished EXCEPT the one with the pattern girls. I am stuck with the embellishments. Not sure what I want to do. I would love some suggestions to get the ball rolling on that one…..:)

I LOVED this image…it’s Norman Rockwell and his family. Even the family dog made the pic! I used Grapic 45 on the background images.  If you click on the image, you can see on the tip of the pennant is the definition of family.

Like a lot of crafters, I have a ton of rub ons that never seem to get used. Well not on this one! The camera, directors thing(what are those called??) and the background embellishment on the left side are all rub ons. The bottom paper is TH.

YEEEEEHAAA!

This pistol packin’ sister is from this great book I got at the thrift store. The pistols are courtesy of Ms. Deb Moon.

and this is the close up of the top…I thought it was kinda hard to see…

And last, but not least, the one I need help with…the pattern girls.

Take Me to the Beach

These two chunkys are beach themed. They will eventually find their home with my Meerkat friend, Jan Larson.

I hope she likes them!

This first one is has the background painted with watercolor, ink, and white paint. The entire background was  glimmer misted.

The bottom is dusted lightly with sand. The piece is tied off with raffia and fibers. These adorable  little kiddos came from a book about sisters my sister gave me years ago. (Wonder what she would think if she knew I cut it up??) I finished it off with seashells. Some are natural and some are painted with a pearly paint.

This next one is actually my favorite of the two. It is very “collagey” but still beachy. The fish is from a vintage salmon can label. The mermaid is from a collage sheet from collagestuff.com (a favorite of mine!) The pink vintage lens is from collagestuff as well. The Monopoly card is from a national parks edition. The picture frame is vellum.  A piece of grunge board inked finishes it off!

Meerkat inchies

As you know, I have made A  LOT of inchies lately…these are the ones I made for my meerkat group.For the dangle category…

Something stamped…always a challenge for me! Both have a little TH in them!

This was for the ladies group. I had a hard time letting the solitary figure go!

I love using Time magazine for art material. That is where Lincoln came from. The other inchie Katelynn didn’t like because she said the figure on the right looked like a woman! (it isn’t) I thought it was kinda college-cool! These are the anything goes group.

And last but not least the inchies from the recycled group. The skull one is from a calender and the one on the right is from a catalog.

Some vintage magnets

I had made for a swap (think it was Joyce’s) some vintage ad magnets.  I made a few for myself, but really hated to depart with them. So, I thought I would crank out a few more . I went to my favorite antique store and bought a few old magazines and got scissor happy! Here’s what I got so far:

these are twinchie size

These are inchies

These are atc size

For some reason this image reminded me of my mom back in the day. I loved using an old coupon!

Inchies! Inchies! Inchies!

FINALLY.

I can finally upload pics again!

I had misplaced my usb cord that connects my camera to the computer.

I know, hard to believe I could misplace something with my desk!

The inchies here are the 100 inchies I swapped with Susan Thompson, the fabulous Suji.

While I have swapped more inchies than I can count, this was the first time I have ever swapped 100 with one person, which means no duplicates!

oops..gypsy luck is upside down!

More inchies!

this one turned out a little dark…

Hitchcock Box

Here is the box that Hitchcock will be arriving in!

Hope it gets their attention!

the top

the front

The little sign says:

Beware! This box contains fragile and spooky artwork.

Handle with care so there won’t be an “untimely demise.”

That certainly would be a tragedy, wouldn’t it?

one end

the other end

Russian Beauty

What is a typical old Russian conception of woman’s beauty? The ideal of a beautiful woman was considered to be a tall, strong and stately woman with red cheeks, blue eyes and blonde hair. Such women were well-represented by the renowned Russian painter, Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev. Such woman’s beauty was also taken as a starting point for original matryoshka making.

In provincial Russia before the revolution the name Matryona or Matriyosha was a very popular female name. It was derived from the Latin root ‘mater’ which means ‘mother’. This name was associated with the image of a mother of a big family who was very healthy and had a portly figure. Subsequently, it became a symbolic name and was used specially to describe brightly painted wooden dolls made in such a way that they could be taken apart to reveal smaller dolls fitting inside on another.

The first nesting dolls of Sergiev Posad portrayed this special beauty: young girls dressed in Russian sarafans carrying baskets, scythes, bunches of flowers or dressed in winter short fur coats and scarves.

 

I love little dolls! We always called them babushka dolls, which actually refers to the scarf tied around the head, that is often depicted in nesting dolls of pheasant girls. This is my little inchie. I don’t usually put my inchies in a frame, but I found this frame and thought she would be cute in it!