Sew What?

Recently I got a compact (small) sewing machine from a yard sale. I don't particularly plan on doing any clothing or household sewing. Then why do I want a sewing machine? To sew on art and crafts, or course! I like to sew on greeting cards, tags, and and other paper creations. Since I recently started making ATCs, I'm looking forward to sewing on them, as well. Here is what my mew used sewing machine looks like.

Good Old Junk

Yesterday and today, I found some cool stuff at yard sales: some 1960's magazines, rubber doll face, plastic doll head and hands, mini buttons, and paper doilies, among other things. Those doll parts will come in handy for mixed media projects! Great images in the old magazines, and I read some of the articles, too! Check out these stylish hairdos from a 1960's magazine. :)

I'm looking forward to making some more inchies for swaps, and also some ATCs, but first I have a must-do project I need to finish. I'm going to try to get as much done on it as I can this weekend. Need to go to the dentist for some fillings on Monday - arghhh!

Little Bits of Special

I have enjoyed several "little bits of special" these past few days. First, I found some nice items at garage sales yesterday and today. Art books are good for inspiration, and yesterday I found two. Art text books contain images from different art eras and time periods, which I find helpful if I need to draw or create in an unfamiliar style.

One of today's great finds was a Cuisinart Mini-Prep food processor. They work great to condition polymer clay - sure beats all of that hand-kneading! Also, blending clay colors is much quicker in a processor; plus, you can stop at any time during the blending process, if you want your clay mottled or marbled.

Another item I'm looking forward to using is a "kitchen carousel", but I'm going to put it to work holding my pencils, markers and paintbrushes.

Not to mention that I picked up a copy of "Artful Blogging" at the store, a little something for my leisurely browsing pleasure!

And, saving the best for last, I received some inchies in the mail from a swap that I participated in! To top it all off, the swap hostess even included a few extra little goodies!

Since I didn't get any pictures of my garage sale goodies (a picture of a mini processor would be boring anyway), I posted a picture of some spiritual book pages. The background is blended-color tissue with words (love, hope, joy, peace, faith) stamped on it. The images are a church and an angel, surrounded by Bible verses. Well, I'd better go fill up that "artist's carousel" ;)

Great Finds

This past weekend, I found some very interesting items at garage sales. I got two packages of cardstock, two packages of blank greeting cards (more cardmaking in my future, to be sure!), a large amount of postage stamps (some of those seen at right), and several books. Among the books were two books about movie stars and two song books (like music sheets but in book form).

I already read one of the movie star books, it is about silent movies, and has lots of interesting photos. It's fun going to garage sales; I never know what I'm going to find. It's also fun to think about what I'm going to make with the items that I found! (Now I just have to find a place to put all my new goodies!)

Yard Sale Junk

I enjoy haunting yard sales, looking for what I call "good junk". Today I found a "new" used office chair for sitting at my computer or work table. I also purchased four pairs of plastic doll arms. My favorite finds of the day were four needlework/craft booklets, shown here. I love the old photos and illustrations, even the old-fashioned ads!

Garage Sale Find

This weekend, I found a couple good books at a garage sale. One is a book all about buttons (I'm keeping that one intact until I decide what to do with it), the other is an old-fashioned decorating book (which I took apart).

The decorating book had pages in a binder. I removed those, and I'm going to use them for collage and journal pages. The pages have pictures of sofas, curtains, etc. - these are medium-to-large areas of color, which will be nice for cutting shapes out of to use on collages. Sorry, I didn't scan the books this time!

You'll notice two more of my cards above, the person images are transfers, the rest is printed paper ephemera.

Yard Sale Finds

Hello - Went to some yard sales today, but not too many, because it was getting hot out there! I got a few things, what I call "good junk": four pieces of sheet music that you see in the photo, plus two Christmas issue magazines from 1974. Since these items are not in perfect condition, I will use them to cut up for collages, cards, inchies, etc.

Here's my journal page from the other day - you know, the one that didn't look like it was finished (at least to me)! Using an idea from Nancy B.'s tutorial on her blog, I used everyday items (a pencil eraser, a paper clip end, and a sm. crochet flower) to "stamp" an acrylic background design around the girl. Is it finshed now? I don't know, I'm going to think on it - meanwhile, drop me a note if you think I should add something!