Valentine Treasures: Upcycled Hearts

 
For my own sweethearts, my two darling granddaughters... I invented these little upcycled love bundles. Each got an altered Altoid tin with treasures inside. These are painted and collaged with bits of vintage paper, then distressed and aged. The text on the big hearts is clipped from vintage sheet music lyrics.

Inside each tin... waxed paper stitched around heart-shaped pieces of a vintage sheet music love song... their names stamped on & rusty vintage keys tied on with pink satin ribbon.

Then, some wearable art... funky-chunky Valentine charm necklaces.

Little bits of this and that, salvaged from my boxes of buttons, beads and ephemera... wire-wrapped as charms, hanging on a glittery vintage plastic curtain ring.

Last, but not least... the sweetest Valentine treasures of them all... 

The very thought of them makes my heart smile!

Cloth, Paper, Scissors... putting a bird on it!

My friends at Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine put an appeal out via their Facebook page on Monday for pieces of art that include bird images... their way of tying in to the silly "Put a Bird On It" bit from Portlandia's second episode. They compiled all the artwork they received, including my "Old Crow" collage into a YouTube slideshow that they posted the next day. It was really fun to participate and to see the results so quickly!

My piece was a collage I made for my son Sean's birthday last year. The "Old Crow" was from an ad for Old Crow whiskey I found in a 1940 issue of Life magazine.

 

This piece was a lot of  fun to do... and seeing it featured in the video makes me want to dig into another collage soon!

New camera, new baby... life is good!

Oh, my... does it get any better? I finally narrowed down my search for a new camera that would be close-up worthy for blogging and etsy. Took the plunge and bought my Canon Power Shot SX130 on a Sunday, assuming I'd have some time to figure out how to use it before my soon-to-be-born grandson made his appearance. Took a few test shots around the house, and am quite pleased...


Morning Brew



Vintage Easter toy that hangs out in my studio.

buttons and beads

Now if I can only figure out how to remove the on-image dates... 

One of my favorite fruit labels.

Then, just two days into playing around with my new camera and barely having the hang of how to change the batteries, my son and his wife went into labor ON their due date! My sweeter-than-sweet new grandson was born on Tuesday, February 1st, 2011... and I cannot wait to take many, many more photos of him. But here is just a taste...

Poor little guy... being born is such hard work!