A new Halloween collage, made with vintage wallpaper, old ribbon, and thrift store finds.
This vintage scrapbook is so cool, totally unused, waiting for someone's pictures.


This basket is so awesome, just a beautiful old-fashioned look to it, will be great to hold all sorts of things in my studio, or make a great basket with gifts inside for someone else. The padded hangers will eventually be re-done with wallpaper and paint and vintage flowers.
I hope everyone has a great Holiday weekend!!

Testing for larger pics...

This is one of my collages that I did, using an old cabinet card and old buttons. The image of the
girl is from paperwhimsy.
Hopefully this picture will show more detail than my previous photos.......these are some clothespins I covered with wallpaper (didn't I tell you nothing was safe?). I use them all the time to help secure things that I glue, so much prettier than a boring plain clothespin!

Is it Halloween yet?!!!!!

I can't wait, just my favorite holiday....picked these goodies up today at Goodwill...and with school right around the corner, I thought these books were appropriate, very cute images inside.
I'm starting the Halloween crafting now, otherwise I'll get too far behind. It's not too hard to get into the spirit because all the stores have their goods out now, so get out there and grab those supplies while you can!!
Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend!!
Gail

The end of summer.......

I can't believe summer is almost over, although Fall is my very favorite season. I'll miss the laziness (most days) of getting up whenever I want, and basically having my own schedule. I'm really not a morning person, so the beginning of school is always a challenge for me. Luckily my dd is a jump-up-out-of-bed-singing kind of girl, so I lucked out that way!
Here are a few pictures of some of my creations. I usually try to cover both sides of a collage so you get more bang for your buck...I didn't in this case however.
The girls on the middle collage and the bottom one are from the paperwhimsy website, she has beautiful images!
The first collage is actually an original vintage french postcard placed over one of my favorite wallpapers.
Go out and have a great Monday, hope you have time to create something beautiful today........
Gail

Bingo anyone?

I just love the graphics on these old games, and they're so great to use in collages or albums.
I have so many bingo cards I think I need to start making some collage greeting cards or something.
Went thrifting today (shocking, I know) and picked up two books of vintage sheet music that have the most awesome titles in them and also found some beautiful sheet music. I've never bought sheet music until very recently and don't know really what to do with it, but the graphics on them are beautiful, as are the songs themselves. My current thought is to use them to cover some of my journals.......
I'm so glad the Olympics are over tomorrow night, they're kicking my butt! I've stayed up until 1pm for about a week now.....very tired.
More pics soon.
Gail

Lollishops!!!!!!!!

I'm so excited about the possiblity of this website, which will be a reality soon.....it sounds so wonderful for all the artists and craftspeople who long for a wonderful place to sell their goods among like-minded friends.
Click on the lollipops link and read all about it, you'll be excited too if, like me, you've been wondering just where and how your goodies will be sold and seen. I haven't even applied yet and I'm excited!

Sorry for the double pictures!!!!!

Obviously this will be a work in progress (although fun work!) for a while. Last night I was uploading pictures that sometimes took quite awhile to appear and being the impatient person I am (at least I admit it) went ahead and uploaded even more pics!!!
Will keep trying to navigate this new land.....
Gail

Peeks around my studio.....

I took the doors off these shelves so I could see what I have. The clear hatboxes work great for storage....
I absolutely love this candy box I bought on ebay, it's huge and the colors are so beautiful...the hatbox is from my best friend, Melanie. I left the stripes on the bottom and covered the lid with my favorite wallpaper...
Isn't this little shoe shine box cute? It was found at St. Vinnie's for a song......
This little wire form is one I found at Home Goods. I don't have room in my studio for a large one, so I was thrilled to find this one!

This old pincushion was quite a find at our local fleamarket......
A barkcloth shoebag I've had for years put into good service in my studio.....
Lovely Nancy Ann dolls.......
This little chest was found at Goodwill and transformed with vintage wallpaper, the Nancy Ann dolls were all found at St. Vinnie's. It was so fun to clean their dresses and make them more presentable!!!!
This little dress form was something I found at Goodwill and covered in leftover bits of wallpaper. The little house is chipboard from crafty secrets....covered in my favorite wallpaper.
Here is some of my storage in my studio, love the clear hatboxes...makes it so easy to find what I need.
These items are in the window of my studio...clothespins covered with wallpaper, so cute to use for so many things, vintage lace wrapped around wallpapered holders, vintage french postcards, and antique calling cards.
This candy box is one of my recent favorites, it's huge and so beautiful! It's sitting on a hatbox that my best friend, Melanie, gave me. I left the bottom striped and covered the lid with my favorite wallpaper....
Isn't this old shoe shine box cute? Courtesy of St. Vincent de Paul! The suitcase is from Goodwill.
Here is a picture of my little wire dress form (thank you Home Goods) because I don't have room for a full size form. The little tags are ones I made from vintage wrapping paper and wallpaper.

More pics of Melanie's store....

all-my-favorite-things.
It's just too adorable for words, so maybe the pics will show more of it's charm...enjoy!

It's the little things....

in life that make us happy....like learning a new computer technique by yourself! Last night I was successful in uploading photos to this site so now it can (hopefully) look like the "big girl" blogs that I so love.
Next will be learning to take dazzling photos of my studio and products, if anyone has any tricks for that, please chime in here for me.
I'll be doing a fair amount of reading up on that subject.
And yikes!!!!! Halloween is just around the corner....it just happens to be the very most favorite holiday in this house, how about yours? I love crafting Halloween goodies more than any other, so I better get busy.......
DD starts second grade in a couple of weeks so that will free up some time :).
Be back soon...

Trying to post pics....

Here is a tool caddy that I wallpapered. I love using these because they allow you to move your supplies around easily. Mostly I make these to sell in Melanie's store All My Favorite Things in Portland's Sellwood district.
The scalloped bin is also covered in vintage wallpaper and has three of my journals in it. I love making these because they are all original's, one of a kind.....

Addicted to thrifting......

This has got to stop! Why do I feel the need to go out every day and thrift? It's really the thrill of the hunt that I know too many of you can relate to.....but I know I can take a break now, I've got lots of supplies for a while :).
Got to get in that studio and create some more goodies.
BTW, thanks Lisa for your nice comments on my wares, that means a lot to me. I check in on your blog , thereyougo
all the time.
Today will be a good day to create, it's supposed to be about 100 degrees here. That's way too hot for me..........
See ya,
Gail

I thought I'd continue on and try my hand at "linking" to my best friends blog.
Her site is called all-my-favorite-things.blogspot.com, which is also the oh-so-cute name of her store. The variety in her store is tremendous, and I feel so honored that she wanted to carry my items! If you're in the Portland area you must check out her store. She's at 8339 SE 13th Ave. in Portland, Oregon, and she also has a booth at the Stars Antique Mall which everyone in Portland has heard about....she's a talented lady and has quite an eye.
I'm still working on getting my store up and going.....in the meantime I'm making some fun items for it. Things like wallpaper journals, embellished clothes hangers, wallpaper tags, wallpaper bins (do you sense a theme here yet?)
My husband has all but begged me not to wallpaper the dog!
I'm off to work some more now, take care and please visit again!
Gail

My brand new blog....now what?

This is my first blog, hmmmmmmm, what to say.
My name is Gail and I'm starting a business on ETSY to sell my "created-from-vintage" wares.
I've loved antiques and vintage things since I was a teen and that's been quite awhile:).
I started out scrapbooking, but not really. I thought I wanted to scrapbook, but what I really wanted was to alter things. My style is still evolving, like a lot of you perhaps, and it's really fun to discover new techniques, etc.
My best friend in the world is Melanie, and she owns a store in Portland, OR called "All My Favorite Things". She started selling my goodies from the first day she was open (which incidentally wasn't that long ago!) I hope she'll continue for a long time.....
I'll sign off now and try to figure out how to get some pics on here so it will be interesting!
Cheers!
Gail