Fishing Tackle Vintage Collage and Flying Fish Get Well Card

The 1952 Hammond's Nature Atlas of America in my stash is full of beautiful images that I've started to mine for collages.  Today I'm sharing two projects featuring fish.

This collage started with the lovely brook trout.  He appears to be leaping out of the water after a fly, which sent me on a search through some old geography textbooks for water photos.  The fishing tackle text came out of a reproduction 1900 Sears and Roebuck Catalog.  I chose the vintage orange postage stamp because its color complimented the fish, and the final touch was a postal cancellation mark stamped on top.

Since the first fish collage turned out so well (if I do say so myself), I made a second one as a get well card for a co-worker who was recently in the hospital.  She and her boyfriend love to fish, so I think she'll like this card.  I believe this fish is a tuna, and he is really leaping out of the water.  I chose a pink vintage postage stamp which played nicely against the green water, and stamped on two postal cancellation marks.  This collage was matted on vanilla cardstock before being adhered to a black card base.

In case you're wondering where I got a 1952 Hammond's Nature Atlas of America:  it was in a box of books that my dad purchased at an auction.  After he pulled out the books he wanted, he let me sort through them and take what I wanted.  My vintage book stash has definitely benefited from my dad's joy of reading!

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a fabulous day.

Vintage Birds - Altered Envie

My altered envelope for this month's exchange started with an "a ha" moment.  As I was going through my paper stash looking for a piece of 12x12 cardstock, I came upon a package of Graphic 45 patterned paper that I bought a while ago at Tuesday Morning (a small discount store).  I love Graphic 45 designs and I thought I was getting a great deal on a collection of patterned papers.  Imagine my disappointment when I opened the package and discovered not the collection, but 25 sheets of the same design!  I thought, what the heck am I going to do with 25 sheets of the same design?

Yep!  I bought 25 sheets of this two-sided paper.

Well, I shared a couple sheets with a fellow crafter, and then the packet went back into my stash until this month when I stumbled upon it again and had that "a ha" moment:  this paper would make a great envelope!  It's quality, heavy cardstock and the side with the text provides a neutral background.  So I used my We R Memory Keepers envelope punch board (another Tuesday Morning purchase) to create my envelope, then dug through my paper stash for items to build a collage.

The front of the envelope started with a vintage bird illustration from an old natural history book.  The yellow flower was fussy-cut from the same book.  I added an envelope wrap, a scrap torn from a reproduction Sears and Roebuck catalog, and a vintage postage stamp.  The final touches involved some rubber stamping.

The reverse side of the envelope features another bird from the natural history book, scraps of vintage sheet music and book text, rubber stamping, and the other end of the envelope wrap.  See what a great background that dark Graphic 45 paper makes?  I'll have no problem using 25 sheets of that!

Here's hoping you have many happy "a ha" moments yourself.  Thanks for reading my blog, and have a fabulous day!