Angel Bookmark

“The guardian angels of life sometimes fly so high as to be

beyond our sight, but they are always looking down

upon us.”

Jean Paul Richter ~ German Novelist and humorist, 1763-1825

I would like to give this to my friends and followers today! I created this bookmark with the angel graphic, from Heidi of shabbychicpapirskatter (Sorry her blog has been removed) Feel free to print it out on cardstock and give to your friends and people who have been angels in your life!

12 Hugs to each of you!

Margaret

P.S. Why 12 hugs?

We need 4 hugs a day for survival, 8 hugs a day for maintenance, and 12 hugs a day for GROWTH! Family Therapist Virginia Satir

Thanks Charlette for posting that quote!

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Wrigley’s Spearmint Gum

This post is a change up, from my posts of my search for Mail Pouch barns. In my endeavors to find a Mail Pouch sign in Fayette, Pennsylvania I encountered this old sign as I drove into town.

I immediately knew I had to capture this so I pulled over and started taking pictures. I have no idea when they were painted, the building looks to have been built in the 50’s, but isn’t this a great ghost image?

This is another one that was on the building, it looks like it had the bottom of the package painted at one time but it has faded. Also the faint wording at bottom “mark” probably from trademark.

This week as I was looking at blogs I ran across this old advertisement picture of Wrigley gums.

Notice the Y, Isn’t that a unique font?

This picture is a timeline of the gum. Notice that they only changed their packaging seven times over the years. They’ve always stayed with the arrow.

I love this story of entrepreneurship, In 1891 at the age of 29 William Wrigley, Jr. came to Chicago from Philadelphia with $32.00 in his pocket. His father was a soap manufacturer so he started selling Wrigley’s Scouring Soap. As an incentive to merchants he offered free baking soda as a incentivize, knowing that they would likely carry his brand if they got a “little something for nothing.” When the baking powder became more popular than the soap he switched to the baking powder business. Then he got the idea to offer two packages of gum as a gimmick and again the chewing gum proved to be more popular than the baking soda and again he changed his business focus, the business became Wrigley’s Chewing Gum. You can read more of this story here.

Photo from Vintage America Flickr Photostream

A vintage ad from 1930

Photo from Lotusmonger, Flikr photostream

Wrigley’s Spearmint gum ad from Real America Magazine April 1935 

I hope you’ve enjoyed your visit today to Fayette, Pennsylvania, and learned a little more about Wrigley’s Spearmint Gum.

I’m linking with Vintage Thingies Thursday

Blessings and Hugs,

Margaret

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Praying Hands

Do not be anxious about anything,

But in everything,

By prayer and petition,

With thanksgiving

Present your request

To god.

Philippians 4:6

While visiting my daughter and family in Tulsa last week, We went to Oral Roberts University to tour the grounds, this statue stands in front of the University. It is 60 ft. tall, and weighs 30 tons, made of bronze and titled Praying Hands, by sculptor Leonard McMurray.

Thank you to Cindy Adkins of ” I Owe it all to Him“, for providing a Linky party this week. Please visit her blog, she daily posts about creative artists and their work, and adds her own insightful commentary that will uplift you!

And thank you for stopping by and visiting today, have a cup of tea or coffee and look around. I look forward to reading your comments and I will be by shortly to visit with you!

Hugs,

Margaret

P.S. (added after visiting all the other link ups today)

As I visited each of you, I had such a sense of  “Church”  Not in the traditional sense of the word, I saw this quote on   “One Heart’s blog“

“The word church immediately conjures in the mind of men a place to go,

 rather than what they are to be.”

-From an ex-Baptist minister

But more in the sense of what the Bible calls us to be “The body of believers, a living breathing organism….” Where two or more are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”   Today I felt the presence of God strongly. In one blog a girl who had not picked up her Bible in 10 years but wanted to participate so she blindly put her finger in the Bible and God gave her a scripture that ministered to her, which led me to ponder how God never leaves us  alone..he continues to prod us with his love.  I sense this awe!  of what God is doing.  Binding his people together in Love. 

 No we don’t have to be in a physical building to experience the awesome presence of God..He is alive and well and moving on the Web.  I see the internet more and more as a tool of God, when we read a story and we feel a connection and we are just prompted to write a note of encouragement and then to pray for them, we need to be quick to heed that still small voice and just be obedient!  I have loved today, I feel like we just “had church”!

Love you all,

Margaret

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Pennsylvania Mail Pouch Barns 3

The excitement of finding my first two barns, pushed me on to discover others on the list for Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. In traveling the back roads around New Stanton, I was familiar with the small community of Ruffsdale, the main road only boasts of a few businesses and a post office. Often when I go somewhere I turn on back roads and just drive and look at the country side, confident that all I have to do is turn the GPS on to get back home. This has allowed me to see lots of the rural areas.

The barn I was looking for that day had no GPS markers (latitude and longitude) Just the directions of south of Ruffsdale on SR3089, approximately 1 mile south of Rt 31. I headed out towards Ruffsdale and about a mile from the town I rounded the bend and saw this:

Cute! But not what I was looking for, although now I know what it would look like on a small outbuilding. I recently told Harvey of my intentions, of painting our tool shed with the Mail Pouch logo.

I arrived at SR 3089 and saw a marker for RT 31, but the road went the opposite way from the directions. I thought maybe someone had the directions down wrong so I took that road, after a couple of miles I knew it wasn’t right so I turned around. Back to the town and back the way I had come, maybe I had missed it. After a few times of going up and down the roads and no sign of the barn, I decided that it had been torn down and I headed to Mt. Pleasant and the local Walmart. I knew how to get there because I had gone from Mt. Pleasant to Ruffsdale before on my way home, so off I went. About a half a mile I looked up to my right and what did I see?

There she stood! My Ruffsdale Mail Pouch Barn! A little faded and worse for wear, but I had discovered it. I felt like Columbus discovering the New World!

I pulled off to the side of the road and started snapping away. How to get the best angle? I thought maybe if I get down in the grass and lay on the ground I could get an artsy photo! And then I remembered, I’ll be 55 the 30^th of July and how undignified I would look down on the ground, that I wouldn’t be able to get to my feet because of my bum knee. Ok, I’ll just click away with my telephoto lens and be happy! Surely if I take tons of pictures I will like one.

Now remember I have taken this road from Mt. Pleasant numerous times and never saw this barn. The reason is it’s only painted on the one end and I had never looked back. This is how it looks from the road.

The pictures above have been edited in PSE, the one below is how it looks natural.

You can click on this link to see what the barn looked like in years gone by.

Oh BTW, If you want to go this Mail Pouch barn and maybe get there a little faster than I did…I’ve got the coordinates: N. 40. 10.006 W 79.36.141

 

P.S. I’m back home in Savannah, Missouri for the next couple of months. I’ve got three more posts of Mail Pouch barns, so if this interests you keep checking back and if you would like to see my other posts on Mail Pouch barns you can click here for part 1 and here for part 2.

 

Hugs,

Margaret

I’m linking this to

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Welcome Sisters of the Bloggerette Sorority!

Welcome fellow Sisters!

Today’s Rush day and I wasn’t quite prepared! Have you ever read the instructions but had your own idea in your head about what you were supposed to do? Well that’s what happened to me! I took the pictures and thought I was all ready, didn’t realize I needed to write a blog entry, Duh! I know that word isn’t in style anymore, but it fits the situation. I guess I thought we were gonna send in our pictures by email. I know, I just wasn’t thinking, so here it is at 1:30p.m. Thursday afternoon and I’m playing catch up.

This is an altered cigar box. I covered it with a vintage looking floral paper, and then for the decorations! I was so excited the night I read about this challenge I loaded the picture in Photoshop and started playing with it. I thought I would finish the next morning so I went to bed, and laid there, and laid there, sleep would not come, I was too excited. So after hubby was asleep, I snuck out and played till 2 in the morning. I colored the girls individual flowers and cut with decorative scissors in an oval.

Remember about me saying I had my own ideas what the challenge was? I thought we were supposed to add a picture of ourselves to our Sorority craft. I found an old childhood picture of myself and made it look old (sepia) but don’t those curls look vintage anyway? I think I was about ten. I arranged the vignettes with tea bag roses and music paper fans. The flower on the right is made with scrapbook paper and music paper from an old hymnal, with an old button in the center. The tag has the quote “Sisters are different flowers from the same garden.” Isn’t that true? And we are Sisters of the heart, some of you have become friends that I would never have met except for our blogs. I can’t forget the paper key, because all sororities have keys!

Ok since I don’t follow directions well, I don’t have a picture of me holding my project, BUT!

Today while I was editing some pictures of my daughter Carissa’s wedding, I thought why not add them here so you can see Me! I’m Margaret originally from Bakersfield, CA, transplanted four years ago to Savannah, Missouri.

And my beautiful daughter Carissa and Her SISTER! Stephanie.

And us doing what comes naturally when we get together, acting CRAZY!

Can’t wait to get together with ya’ll blogger sisters and act crazy with you! Well maybe not this crazy!

Hugs,

Margaret

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Pennsylvania Mail Pouch Barns 2

And there she stood! After all the searching and traveling down back roads, all it took was getting on the PA Turnpike and following the directions. If you remember in my last post on Pennsylvania Mail Pouch Barns I had clicked on the option No Toll Roads on the GPS so I could get up close to the barn, and it had taken us on a “pig trail” and still we couldn’t find this barn. The next day we had been out shopping when my husband Harvey took a turn and I looked up and we were in line at the toll plaza. You have to know Harvey, he is very determined and never gives up, so there we went down the turnpike and just like the page said, 6.7 miles from the New Stanton exit over to the left…THERE IT WAS! (If you click on the link you can see pictures of when it was originally painted by Harley Warwick)

I’m all excited and yelling “Pull over, Pull over” Yea! Like where, we’re on the turnpike. Harvey managed to get to the side of the road and I jumped out and started snapping away, thank God for telescopic lenses because this barn was a quarter mile away. Cars whizzing by, and I’m just oblivious.

I figured if I took lots of pictures, I was sure to get one or two good ones. I was busy trying to not get the center divider in the picture too.

After I had taken quite a few, we got off the turnpike and tried to find the country road to get closer to the barn. After a few false turns we came to the site, but without trespassing on private property we really couldn’t get any better pictures.

This picture was taken from the side road and it says Marlin Zelmore. This barn has been painted and they painted right up to the letters. Leaving the original painting exposed. As you can see it still has bales of hay, and is still being used today. The above picture has been edited in PSE

If you love Mail Pouch Barns, stay tuned, I have more coming up in the next few days, I just have to edit my pictures and make them pretty!

I’m linking to Vintage Thingies Thursday

Hugs,

Margaret

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Where Bloggers Create II

Welcome to my blog if you’re visiting from Where Bloggers Create II, and let me say thank you to Karen for hosting.

I travel with my husband Harvey for his job, he works in the Nuclear industry as a contract employee with Westinghouse. Their office is in New Stanton, PA, we come here a couple of times a year for a five week period, while they plan the job. I’m writing this blog from Pennsylvania, where we’ve been for four weeks, one more to go!

While we are away from home, we stay in a 34ft fifth wheel trailer, with two slide outs. This is where I create! Well at least while on the road.

Here we are at the Fox Den Acres RV Resort our home while in New Stanton. We travel with all the luxuries of home including our Direct TV, you can see our satellite dish to the left of the trailer.

Welcome to my home away from home. This is the living room, dining room and kitchen. This is what you see as you step in the front door.

I bring all the  toys we need to have a home while we are gone. Including our computers, printers, and for me a sewing machine, material, all my crafting supplies, and my camera.

And this is where I create! It’s been organized for you to see, usually I have both the booth seats loaded with boxes that contain my supplies I need to play! Notice all the cords under the table! Guess I wasn’t as organized as I thought, but the white cord is to the hot glue gun, and the black cords are to the computer and the coffee pot, because we need lots of coffee at 6 in the morning.

I thought I would show you what is stored under the dining room cushions. Hint: My crafting and sewing supplies.

Behind the booth you see the plants, I bring plants with me to have a little bit of home. The patriotic pinwheels were a project I created for Memorial Day, you can read about it here.

I also bring a sewing machine, and on a previous trip I pieced this quilt top.

I store other scrapbook supplies in this three door storage container, that also holds my all in one printer (scanner, fax, printer)

And this small one fits between the couch and the back of the dinette, holds paints, scissors, die cutters and other miscellaneous stuff.

This trip I thought I needed a plant outside so I bought this hanging basket and planted it. I will take it home and hang it on the patio, but for now, this is where it hangs.

I spend my days editing my photos and learning Photoshop Elements 7. I’m thankful for the time that I have to concentrate on my art, I’m sure if I didn’t have the nine hours a day to concentrate I would have never learned PSE. On weekends Harvey and I try and go to a new location and I take pictures. These are some pictures I took in Homestead, PA.

I’ve spent the last four weeks researching and photographing Mail Pouch Barns. If you are interested in old barns you might want to follow me for the next couple of weeks as I chronicle my visits.

For the month of March and April we were in Palacios, Texas where I decorated birdhouses to look like a Mail Pouch Barn. We stayed in a campground right on the beach for five weeks.

This is a shrimp boat coming into the harbor at night, now tell me where else can you get a view like this from your front door?

And did I mention the beach in California? That is our next trip in October of this year to Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant in Avila, California.

This view is from the road going to the plant, and of course the one below is of the nuclear plant. It’s a view that most people don’t see since the plant is closed to visitors.

These pictures were taken last October when Harvey worked five weeks in California. California is always a fun trip because that is where I was born and raised and lived until three years ago when I married Harvey. My children still live in Bakersfield, Ca about an hour and a half from the beach, so I get to spend lots of time with them and my grandchildren.

I hope you’ve enjoyed visiting me, where I blog and create. I’m sitting here at my kitchen table writing this and when I need something from the fridge it’s five steps away. Some people have commented “Don’t you get tired of living in that small space?” My answer is “This is so much better than staying in a motel for five weeks” Even though they put us up in luxury motels, I would rather have my little home on wheels, with all my “stuff” to be able to have home cooked meals, to sleep in my own bed with my own linens.

I get inspiration from the things around me, and believe me when you go to a new city, you get lots of inspiration.

Thanks for coming by to visit, and please leave comments. I really enjoy reading your comments!

Hugs,

Margaret

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Homestead Pennslyvania

 

Kolbe House, located next door to the St. Maxmillian Kolbe church in Homestead, PA.

 I’m linking to: Sweet Shot Tuesday

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Happy Memorial Day!

   

“Sure I wave the American flag. Do you know a better flag to wave? Sure I love my country with all her faults. I’m not ashamed of that, never have been, never will be.” — John Wayne

   

  

  

  

 

  

 

  

I think patriotism is like charity—it begins at home. “Henry James”

   

  

  

  

 

  

“Be sure this Memorial Day … you are a part of those Americans asking God to bless the heroes we remember who never really set out to be heroes. As the kin of a fallen soldier once proclaimed, ‘Each loved his life as much as we love ours. Each had a place in the world, a family waiting and friends to see again. They thought of the future just as we do, with plans and hopes for a long life. But they left it all behind when they went to war, and parted with it forever when they died so that you and I might enjoy freedom today.’ On this Memorial day set aside time from celebrating summer for you, your family and friends to honor and remember those who have given their lives for you because as Robert Orr so beautifully said, ‘To live in the hearts of those you leave behind is never to die.’ Frankly speaking, saluting their memory is our duty, and on this day, it is our privilege. The time is now to show we care and to honor their sacrifice not only this Memorial Day, but every day. Honoring our military heroes assures their memory does indeed live in our hearts and thus, these heroes will in the name of freedom never die.” –columnist” – Frank Jordan  

  

  

For instructions to make the Patriotic Fans, check out 

 

  

Martha 

If you would like the project including the picture, I’ve uploaded it to The Graphics Fairy Flickr page. Click on all sizes, then download large size.

 

  

 

 I’m linking this to Vintage Thingies Thursday 

I’m linking this to The Graphic Fairy for Brag Monday. 

  

  

  

I’m linking to Bobbypins Boardwalk

   

 

 

  

Happy Memorial Day to you all!

   

  

  

  

 

  

 

  

  

  

 

 

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Vintage advertising barns

Doesn’t everyone love old barns? As we travel across the country I see many barns, many are in various states of disrepair, and I find myself wishing that someone would repair them before we lose any more.

One of my favorite sightings is an advertisement barn. The first one that I remember as a child, was on a trip to Illinois to visit my Grandparents, it was a barn with Meramec Caverns painted on it. There are still barns with that signage on it. This one is fun because of its wording “See Jesse James Hideout”.

Internet Image: Seemidtenn.com

Another favorite of mine are the Mail Pouch Tobacco advertisements. While traveling in Western Pennsylvania on a trip to Fallingwater, we took a back road and I saw my first Mail Pouch barn. I was without a camera that day, but Harvey will be working at Westinghouse in New Stanton, PA in a few weeks and you can bet I’ll have my camera. I’ve discovered there are quite a few in the West Virginia and Pennsylvania area and I plan to do more research.

Here is a picture of one from Flikr.

This one has obviously been kept up, and repainted. But isn’t it beautiful?

 

Inspiration comes in funny packages sometimes. When we got to our RV site in Palacios, Texas, there were quite a few “Snowbirds” or Winter Texans as the manager called them. Three RV’s over there was a gentleman who was making birdhouses, I knew that I wanted one, but ended up buying four of them. One was with new wood and the other three were made from an old weathered redwood fence. He said he knew the fence boards were over 50 years old when he took it down. I have been decorating the birdhouses, to see another check out this post
last
picture on the page.

But back to Inspiration! This week I got to thinking about these old barns, because that is what the weathered redwood reminded me of. The idea to decorate a Mail Pouch bird house hit me!

I started in Photoshop and worked on laying out the lettering. Something new I learned was how to put a color shadow on my lettering, which was time consuming but I enjoyed learning this. I was so excited when I printed it out on cardstock, because it looked just like the original. I added the flowers that were made from a flower punch and layered together. The birds nest is made from old grass and a grapevine wreath, with shreds of an old hymnal added in.

The quote is from General Robert E. Lee and says ” I have been up to see Congress and they do not seem to be able to do anything except eat peanuts and chew tobacco.” NO COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY! So of course I had to put a few peanuts in the nest to go along with the quote. Isn’t that the way your projects go? One idea prompts another!

While researching Mail Pouch Barn advertising, I came across some interesting web pages. There are a couple of articles on The Barn Journal, and another good story is found at Ohio Barns, and all the information you might be interested in including locations of barns can be found here.

 

The last known painter of Mail Pouch barns was Harley E. Harrick, he has since passed away, but his story is an interesting one. His family had a barn; the Tobacco company would paint the whole barn if they could put the advertising on it. They would repaint them ever few years. When he came home from the war, the painters were there at his family farm painting their barn. He watched them in their work and in talking to the guys they offered him a job. “He thought that’s better than milking 27 Jerseys every night and morning.” His reflection on painting the barns was”the first 1000 were a little difficult but after that you got the hang of it.” With a helper painting in the black background Harley could paint two signs a day. His wages in 1946, were $32 a week painting six days a week and mixing paint on Sunday.

After I finished my Mail Pouch bird house, I ran across information that said after Mr. Harrick retired from painting barns, he continued his art making birdhouses with the Mail Pouch logo on them. So maybe my inspiration wasn’t something “new” but I love the fact that I can carry on a tradition, that in a few years may be gone with the old barns disappearing, but I can tell my Grandchildren stories of “Back in the day” !

 

Do you know what this picture is?

It’s a tool for cutting a plug of tobacco, It’s definitely vintage. I took this picture at the Outrigger Grill in Palacios, Texas. Thank you Cheryl for your hospitality and allowing me to take pictures of your antiques.

 

I’m linking this to: Vintage Thingies Thurday

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New Blog Header and Columns

Who knew!

I’ve had this blog with WordPress since 2008, I’d get frustrated with it because it didn’t have all the functions of being able to edit the headers as Blogspot did, and yet they didn’t have features I like such as being able to see how many people come to your page a day and where they are coming from. (If I’m wrong about Blogspot please let me know, and tell me where to find the info!) Occasionally I would think about paying to have someone make my blog pretty, but didn’t know who to contact.

I met a new friend Nancy Wood of Quilts Sew Shabby from our new Graphics Fairy Flickr group, who makes the most beautiful quilts using Vintage collages. While talking with her and helping her set up her blog, and telling her what little I know about blogs. I discovered that I could customize my header, so off I went to play. The design below is one I made when I figured out how to add headers. I used the lettering from a Graphic Fairy print. I like it and will use it someday, maybe when I discover how to make columns and add them to my blog.

But once I discovered I could upgrade with WordPress and add the columns I wanted it all to match, so I went with this design.

The design is Roses and Linen Rustique, from The Background Fairy and the header is the same design altered with Photoshop, The cupid is a Photoshop Pattern, and the font for Ewenique is LokiCola, or the same font used in the writing of Coka Cola. This was a fun experience and I’m so glad I learned something new and can now change any time the mood hits me.

One more thing I need help from all you computer literate people is to teach me how to put writing in my sidebars (remember it is WordPress) Just about the time I get to where I’m decent at doing this stuff, the technology will probably change again.

Thanks for visiting today!

I’m linking to: The Graphics Fairy “Brag Monday”

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Books, altered art and vintage

Books are an obsession with me, I love to read and I love to collect old books. A few weeks ago, I saw a blog where they had arranged old books, tied them together and put some trinkets on top for decoration. As is common to me, I start looking on the internet and then a few days later I get this idea and then can’t find my inspiration. I googled every combination I could think of but still couldn’t find the original.
I started remembering back when I was a teenager and made (altered) books out of old Reader’s Digest Condensed books. I would open them, glue pages together and paint with gold spray paint. I would buy multiple copies of a flower print and glue down the first one to the book, then cut out all the individual flowers and paste them on top of each other in 3-D effect and would put a wedding announcement on the other side. I wish I had a picture of one of them, but 35 years later and I started putting together another version in my head.

While I’ve been  here in Palacios, Tx  the past 4 weeks (1 more to go) I’ve been going to the local Senior Citizens Second hand store. Looking thru the books I started noticing small books and thought I would buy them and practice on them. At ten cents each you can’t go wrong. I’ve found all kinds of craft supplies there. The first week I just bought a few things, then I’d go home and start thinking about those craft pearls I had left there, then go back the next week and buy them and some more things. This week I just bought all the stuff, I figure maybe I spent a total of $15.00, the scrapbook paper I already had.  I’m posting a brief tutorial on covering the books.

Take your book and using two coordinating prints. Measure the book and make the paper an inch wider than the book.

Cover the spine first, using white glue or Mod Podge. Lay the book out flat and brush both the book and the paper lightly. Then placed the paper on the book and using an old credit card,  remove all the bubbles. Cut paper at the spine and tuck inside.

Cut your second piece of paper and apply with glue.

Fold edges under and glue. If your books are for decoration, you do not have to cover the inside cover.

This is a decorated book using an image from The Graphic’s fairy, and the flowers from last week’s tutorial.

Some of the books were new, you can use antique water base stain to darken the pages to make them look old.

Another image from The Graphic’s Fairy, I love the little girls face and her beautiful bonnet. I covered the book a little different, I glued on the picture, made a border that was paper punched, then used Mod Podge on the book and picture. I also sanded the edges of the book to make it look old. The flower is made from scrapbook paper.

 

I’m linking this to “Brag Monday” at the Graphic’s Fairy
I’m linking this to Make it Monday at the Persimmon Perch
I’m linking this to Metamorphosis Monday at between Naps on the porch

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Scrapbook flowers using a Photoshop brush Tutorial

Finished flower!

I’m no expert by any means on Photoshop Elements. I’ve had the program for about nine months and have mainly been self taught.  I originally started out editing my pictures, but then I started seeing lots of digital collages on blogs and wanted to learn how to do that.

This tutorial is on how to make a custom brush that you can use to make Cherry Blossom flowers with. I was wishing I had a flower stamp that I could scan onto scrapbook paper and then cut out. I didn’t have one so I developed this method.

I use Photoshop Elements 7, I started out with version 2 and found that a lot of the same features are in other versions you just have to look around.

1. On a white piece of paper I drew different sizes of a cherry blossom flower. I scanned it and uploaded it onto my computer as a file.
2. In the Photoshop Elements Editor, select File > Open > Find the scan of the hand drawn cherry blossoms wherever you saved them. Click on open and it will appear in your editor screen.

5. Use the crop tool and edit as close as you can to flowers without touching them. When you are happy, click on the green check mark that says commit current action.

6. Go to Edit and in drop down you will see Define Brush > Screen will ask you to name brush. Call it Cherry Blossoms.jpg then click ok.

Define Brush

7.Click on Brush tool > from the drop down you will see styles of brushes. Go to the last one and there will be your Cherry blossoms. Choose that. Experiment with the size, you can make them larger or smaller.

I downloaded a picture from The Graphics Fairy of a handwritten letter, the paper was the perfect aged look I wanted. Open that in Editor,and made a background copy to save the original. Then I clicked on my cherry blossom brush and changed the mode to Color Burn. Note you may want to play with the different modes to find the one you like. Color burn on this color background looks like a dark shadow. I clicked all over the paper making sure that where I placed it was on the writing.  I next printed out on paper.

After thinking about this and making my flowers I thought I might try to print out on cardstock next time and turn paper over and print another textured print on the other side. You could also print out directly on the back of scrapbook paper. I wanted a two sided flower, so I Mod Podged mine to the back of scrapbook paper, since that is what I had. I then used Mod Podge on the printed sheet of flowers. I have an Epson printer and I had no problems with the ink smudging, although I’ve heard of others having a different experience with other printers. You might try a sample first and see if you like the results.

Printed out, glued to back of scrapbook paper and Mod Podged

After the sheets dried. I cut out my flowers, cutting deep into the flowers, don’t worry if the line shows, it adds more character to the flowers. I used a chop stick to roll the edges of my petals to make them look realistic

Rolling the edge of paper around chopstick!

I used a large flower for the base and hot glued a smaller flower for the center. I used some gold glitter paint to give them accents and added pearl seeds for the centers.

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Glued together, using scrapbook paper on the other side makes the flower reversible.

I used these flowers to decorate a birdhouse. I covered it with scrapbook paper and Mod Podged it. I add the bird to the house, it was from The Graphic Fairy, then of course it needed a bird nest. I used an old grapevine wreath and formed the nest, and put in some dried grass.  The eggs are clay eggs that I made and covered with music paper and Mod Podged.

The finished project!

If those of you who are more proficient in Photoshop have any comments I will be glad to add them to this post.

I’m linking this to “The Graphics Fairy”

I’m linking to: Metamorphosis Monday‘

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