Shabby Chic Oscar Wilde Heart Stuffie

And Gloria cackled, Let there be sparkle: and there was sparkle.--- The Polari Bible.

“I want some more hock in my seltzer,
And Robbie, please give me your hand —
Is this the end or beginning?
How can I understand?

John Betjeman - the Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”  - Oscar Wilde

Materials: Stamped and painted muslin, inkjet on cotton, vintage millinery flowers, vintage lace, hand embroidery, bead embroidery, fiberfill, velvet ribbon.

Another Tag : Vintage Performer Tag

This burlesque lady in her pretty peach leotard was just too fun to pass up a chance to alter and place on a heart-themed tag!

Background for this tag is barn door distress stain, a damask stamp in red dye ink, some tattered angels glimmer mist in cork.

the oval is a cutout from a vintage newspaper I scanned and printed. 

The burlesque lady is a great Library of Congress poster image of a performer named Nettie Barton. I tried to find out more about her or the "High Rollers Extravaganza Co." with whom she performed, but could find sadly little. 

The brass butterfly and aluminum rose are both from my jewelry stash, as are the ribbons. A little seven gypsies paper and basic grey stick on numbers round things out.

Challenges:  Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - Tags

Artful Times: Anything Goes
Crafty Ribbon: Anything Goes with Ribbon
Rosie and Rhedd Anything But a Card

Pearlized Papers Card: Write with Care

I took things in an unexpected direction for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.

 Normally I'd respond to a pearlized challenge with tons of paints, mixed media - I even experimented with stitching pearls onto my cardstock, but none of the results were really pleasing to me this time around. Just not feeling all that glimmer mist!

So I wound up pulling my project apart, and going very minimal with some pearlized papers, just a DCWV stack that I've had for eons that I usually use as a jewelry phtoto backdrop. (Stash busting, yay.)

The lady is a prinout from The Graphics Fairy, backed with cardstock and stitched into place. I wanted the stitching to be very raw and simple and show clearly, so I handstitched with brown thread.

The butterflies are hand stamped, and then embellished with a little text cut out from my stash of vintage past-the-point-of-no-return books. This one was a school primer, lots of writing and drawing in the margins.

Hand stamped sentiment, glued over a snippet of vintage ribbon.  This came from a short-lived store right near my house, so sad they're gone, they were the vintage ribbon queens and I should have bought more! Stash regret. :(

One last macro to show off that pretty pearlized sheen!

Challenges:  Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge

Vintage Teatime Tag with Heart

Another tag! It's hard to make just one and stop.

For this one I started with a scan of one of my vintage newspapers, scanned onto epson scrapbook paper.

This was a little boring, so I used gesso and pigment ink to enhance it.

I added cutout from a digital vintage teapot image - these images are so fabulous - they come from an illustration for proper entertaining in the 1800's.

A little hand snipped heart from a seven gypsies pack, lettering is Basic Grey.

The background is a damask stamp in chalk ink on a pigment ink background.

 The trims are from my stash, so many to pick from!

Challenges:

Artful Times: Anything Goes

Little Altered Tags: Ballooning sweet thoughts

I like to ink up my stamps and print them the way I'd print a tiny little linocut block - rather than pressing down, laying the paper onto the block and burnishing over the on the back of the paper woth your bone folder gives you the ability to control your edges and fade them if you want.

That's what I did with the damask print on this tag. It's printed with chalk ink over a smudging of pigment ink.  The edges are all aged with more pigment - I love those little cat's eye sets for this kind of thing! They really help you get into a tiny space.

The peach paper is from a seven gypsies pack. I love having those little bits and pieces at my disposal. The lace and the millinery flowers are from my collection of vintage fibers.

 The amazingly sweet birds-in-a-balloon image and the teacup image are both printouts from public-domain images.  

Keep surfing those libraries and museums - there's a lot of material out there from long ago. I aged the edge of the balloon cutout with pigment ink, mod podged it for a little more body, and glued it to a handmade tab for a little bit of dimension.

The 2014 is a little bit from Basic Grey, and the lace and pompom fiber is from my giant stash of yarns and trims.

Challenges:

Rosie and Rhedd: Anything but a Card

Fashionable Stamping: Anything Goes

Stamping Sensations : Pretty In Pink

Artful Times: Anything Goes