Little Altered Hearts: Hedgie and Squirrel

Two little (3.5 inch!) Flat hearts that I whipped up.

I glued some plain muslin down to a heart on stiff felt.  A little inktense washing and stamping, followed by hand embroidery, bead embroidery. The bead edge is a picot done with size 8's - a little wonky but charming more or less. I'm trying to figure out a way to handle these thick fabric sandwiches without the edge being so time intensive :(

The images are both from vintageprintables.co.uk, then printed out onto inkjet fabric. "Nut" is hand stamped.

Both pieces are then backed in thicker white denim type fabric.

A vintage German milk glass flower and a new czech flower bead. For this one, I just did a six bead looped fringe around the edge over and over. It covers anything that's fraying. It takes for-e-ver though. Ugh. Don't forget to tie off your work every inch or so - so if you ever do get an unravel it doesn't take the entire edge apart.

These are a great way to use those "too small to use too big to throw away" pieces of fabric, mostly trimmings from larger projects.

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

Dark and Shabby - Flutter Anatomical Fabric Heart

Most of this blog will feature heart-shaped projects. One of my favorite things to make are little hand-sewn mini pincushions.

This one uses an anatomical heart image from The Graphics Fairy. 

I love treating a small stuffie the same way that I might work an art journal page.

Haven't done a lot mixing fiber and metal - seems like it could be problematic over time, but I wouldn't mind seeing this rust actually.