Poser

I have a stool that I set up to take product photos for my Etsy shop... and tonight... something else took the spotlight (completely of her own accord)...

Ugly Stool Project

If you've read my blog for any length of time, you've probably noticed something... I like garage sales. Typically, when I go to garage sales, I'm not looking to spend more than $5 on any one item... I like things cheap. Of course, I'll break that rule if it's something awesome, but typically I don't spend a whole lot on any one item. It's just a matter of looking past the ugly and seeing what an item could look like with a bit of work.

This past Friday morning was no different - I found a beat up, brassy, ugly stool for 50 cents. Unfortunately I forgot to take a before picture. But here is what it looked like when I was done with it - and all I needed were things I already had on hand; some spray paint, fabric, buttons, and polyfil.

The Creative Pictured Printer

As the car rolled to a stop, it caught my eye. As I got closer, I noticed some words like "hen", "dog", "farmer", "Igloo". I wondered what it could be... picking each piece up I realized they were stamps. The man sitting nearby informed me that they were from 1932. We stood there, my mother and I, picking up each stamp, eager to look flip it over and see what the image would look like.

We must have stood there for 5 minutes, at least, flipping each stamp over, one by one, enthralled. Tray after tray, image after image, word after word. In the back of my mind, I began designing the cards I would make with these stamps, if they could still stamp. I sure hoped they could, they were beautiful... unique... intriguing. I purchased the set, in its neat old box, and took it home with me, my prized treasure of the day. Only once I got it home would I realize just how neat it was... there are over 400 stamps of letters, words, characters, and numbers, and almost 70 stamps of images ranging from President Roosevelt to African huts. I carefully laid each word out, arranging them by letter of the alphabet. Gently, I put each back in its right place in the trays. And then I began to try them out - and was overjoyed to find that they stamped wonderfully! Even the old ink, which had been dried on for decades, cleaned off with a bit of TLC.







I decided that I am going to sell the cards I make from this set... they are just too neat not to share (you can find them on Etsy).

And We're Back!

Last week we took a lovely trip down to Edisto Island, South Carolina. Heard of it? Probably not! It's a very rural little town right on the ocean, about 45 minutes from Charleston. We had never been, but thanks to this blog post, I really wanted to check it out! Botany Bay is a former plantation that is now a wildlife management area, and the pictures I saw of it looked amazing. We were not let down! The beach area at Edisto is also beautiful, with miles of natural beach - no houses or hotels, just plenty of Palmetto trees and Loggerhead turtle nests!

Here are a few pictures from our trip:

New Banner - New Digital Collage Sheets

I'm sure many of you have noticed that these "digital collage sheets" are sort of hot right now.  I didn't really understand what in the world I'd use them for, so I always just figured the hype was just that... hype... and that I didn't need any digital collage sheets!

Oh... but I was wrong.

At first I thought I would use the images for some business purpose... maybe print on receipts, business cards, or cards.  Which, I did, by the way (notice the new layout!!!!).



Then it occurred to me that I could print them and use as artwork to hang on the wall!  We already had the middle photo (garage sale!!!), so now it is adorned by 2 "vintage" flower prints on either side.  I love it!



The digital collage sheets I got were from an Etsy shop called PaperStreet.

I'd love to hear from you, what would you use digital collage sheets for?  Be inspired!