Vintage Book Page Card Tutorial

There are lots of very talented card makers out there but I forget sometimes that not everyone is comfortable creating a handmade card. So for today's post I thought I'd show step by step how I created a very simple handmade card using vintage paper for Gingersnap Creations. I have included a supply list at the end.  Enjoy!

Here's a list of the supplies I used.  Unless otherwise noted, you can buy the items at a big box craft store, such as Michaels or Hobby Lobby

• Acrylic stamps (Flourishes)
• Versafine ink in Onxy Black and Vintage Sepia
• Markers (Stampin' Up!)
• Beads (Penny Wise Arts)
• Watercolor Card Base (Dick Blick)
• Glue stick and glue dots
• Vintage book page
• Vintage button and crochet thread
• Other items: scissors, sponge, ruler, acrylic stamping block

Have a fabulous day!

Linking to:
Made by You Monday
Show It Off Mondays
The Gunny Sack
More the Merrier Monday
Polly Want A Crafter 
Mrs Hine's Class 
Show Me What Ya Got 
Bear Rabbit Bear 
The Crafty Blog Stalker

Book Page Christmas Card

I usually send 75+ handmade cards every Christmas, but decided to cut myself some slack this year and cut way back to about 25.  I also kept it really simple by stamping a ornament with red ink onto a square of old book page, attaching it to an Italian watercolor card and accenting it with a rhinestone.  

Merry Christmas everyone!

Ali

6 Ways to Wrap Gifts Using Vintage Paper

 

I've been having a lot of fun including vintage paper in my holiday gift wrapping this year.  I thought I'd share with some ways that you could incorporate some lovely old book pages or vintage sheet music into your packaging too.

1.  Vintage Paper Gift Wrap

Use old book pages to wrap the entire gift.  This works well for small gifts because you're restricted by the size of the pages.  Here I used vintage sheet music to wrap an iTunes gift card and finished it off with seam binding and a gold accent.

2. Vintage Paper Bows

Cut strips of old books to form a bow.  Here I used over sized dictionary pages - the large loops were cut to 1" wide and the smaller inner loops on top were cut to 1/2" wide. I finished off the center with a vintage button.

3. Vintage Paper Bag Toppers

Transform a plain bag into something special by creating a bag topper from vintage paper.  I just folded a rectangle of sheet music in half, stapled it to the top of the closed bag and hid the staple with a bow.

4. Vintage Paper Belly Bands

Cover the gift in regular wrapping paper, then create a belly band from vintage paper to bring it up a notch.

5. Vintage Paper Tags

Use a die cutting machine or handheld punch to create tags from old book pages and sheet music:

6. Vintage Paper Accents

Cut a piece of an old map or sheet music and glue it to the front of a parcel.  Here I used spray adhesive to attach a map of the East Coast to a gift wrapped in simple kraft paper.

There are more pictures of my Christmas packages in this post.  Got a great idea for packaging gifts using old book pages?  Leave a link and/or comment below.

Linking to:

A Crafty Soiree
Hodgepodge Friday
Crafty Happy Scrappy 
The Shabby Nest

Savy Southern Style

Happy Wrapping!

Ali

Fun Custom Orders

One of the things that I really loved about my first few months on Etsy is working with customers on custom orders.  It's so much fun to hear the stories behind the items they're requesting I make.  The vast majority of these custom orders are for my Vintage Map Photo Albums and I thought I'd share a few of those projects today:

The first is a spiral album featuring a map of the USA with 7" x 7" pages.  It was requested by a young woman to give to her boyfriend for Christmas to celebrate the cross country road trip they took this year.  The front shows New York state where they started from and the back shows Washington state, which is where they ended their journey and now live.

The second is another spiral album, this time with 5" x 7" pages with a map of Mexico.  It was requested by Dylan's aunt to give as a gift to her Sister-in-law to celebrate their November trip to Cancun.

Finally, here are 10 journals I made for a wonderful lady in Alabama. There is one each for all 10 cousins in the family who grew up in Hillsborough, AL for them to record their childhood memories.  What a thoughtful and personal gift!

I'm currently taking orders for custom albums for Valentines Day and the upcoming wedding season.  If you have a special place you'd like to feature on a photo album or journal, don't hesitate to contact me at alimanning@charter.net or directly through my Etsy shop.

Flea Market Finds

I'm so lucky to have an eleven year old daughter who likes going to flea markets and antique stores as much as I do!  Last Thursday was a half a day from school and she turned down two play dates (if they have those at age eleven?) to visit a local antiques mall with me.

She collects vintage china and jewelry and found some really nice pieces.  Of course for me it's all about the paper.  I found a fabulous old atlas to add to my collection plus a few other treasures:

A lovely old blank ledger from the 1818, a spool of twine that was calling my name and a cabinet card in great condition.

I also picked up a few more vintage Christmas postcards to add to my collection.  When I got home a clipped them onto a piece of branch I stuck in an old white jug.  I think I need to add a few more....

Happy weekend!

Ali

3 Paper Trees

Do you ever see a project and it just makes you squeal with delight?  Well, I do - often!  And if it involves old paper or music, I'm totally sold.  Well, here's one such project:

It was created by MJ from 517 Creations and she very kindly said I could post her picture here.  Head over to her blog for the scoop on how to make this fabulous holiday tree!

Got a little more time?  Here's two more gorgeous paper trees to check out:

Recycled Magazine Tree by Renee Anne

Cupcake Liner Tree by Centsational Girl

Happy crafting!

Ali

My Recycled Christmas Wrapping

As always, I was late getting my Christmas gifts in the mail to my family in the UK and Sweden.  Every year I buy all the gifts early and then never mail them in time - sigh.....  Even though they might arrive a day or two late, they were wrapped up nicely :)

Here are some of the gifts I wrapped up for the men in the family.  The first two used recycled kraft paper, old book pages, bakers twine and hand stamped tags.

 

The final boy gift is for one of my brothers who loves New York City.  I bought him a piece of artwork in Greenwich village a few months ago and the package features a map of the East Coast.  I guess I could have used a subway map, but this was lying around my studio from another project, so on it went!

  

The girly gifts also have recycled kraft paper as their base and they're jazzed up with some rich berry colored satin ribbon, old sheet music and vintage buttons.

The lovely rosette on this package (for my mum) is from a kit very generously sent to me by my blogging buddy, Donna Vere.

I still have piles more to do - I wonder if they'll be as pretty as these ones?  How's your Christmas wrapping going? If you've posted any cool ideas or pictures on your blog, feel free to leave a link in the comments. 

Happy Wrapping!

Ali

Treasury Love

I feel so fortunate to have had my items in lots of treasuries last week and it's hard to pick just a few favorites, but here they are:

The first features my Vintage Map Photo Album and was created by Gail of Vintage Funkery.

The second is also a travel treasury and is so classy looking. It was created by Stephanie Farley and includes the vintage postcards I have listed.

The third is a fantastic map treasury - I absolutely adore all these map products.  It was created by Dee and includes my Mini Map Photo Albums. 

And finally, I just love this clean and simple holiday treasury created by Boston photographer, Jillian Audrey. She included my Mini Holiday Journal in her beautiful list.

Check out more fantastic Etsy treasuries here - they are always sooo inspiring!

Free Vintage Santa Images

I stumbled across some gorgeous vintage Santa images today online, so I thought I'd share the love.  Please visit each website/blog, leave a little thank you and respect their copyright/usage requirements - thanks :)

 Magic Moonlight Studio

The Graphics Fairy

Ceremony

517 Creations

Have fun!

Ali

Holiday Gift Guides

I've been featured in a couple of gift guides recently and I figured I'd share them here because they contain some gorgeous gifts - my list is as long as your arm now :)

I was thrilled to find my Mini Holiday Journal in Discover Paper's Holiday Gift Guide:

Jennifer from Just Call Me J kindly included my music notebooks in her lovely gift guide.

How's your holiday shopping going?  I'm pretty much done, but none of my packages are mailed.  I have to send two to the UK, one to Sweden and one to New Zealand.  I don't think they'll arrive in time, but my family is used to my last minute ways by now!

Happy shopping!

Ali

First Craft Fair

I was flat out all last week preparing for my first craft fair - it was so much work getting enough inventory ready, but the fair itself was a lot of fun!   It was held at my local country store, Clover Farm Market.  And when I say local, I mean local - I can walk there in 30 seconds!

I took a couple of ho-hum pictures of my table:

I made great sales for my first show and met some wonderful people.  There's such a difference between connecting with customers in person and online.  I enjoy both, but they're certainly very different experiences.

The thing I enjoyed the most about the show was connecting with the other artisans there.  I shared a table with my friend and talented local author Chris Lindemer.  She has a cool video preview of her new book, The Night of Many Lights, on YouTube.  Here are some links to some other fabulous and talented ladies that I met:

Jennifer Samson Rhodes from Basket Weaving Supplies  Her baskets are to die for - I have my eye on several of them!

Local photographer Lori Sullivan - one of her calendars will have pride of place in my office next year!

I purchased some lovely vintage earrings for my daughter from Gracie's Vintage - I can't wait to give them to her!

Check out the gorgeous vintage wares and beautiful scarves at Erin Boylen's store, Studio 8789.

Hope your holiday preps are going well - I'm totally behind, but at least we got our tree up today :)

Ali

Vintage Paper Holiday Inspiration

I have some inspiring vintage paper projects to share with you today.  Check out these beautiful holiday ideas:

Becky Shander created these fabulous vintage cooker cutter ornaments.

Darcy Tidd created this fantastic vintage paper tree based on a tutorial on the Martha Stewart site.

I found this fantastic origami creation on Mistybliss' Flickr feed - isn't it amazing!

Jeanne Oliver created these charming baubles with vintage paper and a healthy dose of glitter for Flea Market Style magazine. 

Finally, check out these beautiful Christmas tree tags created by Vicki from It's a Stamp Thing - I just love those rusty bells!

Happy holiday crafting!