New Archive of Vintage Images

We're squealing with delight at the news of another repository of copyright-free images from old books.  See them all here.  It's a Flickr stream with an astounding 2.6m antique images, called Internet Archive Book Images (full web address: https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/with/14784850762/).

It is an invaluable resource for historical information no doubt, but for all of us vintage-ly inspired folk, this is also an amazing source of inspiration.  Thank you to all those involved in the uploading and curating of such a wonderful and important collection.

Sweetly Scrapped

Today we'd like to introduce you to a lovely shop we found on our web travels - Sweetly Scrapped.

Run by Emily from across the pond in the US, it offers a fabulous selection of scrapbooking goodies as well as a freebie section of images for download which are free for personal use.  We love the tags which we will definitely be using together with our handmade gifts for upcoming birthdays:

Cuuute!

Tieta Loves Cheese - A Tutorial on Magnets

My Tieta Carme loves her cheese.  Tieta, is Catalan for an auntie, a familiar form derived from the word 'tia' (aunt), connoting that she is someone that you are quite close to.   I am.

It was always a family ritual that when any one of us went away somewhere far from home we would bring back a souvenir for everyone, and she got either cheese or make up, but usually cheese.  Even when I was quite small and used to come to London as an unaccompanied minor with my red Iberia bib bag with all my worldly paperwork stuffed into it, I remember going back with a selection of British cheeses for her...   In those days when I was the souvenir recipient I was much keener to get the odd airport toy or sheet of stickers myself, but now I have moved to the cheese side, and I totally get her.  

I recently discovered that there's a universe full of people out there who collect vintage French or Swiss cheese labels for fun.  Well I jumped onto that bandwagon sooner than you can say reblochon, and found a wonderful seller of quirky graphics, Harmonica Godlfish who had just the images I had in mind. Do check out the shop - it is pretty magical. 

So in honour of my favourite tieta, I made some cheese label magnets to adorn her fridge.

Resizing the images to fit the 25mm trays was a bit of a technical pain in the proverbial, but we got there.  I printed out a sheet full, and cut them to size using a craft punch.  Then I coated the images with a bit of hairspray (here Sainsbury's value range, cheap as chips).  They were laser prints on good thick paper and I was going to be using epoxy resin stickers, so not crazily worried about the inks running here, but still.  One precaution won't hurt.

When dry, I glued the self adhesive epoxy stickers over the top of the images.

I had already cut the images and centering the sticker correctly was nowhere as difficult as I'd envisaged (normally I stick first and then cut the image around the sticker).

Then I ModPodged some blank cabochon settings, and popped the domed images into those, wiping away any excess out of the sides.

Inspect your work.  Be pleased at how pretty it turns out.  My fingers were stained from a previous project, I do normally wash my hands but that black paint proved a nightmare to clean.  Thank the world of science for surgical spirit which removed most of the mess!

I have recently come across some fantastic self-adhesive neodymium magnets, which means they are very strong, but they come with an equally strong sticker that you just peel off and attach to wherever you need.  They will be in the shop shortly. 

And they went onto the backs with a pretty neat finish (unlike every other time I have used glue and made a humongous mess of the backs)

I like the way they click together...

Hey, I'm easily amused.  Even now I can still have great fun with a magnet, much like my five year old does.

Magnets are finished.  I love these so much, I'm going to make a set for myself.  And maybe for all my cheese loving friends, and perhaps for an ex-boss I am still in touch with, whom we used to call 'le grand fromage'.  Apt, methinks. 

But these, these are for tieta.  x

These are oval-ly good!!

I've long debated with myself whether I liked ovals as a shape - and after seeing these...  I do!!  I have big plans for these babies - the connectors are going to go in a ready-to-make bracelet kit, and the pendants - well, let's say Christmas planning came early at our house!

Connectors in antique silver...

....and antique bronze

Ornate pendants in antique bronze (and silver!)

 And clear glass pieces to fit!

All of which are available in the shop! 

How NOT To Make a Glass Tile Pendant Part 3 - Bubbles

How annoying is this?  You make a beautiful pendant, it is flawless, yet a few days later you notice that bubbles have set under the glass...  grrr.  This was not even an intentional mistake for blogging purposes! This was a piece I made for myself because I love the combination of the ornate vintage bronze tray and the red paper.

The papers were well sealed, and I had coated the tray with ModPodge to avoid the blue rinse.  So what went wrong?  Here is what I think - I set the paper to the tray, and then the glass on top, and generally, you need to glue the paper to the glass first.  I have a sneaky suspicion that because the tray is slightly ridged on the inside, tiny air bubbles were trapped under the paper, which surfaced through the layer of fresh DG under the glass but couldn't then escape because the edges of the DG had already dried.  Just my theory!

I get far better results when I glue the glass tile to the paper first, let this dry, and then attach it to a tray.  Bubbles are definitely less, but one potential problem with doing it in this order is re-soaking the paper from the back, but that can be lessened by using a different type of glue in the tray, such as E6000.  Again I recommend experimenting to work out which method is best for you!

I'm going to keep this piece.  The camera blows up all the little detail but I still like this pendant and it is not that obvious at first glance, so it will be my little flawed piece and I will still wear it!  And ssssshhh, nobody need ever know about the bubbles.  Wanna see a super close up?

 
(Amazing that this would have printed out as an A2 size ...I looove my new camera!!)

How NOT To Make a Glass Tile Pendant Part 2 - the Blue Rinse

The picture says it all...  Just about everything is wrong with this pendant.   A good reminder of what not to do.

First of all, it is pretty obvious that I used far too much Diamond Glaze behind the glass.  In fact, I used too much behind the paper too.  There is so much that it still looks wet, several weeks after making it!

Secondly, the blue...  The whole picture turned blue!! The paper was one of my beautiful Chiyogami papers, bright with reds and pinks and golds.  And now it's just blue.  And this piece of paper was really really well sealed with a hundred layers of ModPodge! Any guesses what caused it?  Yep, the tray.  See the tray is bronze plated?  Bronze and copper platings react with Diamond Glaze and the outcome is that your images will develop a blue tinge.  Sometimes it is a nice blue tinge that can give your images a lovely vintage hue.  This is not in any way nice:

Two things to do here:  deconstruct and re-do!  If this happens to you, just leave the pendant to soak completely submerged in water overnight.  That will soften the Diamond Glaze if it hasn't completely hardened and you should be able to prise the glass off the tray by morning.  Wash the tray and glass thoroughly and dry before using again.  The tray will not discolour if it is completely submerged (as opposed to half-in-half out) and dried afterwards.

Before you use them again, one very important step - when using bronze and copper plated components, ALWAYS seal the trays well - so apply a good coat of ModPodge to all the parts of the tray that will come into contact with the Diamond Glaze and allow to dry.  Then you're all set!

How NOT To Make a Glass Tile Pendant Part 1 - the Runaway Ink

I have made a selection of mistakes to show you and to guide you through the main pitfalls you may encounter whilst practising this craft.  

First whoops:

 

This had the potential to be such a beautiful pendant - as it is, it has lost its sparkle and looks frankly a bit of a mess!  Main issue with this is that the ink on the pretty handmade paper ran like crazy...   If you use handmade papers this is something to watch out for, as the inks tend to run more than on machine printed papers.  And the blues seem to be more susceptible - at least on my Japanese papers.  So this attempt was made on purpose, to show what happens when you use papers directly without sealing them.

You see, Diamond Glaze is water based and it is also very runny - it will soak through most papers and if the inks are not waterfast the Diamond Glaze will grab them and run!   It seems to have even gobbled up the lovely golden details that bordered the flowers before:

And there is only one solution to this problem - seal your papers thoroughly before using Diamond Glaze!

A Vintage Image Feast

Today I thought I would share with you one of my very favourite resources for vintage graphics.  The Graphics Fairy is a blog, nay, a treasure trove of beautiful antique images - curated by the fabulous Karen who very carefully collects them, beautifies them and then generously shares them with the world.

The images are copyright-free for any crafting purpose for fun or profit, though please read the terms of use.

They are organised by category and in the blog you will find all of the vintage themes that you can see in the shops at the moment.

You want birds?
                 

After Eiffel Towers??

How about hearts?  of the anatomical kind of course.  It is after all, well past Valentine's Day.

Insects?  Deer?  Vintage postcards?  Coiffured ladies?? It's all there.
 
And this one will probably never fit in a pendant, but it made me smile - antique paper dolls where you be the hairdresser, and by the looks of it, supreme mood-maker - click on the image for a larger view and you'll see what I mean.

Just think of all the wonderful vintage style projects this amazing blog offers... 

Simply put, it is a thoroughly excellent resource. Thank you Karen!