Birthday Tin

A dear friend just had a birthday (well, more about that later).  She is always so kind and generous to me I wanted to try to do something special for her....

So, I made her an altered tin -- hers is the bottom one -- I put the altered Altoid tin in for scale.
And, it's summer and I like flowers so that's the theme.

The process...
I found the larger tin was actually easier to work with than the Altoid tin. I used a Cavallini tin that once held stickers....
And, again I will say wallpaper works great, 

Here is the bottom of the tin......

And the inside (bottom) has a vintage postage from the wonderful Vintage Paper Fair...

Inside of the top half with a teeny little envelope..

I cut tags with a Sizzix die cut machine using vintage postcards and added sari ribbon..

I brought a bag of rosebud tea back from Morocco and decided to add a few tiny rosebuds...they still smell good..

I thought she could put jewelry inside....or tiny treasures...or just leave it as it is.

In keeping with the whole flower theme....I buy edible flowers ($2!) at the farmers market every week.....you'd be surprised how many things you can put them on....I put them on top of chilled ginger carrot soup yesterday and.....

....I put them on top of the lemon squares I made for my friend.......pretty...

My sentiments exactly!
Repurpose, reuse -- make things and have fun. 

The funny thing is (I hope she thinks it's funny) the birthday celebration was exactly one month late! I had the wrong date in my mind. That will teach me -- I have now written the correct date down for next year. I hope she had fun and liked her belated presents....
I loved that tin so I need to find another Cavallini tin and make one for myself now.

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Give Me Your Tired and Tattered....

I really don't know what those people with those scanners are looking for when they are running around the library book sales....but I know what I'm looking for...
the oldest and most tattered books who need homes and love.
I bet you can tell which ones I picked out.

Yup, I got six books today for only $1 each and they are all over 100 years old. I just can't believe it...so cool.

I can just picture the little kids who learned spelling from this old beauty...

And this, a reader for a new reader, who is now long gone.

Who doesn't like birds?

And, don't tell Trump, but today was Russia Day at the library sale. There were dozens and dozens of books in Cyrillic .... so cool. They too were over 100 years old and tattered and mended and falling apart and wonderful.

A rubber stamp from a Russian bookstore in SF?

Will I tear this up? haven't decided yet. For a while, they will sit in my studio and I will just admire the fixed and aged pages....

Look at the hand sewing on the spine of that book (and not too neat)but lovingly mended) and passed along...

And then we had the delightfully lurid noir paperbacks...

How this those books get from Russia to SF? And how did this one get from NYC to SF? The stories they could tell.

Interesting to mail artists...but I left it for someone else to find and love. I like my books very old and worn....
So, that was today. Since the shots I posted on Instagram were such a hit I figured you guys who read the blog might really enjoy seeing a little more detail.

And, did I mentioned the big farmers market is right next door to the library?
TOMATOES
That's all I'm going to say....

PDX Altered Book

This post has A LOT of photos so grab an adult beverage, or any kind of beverage you want (Smith Tea in PDX is suggested as well) and settle down for a look at the finally complete Portland altered book.
Maybe I should have broken this up into two posts because there are a lot of photos but....I didn't.... and I am not showing all the pages in the book (nor are they in order)..

I took photos in PDX (of course!) and I'm not one to just leave photos on my  phone. And I picked up lots of paper ephemera while there thinking I'd use it in my altered book....The vellum above is from some large sheets I bought at ScrapPDX -- and it is maps of Portland. Love the pages I made with that...
I cut up various file folders from ScrapSF to make pages like the pink one. I love TABS, either on the side of the book or up top.

I like my altered books FAT and this one almost doesn't close. I will either punch a hole and add sari ribbon to close it or use a wide, arty rubber band I got at Daiso.

Background on this is a paper bag....

I just folded the Kachka menu in half and added it in....(highly recommended  if you visit PDX).

Happily I didn't need any Pickle Juice, either at Kachka or on my trip to Russia.

I also added some Portland travel ads from 1950's National Geographics. Gee, if I took that Domeliner from PDX back home to SF I could have bought more stuff.

Hotel deLuxe

I love room service!

I made several pages with little pockets......I love tucking things inside...

Another pocket with an Oregon postcard tucked inside....

Here I added a vellum envelope with some mail art from my PDX pal Karen...

Miss Polly!

Night out after the PDXCC meeting....

Another night out and another place I recommend...

PDXCC Mail Art Meeting
I added quite a bit of mail art inside the book from the Portland folks....

YOU BET I WILL!!!!!

Fabulous visit and it's nice to have this little book to pick up and look at and remember all the fun I had with the lovely people in PDX.
So, pick up an old book and tear off the covers. Punch holes -- add rings and you are good to go.
It is fun to figure out all the different things you can use to make pages-- maps, bags, file folders, vellum....You can make a book from a weekend away or a longer trip....it is fun.

Are you going to do it?
Sorry this was so long but I wanted to show you some pages.....Is that drink gone yet?
The better get busy making...

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