Some Vintage Style.... The Girl in Me Layout for CSI #63

Hi bloggers!

     Hope you all are having a great week...  I have been very busy with not only everyday life, but getting ready for my sweet little guy Miles to have surgery on his legs.  It is a surgery that has been three years in the making, and finally he is able to get it done!  We have had to do a lot of room switching, furniture buying, bathroom remodeling, and doctor appointments, but I think we are finally ready.  Miles has a genetic syndrome, and has been losing mobility steadily for the last several years.  His team of doctors feel he will do well with this series of surgeries, but there is a long recovery time, so we all have to mentally prepare as well.  Thank goodness I have my mental escape in the form of crafting!!
     I have still been entering challenges.  As you may have figured out by now, one of my faves is CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration...  I am a little behind on my blog here, but here is the case file for the week ending March 24th:

 

     Vintage is really my thing, so I was ever so excited to get this file.  As it happens, making dolls is one of my hobbies, and I had made a mannequin doll not too long ago, so I decided to document my doll hobby featuring that doll.

 

 

 

     I absolute LOVE this layout!!  I converted my pictures from color to sepia, cut them into oval shapes to further emphasize the vintage feel, distressed the edges, painted the edges with Tim Holtz Distress Paint and then misted them.  The result is old, distressted, tattered and messy- just the way I like it!

 

     I want to share these lovely flowers with you... I made them myself, and they are so easy, and look so beautiful!  Anyway, they are made out of a fabric called crinoline... it is a stiff white fabric you can get at your local fabric store.  If you don't know what it is, just ask someone at the store.  It can be die cut or punched.  For the big flowers I used the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die- cut at least 4 layers for each flower, plus one lace layer.  Ink each layer lightly, or spray with mist and let dry.  Stack the flowers and punch a hole in the center... you can use a brad in the center, or stamens, which is what I used (you can find them in the wedding section or cake making section of your craft store).  Once they are glued in and dry, spritz the flower lightly with water, and crinkle tightly in your hand.  Lay aside to dry.  When dry, spread out to desired shape and voila! you have a lovely distressed flower!  For the smaller flower, I used the Spellbinders bitty blossoms rolled flowers die... cut them, ink or spray them, roll them, glue them, and insert tiny pearls in the middle... easy peasy!  Great vintage look for very little cash.... crinoline is about $5.00/yard, and that makes tones of flowers!

 

More handmade flowers, and a Cherry Lynn Victorian Flourish Corner Die...l.

 

 

     So here is another really cool thing... I love, love, love the look of metal, but don't like the expense, or the weight of it on my pages....  I discovered this amazing paint and patina kit from

Ten Second Studio that can make anything look like metal... you can make surfaces look like rusted iron, patinaed bronze, copper or brass... it works on paper, wood, plastic, all sorts of stuff!  Here I cut out chicken wire with a Cherry Lynn die, and used the bronze metallic paint and patina spray... it came out so good!

As always, my journaling is a very important component of my layouts... for this project I wrote:

One of the things that most people don’t know about me is that I love to sew. My mother liked to sew, and in fact made a lot of our clothes when we were growing up.  I wanted to learn how to sew too, so for my 9th birthday, my Nana got me the sweetest little sewing machine. I found I loved to make dolls.  I was especially influenced by the Little House on the Prairie books series by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and I wanted to make rag dolls just like Laura did.  My mom got me a book of doll patterns and I blissfully spent my days creating my new “friends”.  .I recently thought I would make a doll just for fun.  I love everything Victorian and Steampunk, so I decided to make a mannequin doll.  Having had so much fun making this one, I have a feeling I will be making many more new friends in the very near future.

 

Have a great week!