Vintage Photo Gallery Walk

I mentioned recently that I would dedicate an entire post to some of the photographs I purchased at the Allentown Paper Show, simply because I love the images so much, and I think you will enjoy them, too.

I know that in super-old photos, people look stiff and stodgy because they had to stand still for so long for the picture to "take."  But I always thought people looked pretty stiff and posed in the 40s and 50s simply because they wouldn't want to "waste" film on frivolity (unlike today's digital age, when we can take a hundred throw-away shots to get that one perfect "keeper").

Well, I can throw out any misconceptions about THAT!

 (The dealer actually laughed and lost track of his calculations when he saw this one while flipping through my selections!)

I could dream up a whole love triangle storyline for the three people in this photo, couldn't you?

I look at this photo, and think, "This could have been taken of someone last week!"  Certain faces just strike me as MODERN, and make me realize that we're all just PEOPLE, no matter what era we are born into.

Here's another one for my "people holding sticks" grouping, and another modern-looking face:

This woman's work looks pretty humble, but boy she looks pleasant and friendly:

Check out this beauty; I would love to have her hair!

This one is labeled "Senior Trip, 1912."  I don't care if it's high school or college, I can guarantee that kids on their senior trips today look NOTHING like this dapper group!

I find myself paying more attention to the styles of the clothing in the photos I select:

You can tell that this woman is dressed for a special occasion:

I've now see SO many photos from the 1930s of families arrayed in front of their cars:

This photo continues to amaze me:  The woman in the foreground is eating a WAFFLE!  Clearly not something I expect to see captured in a vintage photograph.

These guys are ready for some fun:

And so are these gals:

How about THAT?!

 

I enjoyed some family pics from earlier eras:

And some sweet pictures of young love:

And I leave you with some final photos and snapshots from my collection:

Let's not forget to get some of our pictures developed along the way, so tomorrow's treasure-hunters will have something to find for their collections!





Cabinet of Spooks

I am having my first craft show of the fall season on Saturday, and while most of my inventory is similar to the shows I did last year, I have a new item specially prepared for this pre-Halloween sale.

I call them my Cabinet of Spooks, since I have collaged a selection of vintage cabinet cards with light-heartedly "spooky" elements like hats, wands, and stars.

Cabinet cards are photographic portraits from the late 1800s that were large enough (about 4-1/4 by 6-1/2 inches) to be seen from a display spot in a cabinet in one's Victorian parlor.

I have amassed a nice little collection of these cabinet cards from various sales and auctions, and while I have incorporated one or two into my art journals, I have been hesitant to alter them in any significant way. 

That changed when I saw a feature in the Christmas edition of Country Living magazine this past year, where someone drew reindeer antlers on the dour portrait of a 19th century gentleman.  I loved it!  I quickly chose a sour-faced little woman from my cabinet card collection and gave her a pair of antlers, and she now hangs on the inspiration board above my work table.  I plan to have some more of these available for my future shows nearer to the holidays. 

For Halloween, coming up next month, I thought it would be fun to add some appropriately spooky features, and prop the cards on little wooden easels.  I think they make a humorous addition to your Halloween decor!

Let me know what you think of my Cabinet of Spooks!

Art Journal Every Day: Friday Update!

Every field of arts and crafts has their “rock stars”—the folks that newbies look upon with awe as masters of their trade, and that seasoned veterans recognize and admire as ‘one of their own.’ To me, Julie Fei-Fan Balzer is a scrapbooking/art journaling rock star.

I wish I remember how I first came upon her web site; it was only a few months ago, as I was starting my own blog and art journal at the beginning of this year. I now visit Julie’s site daily for a dose of beautiful art and inspiration.

Today, I’m excited to be a part of her amazing web site, as she is presenting weekly profiles of some of the people who are signed on to her Art Journal Every Day challenge. I hope you will hop on over to her blog to read today’s post!

Now for an update of some of my most recent art journaling!

One of my favorite spreads commemorates my recent weekend vacation in Cape May, New Jersey, with my family.  I glued down a map of the town, and gessoed over the top of it.  Then I used a few shades of blue watercolor over that.

Things started out a little rough, as you may notice that I used the wave stencil at the bottom of the page UPSIDE DOWN from the direction it is meant to be used. I actually “owned” that mistake pretty quickly, and liked the effect of the wave stenciling anyway. And, I reasoned, my “error” makes my page enjoyable from multiple directions!

I used pictures from brochures, as well as business cards I picked up in restaurants where we ate.

And, best of all, I used adhesive photos using my new Pogo printer! I love their small 2x3 size—just the right size to make the page really personal, without turning it into a scrapbooking spread, where the photos would dominate.

Another issue arose when I drew lines around my photos in thick marker, and wrote some journaling with the same thick pen. I couldn’t stand how it looked, and the journaling seemed superficial and boring. So, I took the word of all those journaling experts I keep reading, and I painted right over the parts I didn’t like! Then I had a clean slate to re-draw my lines and re-write my journaling with an ultra-thin black pen, which is very much my preference. Catastrophe averted!

Another spread I completed reflects my thoughts on indulging in a little TOO much introspection:

My long-necked girl (learned from Violette’s Journal Bliss) didn’t come out quite as attractively as I might have hoped, but I like the bold lines, dots, and lettering on the rest of the spread. You have to make confident lines if you’re going to use Sharpies on gesso!

My Mother’s Day spread used my stitched butterflies, which I posted about earlier when I used them on a card from my mother.

On the opposite side, I used collage, stamping, and journaling to tell about my special day.

Of course, I had to have at least one page with some tangles.

The difference here is that I used a chisel-tip Sharpie instead of my usual ultra-fine tip…a different experience altogether, and kind of fun!

Thank you for checking out some of my art journaling progress! If you would like to see other journalers who are participating in Julie’s Art Journal Every Day challenge this month, you can find a list on her web site.  There are 101 participants for May!

Have a great weekend.  I’m off to Atlanta to meet my three-month-old twin nephews, while my husband stays home to watch the girls. I expect we’ll all be a little worn out by the time Sunday evening rolls around!

The Weekend in Pictures

This past weekend, while celebrating my cousin's wedding in Columbia, South Carolina, I enjoyed a deliciously solitary Saturday morning. I sat in the memory garden where my grandparents' ashes are buried, in a space between my uncle's house and the mobile home where my grandparents lived for the last decades of their lives. I updated my Facebook account (first things first, of course), listened to the wind chimes, and worked on a spread in my art journal:

Then, with only fifteen minutes to spare before I was due to have lunch with a dear friend whom I had not seen in 28 years, I grabbed my camera and made a mad dash around my uncle’s property, looking for interesting details, scenery, and “photo opportunities.” I have debated all week with myself about including the photos in my blog, since (as I’ve noted previously) I am a terribly amateur photographer without the sense to set the settings on a simple point-and-click digital camera. I am sure that with more experience and study, a better camera, and a knowledge of PhotoShop, these photographs could have been truly amazing. But in the interest of my theme for the year, Begin, I will start where I am now, and share what I came up with!

My first picture is intended to capture the kind of sadness of staying at my grandparents' house now that they are no longer alive. I took some pictures of the now-empty rooms inside the house, but I thought the dried-up plant on the front porch captured the spirit of what it was like to be back even better:

The statues in the memory garden were both beautiful and a little bit haunting:

There are no more willing models than my aunt and uncle's horses. They were lying on the ground relaxing when I started across the yard, and I was hoping to catch them at rest before they noticed me. No such luck, but I think I got an even better photo of this horse in the process of standing up:

Some more images of my "willing models":

My aunt and uncle had all sorts of interesting "country" details and photo opportunities on their property:

And one final photo, in the interest of living the creative life: Do YOU have a crocheted brick in YOUR home? Well, perhaps you should! This one acts as a door stop and displays my grandmother's initials:

A crafty classic!

I welcome your feedback on my shots, as well as any advice that has helped you take better photos. Though I am not quite prepared to make a thorough study of photography just yet, I am happy to learn from any tips I might pick up here and there.