This Altered Art style ATC is a mixed media piece, combining paper, ephemera, ribbon, a vintage photo, and digital graphic elements. It definitely has a sort of timeless feel to it, don’t you think?

I have filled each pane of this old shabby window with vintage photos, scrapbook paper, and assorted ephemera to make it sort of a Window to the Past. The upper left pane features of photo of my mother when she was a little girl. It’s one of my favorite photos of her; she’s wearing a dress my great grandmother made for her. The upper right pane features a photo of Nana, my grandmother when she was a young woman. I love how happy she looks in the photo . The lower left pane shows my mom when she was a very little girl, on a boat with Nana (my mom’s mother) and Nana’s mother. Mom was very close to my great grandmother, so I love photos of them together. And the bottom right pane features my mom and her grandmother. My mom is dressed up like the cutest little cowgirl, and she’s holding her grandmother’s hand. I just love that photo.

Here are some larger versions of each window pane so you can see the details a bit better.

Upper Left Pane

Upper Right Pane

Lower Left Pane

Lower Right Pane

This came out looking rather Shabby Chic, which wasn’t exactly my intention since my home decor leans toward country and primitive, but I love it either way.  Nothing wrong with adding a little Shabby Chic flair, right? I love that it’s kind of crusty and old looking. And I love that it was a part of this house in the distant past. This window is going to hang above my couch so I can see it everyday. Just have to get the Hubs to help me hang it!

I started with a small white, enamel bucket, about 2-1/2″ in diameter. In the bottom of that I add a piece of Styrofoam, which I cut to fit. Next I created the topiary, beginning with a reused end of a craft swab (waste not, want not, right?) that I painted green. I stuck on a small Styrofoam ball to the top of it, which I also painted green. Then I hot glued on some craft flowers until the ball was covered, and added a pink satin bow to it too. Then I stuck it into the Styrofoam in the bottom of the bucket.

Then I needed to create the fairy, which started with a vintage photo of a girl. Again I used a discarded craft swab to attach to the back of the photo, which I’d printed on cardstock. Then I used some craft picks to create her wings, which are made of pink tulle and beads. I simply taped those onto the back of the photo. Then I stuck that into the Styrofoam in the bucket as well.

To give weight to the bucket to hold everything in place, I put in glass flat marbles that you can get in any craft store. I have had these sitting around for years and had plenty of them. So I just poured in enough to go to the top of the bucket. They add a neat texture and some shimmer, which I like. They almost look like the tops of bubbles in there. Once those were in place I finished the bucket off by adding a pink satin bow to each side.

The whole thing has a sort of Shabby Chic feel to it, and a vintage touch too. I think something like this would look great as a table decoration at a bridal shower or baby shower or something. But my little fairy is going in my studio so I can see her everyday.

For the first vintage clothespin, I wrapped it first with a piece of scrap lace trim I had in my collection. Then, at the top and bottom edge of the lace, I added a strip of gathered lace trim, to make it look a little more frilly. Then I added a satin rose to the top of the clothespin, and some satin ribbon to the bottom lace edge. Then I just added a magnet to the back. Very shabby chic-looking, don’t you think?

For the second vintage clothespin, I started with a strip of cream-colored burlap to give it some texture. To that, I added a piece of my favorite vintage-looking rose-patterned fabric. And I simply topped that off with a burgundy satin ribbon, and added the magnet to the back.

So basically, these are not only recycled and repurposed vintage clothespins, but they are Altered Art as well. And so fun and easy to make with things I already had on hand in my studio.

I started with a plain white hangtag, which I then used a decorative corner punch on to give it some added detail. Then I used brown ink and a text rubber stamp to create the background, and I distressed the edges with the same brown ink.

I found a vintage photo of a young girl, which I then Mod Podged in place on the tag. Then I added a transparent paper image over the top of the girl photo. This image has the little bird on it and reads Carte Postale at the bottom, which means “postcard” in French. I love the way the photo of the girl looks through this transparent (vellum-type) paper.

For embellishments, I added a crown using a 3D-O to make it appear in relief (raised up from the background) and I added rhinestone gems to the crown. I also added a rhinestone gem above the bird. I added alpha stickers to spell out q-u-e-e-n.  And then I added a pretty flower at the bottom of the tag. I finished it off with some coordinating satin ribbon.

I think the tag itself has a very vintage feel, and a very shabby chic feel as well.

I started with a plain wooden heart, which is about 3″ high. It’s the same wooden heart I used for my Love Altered Hearts project.  I added a piece of teal and cream colored patterned scrapbook paper that I liked. Then I added a vintage photo that I scalloped the edges on.

Next I found a piece of chipboard that had the word Cherish on it, in a metallic teal font. It matched perfectly so I glued that at the bottom of the vintage photo. Then I distressed the edges of the heart a bit with some brown distress ink to give the heart a wee bit of dimension. I also added a teal paper flower, with a rhinestone gem in the center.

To finish this off I added 3 swarovski crystals as my “charms” to the bottom of the heart, one in a teal color, and two in clear. I love the way those look on the heart. They almost give it a shabby chic feel, don’t you think? Oh, and at the last minute I decided to turn this into a magnet so I could hang it on the frig. Love it!

I actually started this with a muslin bag that I grungy’d up with my special grungy sauce mix. I just love the look of grungy muslin, what can I say? So that is what you see on the outer edges of this piece; it serves as the background for the whole collage.

Next I took a plain piece of muslin and did an image transfer onto it using a gel medium. I used a vintage photo of a woman (I’ve named her “Rose”) picking roses outside her window. At first I was irritated that my black and white image came out looking pink in the transfer image, but hey, what’s a gal to do? I just decided to go with it. After that dried I distressed the edges of the muslin, then sewed that onto the grungy muslin bag using black thread. I just like the way the black thread contrasts with the muslin.

Then it was time to embellish, so I took some decorative ivory-colored trim and used that to frame my transfer image. Then I cut off all the edges of the muslin bag–because it wasn’t really a bag anymore once I sewed the image onto it. And the nice part is that the extra layer of fabric from the back of the bag makes the whole collage a bit more firm, which I like. I frayed the edges of the remaining part of the grungy muslin bag. Then I tied 3 paper roses together with a black ribbon and sewed them to the bottom right corner of the collage.

At some point I may use this small fabric collage as part of another bigger project. But I am  happy with it as it is for now. And one fun thing for me on this…there is a flaw in the image transfer, to the right of Rose’s dress, near the bottom. It’s a little white spot that didn’t quite transfer from the photo. But to me, it looks like a little fairy…and I love that!

I started by making the hangtag itself out of some cardstock scrapbook paper that I had a scrap of. It has some great browns, tans, turquoises and white colors, and (lucky me) it also includes faux stitching. So I knew it would be perfect for the challenge.

Next I found a 3-D sticker of a rose that I liked, along with a butterfly die-cut shape I wanted to use. So I stuck the rose to the tag, and then I used a 3-D-O  (which is basically a piece of foam that has sticky on both sides) to stick the butterfly cutout to the tag and have it stick up in relief like the rose.

Then I added some lace trim to the bottom of the tag, to give it a bit more of a feminine touch. And I also added some button brads here and there to add some variety and embellishment to the tag. And I finished it off with a coordinating light turquoise satin ribbon. It almost looks a bit shabby chic to me too, don’t you think? I love how it turned out.

This tag was plain white to begin with, so I first spritzed it with some rose Glimmer Mist to give it some color and texture.  Next I found a vintage photo of a fairy girl that looked perfect for the tag…and her face reminds me of my oldest niece, Nikki, when she was a little girl. So that made it a great choice too. After I adhered that photo I added some baby blue fabric trim along the bottom of the tag, to contrast and complement the pink mist and roses. Then I added a beautiful pink paper flower to the bottom right corner, and it has a hint of glitter on it to give it some sparkle. I also added some dimensional clock element stickers. And I finished it off with some organdy and pink satin ribbon.

Love it!

(Jim Reeves song, It’s Only a Paper Moon)

I just had to start off with the lyrics to the Paper Moon song, since that’s what I heard in my head as I was making this altered bookmark.

The background is a very soft metallic, pastel green, patterned cardstock paper, which I added a decorative bottom edge to. Next I added some coordinating cardstock near the top of the bookmark, to which I stamped on the word Imagine. Next I cut out some pink butterfly wings to turn this vintage photo of a girl into a fairy. Then I adhered them to the bookmark, and added a pink roses sticker, which also has a sprinkling of glitter on it (or is it fairy dust?). I finished the whole thing with a coordinating pink satin ribbon.

I love this little vintage fairy, sitting on her paper moon. Kind of has a teensy bit of a shabby chic flair to it, don’t you think?