Showing posts with label images. Show all posts
Showing posts with label images. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Tisket, Tasket, Berry Baskets


Imagine my delight when I came across three stacks of these vintage berry baskets or boxes that I bought at an estate sale a few years ago. I had put them away in my craft room and lost track of them. They still had the price tag on them. I paid a whopping dollar for 33 baskets!

They have such wonderful character--they've all been used. The metal rims have some rust. The wood has various degrees of staining. Some are warped, cracked and chipped. But, I was able to salvage most of them, using the aged features to create a really sweet bunch of baskets that can be used in all sorts of fun ways.



First, I mixed a grey paint wash using a couple of sample paints I already had. I lightly covered each with the wash. Because of the inconsistent grain of the wood and the random stains they'd acquired over the years, each basket took on a unique look. I love the character the flaws create.



After the boxes dried, I transferred vintage images from The Graphics Fairy onto each one, creating sets of three boxes--each set with its own theme: birds, French and insects.





Berry boxes are versatile enough to use in many different ways. They're great to hold craft supplies or small toys. They look great filled with fresh or dried flowers. They'd also make special hostess gifts.

I'm so berry glad I found these wonderful little baskets.

Make it a great day!
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Saturday, February 18, 2012

Grab These Victorian-Era Images


Some time back, I came across this sad-looking book at an estate sale. The front and back cover are soiled, worn and in generally bad condition. For obvious reasons, this antique was only 50 cents. But, because it contained a number of very nice images, I picked it up.


Back cover

Baby Playmates is an odd hardcover book with no copyright or publishing information inside. Graphic images are pasted inside both front and back covers. In fact, they're sloppily pasted, as if done by children themselves. 

The internet is such a great resource. I was able to learn that the Babyhood Series was published by M.A. Donohue of Chicago in the late 1890s. I wasn't able to learn much more than that, however.

The graphic images are very nice, but because they are printed on cheap paper, aren't the sharpest images I've seen. And, the pages themselves are so brittle, they literally began to disintegrate in my hands as I tried to scan them.

I did want to preserve the images, though, and thought others may find a use for them. So, I'm posting them for use in your projects, if you'd like them. I'm not experienced at cleaning up images and don't have a program specifically for editing photos and images, so you may need to clean them up before you use them.  (One of my goals this year is to learn how to edit images.) 

Just right click on the images below and save them to your computer.

If you can find a way to use any of these, please leave a comment here. I'd love to see what you do with them.

Enjoy  . . .






Make it a great day!
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