Metal Card embellished with a Gipsy Vintage Image

Each metal card is embellished on both sides. Once all the eyelets have been set and charms added to the piece, the entire collection will be wired together to form a book. The gipsy image is one of my favorites. Once the image was glued to the metal, I added cheese cloth and lace, which were tinted with Gilder's Paste. For an embellishment, I added the cork from the inside of a bottle cap and glued a bead on top of the cork. My favorite card so far. And the final step was Amber Shellac.

Metal Card with lace and receipt

Even an old entry out of a bookkeeper's ledger, can be used as a design element. A piece of lace was laid over the paper.

Metal card with Vintage Fairy

Once the fairy image had been applied to the card, I added scraps of lace, coated in gilder's paste and everything received a coat of Amber Shellac. All embellishments are wired onto the metal piece. A "Crop-A-Dile" is used to punch holes into the metal flashing.

Metal Card with Dancer

One of my favorite RibbonSmyth Vintage Images. Once the dancer had been applied to the metal, I used textile medium to glue a small lace piece at the top of the metal card. Gilder's Paste was added to the lace.

Metal Card with Chanel Quote WIP

All of the metal cards are works-in-progress. Holes still need to be drilled into each piece, then eyelets set in place, in order to add dangles and charms. Chanel Quotes are my favorites.

Metal Card collage with vintage hat

I used Textile Medium to adhere the RibbonSmyth Vintage Image to the metal. First spray the vintage image with light coats of acrylic spray. Once the different papers had been applied to the metal, the piece was coated with Amber Shellac, which makes everything Vintage!

Metal Vintage Image collage

This is a metal card in a series of eight. The focus for each card was a RibbonSmyth Vintage Image. I also used RibbonSmyth Velvet Ribbon for added dimension.

Ecru Shabby Chic Flowers

New Ecru Shabby Chic Flowers ready to embellish crazy quilt blocks, dolls or assemblage work. The flowers come on a 3" wide organza wired ribbon. Clip the flowers from the ribbon and tip with rubber stamp ink, or brush on metallic paints or dyes. Would work well, tipped with Gilder's Paste. Add assorted beads to the center of the flower. Only $1.50 per yard. Can't wait to find time to play with this trim!

Beaded pouch

This is a beautiful pouch that I received,from Stephanie Novatski. I am beyond blessed to have Stephanie in my life, as a friend, and her gifts are treasures. Her blog will inspire! Stephanie made the pouch with lovely Hoffman fabrics and then beaded around the fabric "points". She also made the little tassel beads. She filled the pouch with semi-precious beads. What a wonderful way to make the day extra special. Stephanie, thank you!

Silk Ribbon Dragon

This is a dragon I created for "The New Ribbon Embroidery". Found this piece while continuing the never-ending job of cleaning out the studio. I collect books on Chinese Embroidery. The dragon was adapted from an illustration stitched onto a purse. The dragon is 5"x8". I sketched the dragon onto an orange shot silk fabric. Outlined, over the pencil sketch, with couched gold thread. The inside of the dragon body was filled in with Ribbon Stitches and French Knots,and finished with gold beads.

Hand-dyed Velvet Ribbon

The sheen on this velvet ribbon simply speaks "Victorian". I dyed the ribbon yesterday along with some silk ribbon, using RibbonSmyth Rainbow Dyes. The velvet is Japanese rayon single-face velvet. Velvet instantly grabs the dye. I will keep some yardage for a metal card deck we will be creating next week. And the rest of the yardage will be sold on my Etsy site. The colors are used straight out of the bottle using Victorian Rose, with Olivine and touches of Antique Gold and applied with a pipette. I dye fibers outdoors and let the ribbons air-dry. Then they are heat-set with an iron. I think dyeing ribbon and fibers is intuitive and blissfully relaxing! I'm keeping the spool of ribbon in a basket next to my office computer, that is surrounded with my favorite things, and protected by a 24"x32" photograph of Paul McCartney! A photographer friend sent me the print from a 2003 photo shoot in New York, and "Paul" lives in my office!