starting to dream of spring . . .

Can you blame me?  Good grief, it's been cold here--I know, it's plenty hot
other places, but Ima gonna say it again:  People, it's been cold here!

I'm starting to dream little dreams of spring, just like these two little birdies:

Wouldn't they be cute on a Valentine??? (This N That set)

Handwritten Music and Handwriting Background

At Rogue Redhead Designs the current challenge is Paper Piecing, and as
always, there is a lovely prize of $15 of stamping goodness to be had--and since
there's a sale going on right now, that's even MORE stamping goodness, right?

More weekend challenge fun:
Word Art Wednesday--anything goes (with inspirational/scripture sentiment)
Blogger's Challenge--make your own background paper
CAS-ual Fridays--color blocks
STAMPlorations--feathers
Stempelsonne Challenges--pets or animals

Stay warm (or cool, depending on where you are!), and have a wonderful Sunday!  :)

Vintage Page Designs--spring bird collage

Do you love using vintage papers in your art?  I do, but honestly, sometimes it's a little hard for me to rip into an old book, especially ones with lovely pictures.  And what is it about dictionaries?  I have a stack of dictionaries sitting on our fireplace, and another in the dining room--at least twenty, but I just can't bring myself to tear them apart.

This is where Ali is awesome--her etsy store specializes in vintage ephemera, no reproductions.  Some things Ali has made herself, but she also has sets of wonderful papers all ready for creating--no tearing necessary!

That gorgeous bird page, and the text behind it, came in one of the Vintage Bird Kits.  It was full of wonderful papers, SO many beautiful bird images, and all of them authentic ephemera.  All of the papers  used in this collage, aside from the corners of patterned Glitz, are from VPD, even the tiny tag.  The egg image is from Blockheads, from the Vintage Illustrated Birds set (I use that one a LOT!), but the tag is actually from the VPD packaging:

You can barely see it right here in the corner, but you can see what a lovely package of pretties this is, and that real thought and care went into each set.  I appreciate those extra touches, don't you?  Congratulations to Ali on her new venture;  I'll have several more pieces made from Vintage Page Designs papers to share with you in the next week, and you can find more information and inspiration on the VPD blog.

:)

THE BIRDS

Every spring THE BIRDS come migrating
through--it's a whole cackling cacophonous
chorus when they light in the trees, but as soon as they take flight,
it's SILENCE.

Very weird experience. We love it.