Vintage New Year Postcard

All my best wishes for the coming year.
Click for a larger image. Snag it if you want it.

Retro Image Downloads

Tack-O-Rama. Josella shares retro images of all types clipart, fonts, stock photos and ads. She offers CDs of her high resolution "good stuff" at CafePress. Wonderful collections..go see

Click here to say thank you to her.

Vintage Christmas Postcards

Merry Christmas from me to you. I hope you all have happy holidays.
Click for larger versions and use them if you would like.

The Muse; an art zine

The Muse is my favorite online art zine; published by Christine Cox aka The MetalChick of ARTitude Zine. Christine is also the owner of Volcano Arts; the very best in supplies for book and box making, metal smithing and etching. Her metalsmithing articles have more easily understood information than I have seen anywhere.
I had been wondering how to form a rivet from wire and she has an article that leads me to think that I can do it too. Her article Fabricated Metal Charms has step by step how to for this charm.

Alphabet Soup is an article about what she does with license plates and there is also an article on making Pet ID tags. These are just a small sampling of the fun she offers.

Even more fun is perusing her Volcano Arts catalog. The table of contents is the easiest way to see the many items she carries. I want it all but am especially drooling over the miniature bolts, nuts, screws and washers. Look at what she does with them.
Bolts

Screws

Other products on my list are the already cut microscope glass for making charms,the scalpels and blades which I think are the best tools for cutting silhouettes , 2 part snaps and rivets and even chunky bookboard.

Poster printing freeware

Many of you may have figured out that I am not in any way an artist. I do manage to cobble together a way to make things I want. Posteriza is a cool little piece of freeware that is going to be helpful in making patterns and templates for large items. It will print your pictures across multiple pages and also has a text feature if you are making signs or banners.
You don't have to install it. Posteriza works from an .exe. I've just now started to try it and am not sure how it works with smaller images but if I can just have the shapes, however rough, that will be enough. It saves your posters as Posteriza files but in the tools dropdown there is an "Export to jpegs for internet printing" which is what I used.
Here is a screenshot of the program. Click on it to get a better view.

I did rename the saved .jpeg format to .jpg. Here are the pages Posteriza produced. Click for larger versions if you want them.

First Snow

I took this picture of Buddy waiting patiently by the glass door. He loves the snow.

Himalayan Initiation Cards

I have to admit that I don't know what these cards are about but they are beautiful.
After clicking on set and choosing one to view, I chose the non-java view. Each card has a zoom feature and best of all an image size feature that I kept clicking on the larger box and it got larger....I stopped at 1068x1400 pixels. The large size you choose will stay set for viewing each card you choose after that. I rename the files as I save them. It's going to take several visits for me to see it all. Love these.

Image collection

Scrapbooks from Chris Mullen. Browse volumes 1 through 35 filled with "Images you ought to see collected over thirty years"
Each volme has thumbnails that will take you to high resolution versions.
I think I've mentioned this site before but am happy that I revisited it since my tastes have changed since I was last there.
Here is a sampling of some of the things I snagged today. These aren't links to those images so you will have to browse for yourself and see what you like.
I've got a thing for Texas images.

Oh, Boy! Give me a toaster for Christmas.....NOT

I actually think this would make a cool painting.

Women multitask

Christmas Printables

Christmas printables and activities from the French site Tomlitoo
The angels are on the decoration maison 2 page

This cat angel is on the decoration sapin 1 page, Les petizeles.

Really click around the sidebars and you will find something to love.
Printables and activites from Tomlitoo that are not Christmas are here
They look fun and I think I will need more than one trip to explore these.
This great link is from Patricia at Agence Eureka.

Printables from Patricia

My friend, Patricia of Agence Eureka fame, has shared some wonderful jumping jacks, alphabet books and other goodies on another of her picture blogs, Grenouille Plus where she shares her own high resolution scans. If you love to snag pictures, as I do, you should be visiting Patricia often.
Thanks Patricia, I hope you have a Joyeaux Noel.

Is it just me or does any text really look more beautiful in French?

Thank you

I want to thank all of you who were kind enough to leave condolence comments and those who took the time to e-mail. I'm overwhelmed by your friendship.
Maybe you would like to see the rest of my critter family.
Frankie came to us as a kitten last year. Some moron left him and his 2 tortie sisters at the bottom of our hill in a taped up box. His sisters went to live with a friend and Frankie grew to be our "monkey boy". He likes to sleep in the bathroom sink and keep watch over everything from the top of my computer chair. That chair is 20 inches wide. He's a big moose who brings me at least one "gift" a day of a mouse or a mole.

Lulu came with our house. The previous owners just left her here 6 years ago. She is the sweetest, most polite girl. She had never been inside before but is now a bed lounger. She has really blossomed since Meggie passed. Megs was a "Queenie Bean" and really quite horrid to her. Lulu is now my lap cat with her squeaky motor purr.

Buddy was adopted from Animal Control in June of last year. He's a Red Heeler who thinks his job is herding cats. The wonder is that they all get along very well.

Frankie asks for lovies from the dog more often than he asks me.

I think maybe that is enough personal stuff; hope you weren't too bored.
You've been sweet, good friends and I do appreciate your caring words.

Printable paper dolls

Lone Nunnally shares her large collection of paper dolls and invites you to print them.
The collection includes many eras, nations, and types. 92 ppi resolution.
This is Twiggy

I like using printable paper dolls to make ornaments and gift tags. I print on bright white paper, touch them up with colored pencils and pens, glue the clothes on and then scan at a higher resolution. I print them on photo or brochure paper and sometimes an irridescent stock.

Vintage Mickey printables

Page 42 was the page number in the German weekly comic "Micky Maus" where a paper craft could be found.
I downloaded the marionettes of Mickey, Donald and Goofy. (The index only mentions Donald but all 3 were there.) Also an advent calendar from 1976 and some Christmas cards. The pages are zipped .jpgs. There often wasn't a preview to see what I was getting...sort of like opening a present, I smiled with each one.

The Lady's Album of Fancy Work for 1850

"Consisting of novel, elegant and useful designs in knitting, netting, crochet, braiding and embroidery with clear and explicit directions for working the patterns."
From Project Gutenberg.

Vintage Postcards 8

Click pics for larger version.

Bye Baby Kitty

Thanks for sharing your life with me.
Meggie 1987-2005

Crochet snowflake patterns

5 shared patterns from Cheryl Smith.

Printable doll clothes patterns

From Jessica Tromp.

A large library of printable patterns for clothes, shoes and hats in a variety of sizes.
11.8in (30cm)
13in (33cm)
14in (35cm)
15 in (38cm)
15.75 in (40cm)
18 in (45cm)
20 in (51cm)
22 in (56cm)
Site is Dutch with English translations. Jessica provides a translation page for the markings on the patterns.
She also shares knitting patterns for people and dolls. The site is extensive and is a fun browse.

Also look at Free doll clothes patterns
http://meggiecat.blogspot.com/2010/05/free-doll-clothes-patterns.html

Also look at baby clothes
http://meggiecat.blogspot.com/search/label/Baby

Tenniel Illustrations for Alice in Wonderland

from Project Gutenberg.
42 illustrations in gif format, zipped.

Direct download here

Free Redwork Patterns

From redwork.info by Barbara Parrish

Indian textile designs

4to40 Indian children's portal offers a huge coloring book library of Indian textile designs.
Scroll down on the activities page.

Vintage Postcards 7

Costumes
Click for larger versions



This one is my favorite. The larger version is bare breasted.

Paper mache recipes from Proptology

Ronnie Burkett's Papier Mache and Modeling Clay Recipes

Owen Jones 1809-1874

From the University of Wisonsin Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture.
Full facsimiles of The Grammar of Ornament (1856) and Examples of Chinese ornament selected from objects in the South Kensington Museum and other collections (1867).
Jones, an architect and ornamental designer who served as superintendent of works at the Great Exhibition of 1851, was instrumental in the application of chromolithography to book illustration. In his travels as a young man he became fascinated by Eastern forms, and the books he published reproducing these patterns influenced the design of English wallpaper, carpets, and furniture.
The Grammar of Ornament, one of the masterpieces of nineteenth-century color printing, is a systematic presentation of ornamental motifs from the ancient world through the Renaissance. There are several thousand examples; each plate depicts a group with common chronological and geographical origins. The individual plates, lithographed by Francis Bedford, are tied together by a unified color scheme. As the title suggests, Jones intended the work to be used as a practical guide and resource for designers, and the introduction includes a set of principles covering "the arrangement of form and color."
The Grammar of Ornament. 1856

Examples of Chinese ornament selected from objects in the South Kensington Museum and other collections. 1867

The color plates are offered in 4 resolutions. If you want to print them choose the largest page size to save. Look for this tool.