Free Printable January 2014 Art Calendar, How to Age New Paper and Add Vintage Charm

Welcome to all our Past and New Visitors and Happy New Year!

January 2014 Art Calendar Printable Gift
How to Age and Distress New Paper
Digital Tutorial Link
Last of the Christmas Samples

I have a beautiful free printable January 2014 Art Calendar Month (update - I changed it to a blank so it works for other months and years). I'm thrilled with the way it turned out as I had to cut it all apart and piece it together so it could fit on a 8.5" x 11" page.  The original had 2 months from a 1902 calendar on a 2 page spread and was so damaged I changed it to black and white so you can print it on any color of light paper as it will be fun to color. Please email me a sample if you make one!

Just left click it on with your mouse to get it as large as possible and right click it to save it to your computer.  You can also get our other 2014 Free Printable Calendars here and each year we update them. 

Update - Look at these amazing samples by our DT Ladies I had to come back and add here! 

We have so many new customers that love vintage styles but they want some tips and ideas on how to get the charming vintage appeal when they use our images but may only have new plain card stock or they wrong color paper. So I wanted post some cheating tips and tricks on how to age new paper and create shabby appeal with your projects.

These 2 pages of tips are from 2005 but they still apply today, there are just more supplies to choose from.

You can do many things to age new paper as listed here, but people usually add color with ink, paint, dye, coffee, etc. or remove some color and distress by sanding, crumpling and tearing.

Our 7 Vintage CD's all include printable Papers and many of the designs have a distressed vintage style you can print on paper, card stock, fabric and more, so you have more flexibility and can re-print your fave patterns and images.

 12 Distress Supplies You Can Buy at Dollar Stores.

1. Metal Rasp (heel callus remover)  for distressing
2. Sanding Block Sponge and package of Mixed Grit Sand Paper, 
3. Heavy Duty Emory Board - great for sanding edges of paper you glue to chipboard
4. Pattern Tracing Wheel (cheap type have sharper teeth) to add faux stitching to card stock, chipboard. 
5. Acrylic Paint and Foam Brushes (some stores even have decent bristle brushes)
6. Plaster Joint Compound to use with stencils
7. Bulk Make Up Wedge Sponges and Eye Applicators.  
8. Coffee Filters in white or natural - dye, chalk or ink to create flowers to fairy skirts
9. Crepe and Tissue Paper - also accepts color well, stamp, sew, make ruffle garlands and more.
10. Paper Lace Doilies-  use white or spray with Glimmer Mists, add to cards or decoupage
11. Mini Fake Flowers - pull apart, toss plastic bits, ink, layer petals, add a gem or button center for low cost floral embellishments
12. Surfaces to Alter - if you like altered art projects look for $1.00 plates, trays, journals, tins, jars and more that you can alter.

Here's a link to DT Member Vicki Chrisman's Flower Tutorial, Ruffled Egg  and Tissue Candles
and Stamping on Crepe Paper (but our Artsy Banner Stamp Set sold out and is now Digital)  

Adding Layers can be one of the most important tips for adding creative charm to many projects. You can use a variety of papers and textures like matting, die cuts, lace doilies, paper piecing, machine or hand stitching, flowers, gems, glitter, ribbon and more like this Sewing Journal by past DT Member Melissa Bove using paper and images from our CD 7 Sew Decorative

6 Vintage Bling Supplies to Look for at Thrift Stores, Fleas and Garage Sales.

1. Used Jewelry, earrings, beads, broaches, crystals, etc
2. Buttons, flowers, measuring tapes, miniature novelties
3. Ephemera from game pieces to tickets
3. Doilies, Hankies, lace, trims, vintage fabric
4. Keys, watches and parts, hardware
5. Old Paper - Sheet Music, Sewing Patterns, Old Books
6. Items to Alter!  You can transform items from tiny frames to jumbo furniture.

Look at this vintage book DT Member Vicki Chrisman altered to hold annual Christmas cards, letters and photos

DT Member Sheila Rumney used paint on this piece of wall art she made using our Bird and Blosson Scraps, photo from Vintage Photo Scraps with some twigs and a little nest.

Here's 3 pages I made for a Valentine booklet using our Heart to Heart Digital Stamp Set  
I used chalks and also painted on some Glimmer Mist using a brush

If you are inking or dying paper you can also do some embellishments so they match like the seam binding and flower below on this pretty card by DT Member Kathy Clement
Kathy used our Vegetable Garden Digital Set   Look how she's cut out the dragon fly she colored and added it 3D.

Here's a sweet card by LovelyLindaCrafts in Australia using the tulips on the inside of our Calendar Scraps - on sale now for 99 cents!

Here's a last round of Christmas samples and these next 2 adorable cards are by Guest Designer Jeanne Jachna using our Retro Christmas CD

Jeanne has a real talent for adding the most wonderful bows and embellishments. You can see more of this cute card on her Blog

Love this Santa card by Michelle Kovack and pretty flower she made using some text paper

Here's a pretty Victorian style Christmas ornament by DT Member Kathy Clement using CD 6 Creating With Vintage Christmas

Lastlty, I will leave you with a Digital Tutorial by Sheila Rumney showing how your can make text stand out. You can see over 100 Tutorials in our Pintrest Folder.

 I hope you have a fantastic New Years!  
I will be back later this week with some new Digital Stamp Sets

PS - If you would like to get updates for this Blog you can add your email address to the Feedburner box on the top right side.
Thanks so much for your support and feedback, it's truly appreciated!
 
Sandy Redburn
Crafty Secrets

Visit Our CraftyVintageGirl.com  Store
Join Us on Facebook!

This Blog: http://heartwarmingvintage.blogspot.com
Our Website: http://www.craftysecrets.com
Toll Free Phone or Fax 1-888 597-8898
Local Phone 604 597-8817

Crafty Secrets Head Office
15430 78 A Ave.,
Surrey, BC V3S 8R4

USA Warehouse
250 H. Street, #436
Blaine,WA 98230

Festive, Healthy Holiday Treat Ideas, New printable Chalkboard Paper and Great DT Samples

Hi Everyone,  

Festive and Healthy Christmas Treat Ideas
New Printable Chalkboard Paper Set 99 cents
Pretty Birthday and Christmas Cards by Our DT ladies
Shipping Apology and Shopatron Store Closing

If you're looking for last minute ideas on how to make your holiday treats more festive without all the fat and sugar often found in recipes, here are a bunch of great ideas that are more healthy, fun and tasty!  Due to my growing 'middle age spread' and hubby's diabetes we've been on a mission to eat healthier, more real food and I started a Yummy Healthy Pintrest Board with fave recipes.

Here are the links for the Christmas Treats  1 and 2. Lay Flat Veggie Trees at Fancy Edibles 3. Strawberry Santas at Jeanette's Healthy Living.   4. Cranberry Margarita at Cupcaketini  5. Baby Jesus Bread by Prunillefee.canalblog  6. Chocolate Dipped Cherries at Simple Provisions  7. Olive Penguins at Once Upon a Plate  8. Fresh Fruit Present at The Flying Tortoise  9. Fun Pancakes and More at Fancy Edibles   10.  Cranberry Pistachio Brie at Gimme Some Oven  11. Pita Bread Trees at Betty Crocker  12. Cream Cheese Present at Spoonful  13. Standing Christmas Trees at Fancy Edibles

Our chalkboard paper is finished and I changed it to 12" x 12" size which offers more versatility so you can crop or shrink the size for cards or create big projects like large signs and scrapbook pages. I made this layout of my nephew Kason quickly with no fancy techniques using the black and green chalkboard paper with a bunch of ephemera from CD 3 which I cropped, reduced and added in layers  I typed the title, tilted it and changed it to white.

If you missed my previous post and Tutorial on How to Turn Digital Stamps into Chalkboard Style Designs there are a bunch of photos and I hope my explanation was easy to follow using the free www.getPaint.net program

Our CD 3 Creating With Vintage Typography has more papers and PNG lettering that work well with the chalkboard paper but many digital lettering and design stamps will work if they are PNG files.

I've always loved this layout by our digital designer Cindy van Koll using CD 3 so thought I would share it again as I used it for inspiration when I made my quick digital chalkboard layout above

Here's a pretty birthday card by Vicki Chrisman using an image from our Garden Scraps  with papers from CD 1, Creating with Vintage Patterns

These little children from our Winter Wishes Digital Stamp Set are one of my favorite images with their sweet faces and I love how DT Member Michele Kovack colored and assembled this sweet card with the layers and faux snow.

DT Member Darlene Pavlick used tag images from CD 6 Vintage Christmas as the focal point on a couple of last minute Christmas cards and the punched snowflakes are a quick way to add some 3D embellishments.

How about this adorable card by DT Member Kathy Clement using 1 of the 4 printable postcard backs from CD 6 Vintage Christmas, plus image of kids from Christmas Scraps.
The way she sewed on the paper and added glitter to the sky and mini lights looks fabulous.

 I came back to add Kathy's Santa Easel Card which I some how missed seeing and it's amazing!  Images from CD 6 Creating With Vintage Christmas 

 Sorry if Your Order Was Delayed!  Some of you know Shelley, our shipper in our USA warehouse has been finishing her third round of chemotherapy for breast cancer and has been unable to work regular hours with treatments and her other job. She is feeling better and just got a new job with health benefits. So I'm sad she will be leaving but we need someone who can work 4 days a week as it's been so busy trying to get across the border from from here in Canada. Extra gifts are being added to orders and we working to get back on track.

Our Big Sale Continues with all most printed items and Clear Art Stamps on sale 50% off the original price (except for CD's and digital downloads).
I'm Closing the Shopatron Online Store as we can't list digital downloads and most of the links on our blog are re-directed but many old links on other sites go there so please order from our www.craftyvintagegirl.com online store which has lower pricing and specials.

 I hope you are enjoying the holidays and have a wonderful weekend!

PS - If you would like to get updates for this Blog you can add your email address to the Feedburner box on the top right side.

Thanks so much for your support and feedback, it's truly appreciated!
 
Sandy Redburn
Crafty Secrets

Visit Our CraftyVintageGirl.com  Store
Join Us on Facebook!

This Blog: http://heartwarmingvintage.blogspot.com
Our Website: http://www.craftysecrets.com
Toll Free Phone or Fax 1-888 597-8898
Local Phone 604 597-8817

Crafty Secrets Head Office
15430 78 A Ave.,
Surrey, BC V3S 8R4

USA Warehouse
250 H. Street, #436
Blaine,WA 98230

Tutorial on How to Turn Digital Stamps into Chalkboard Style Designs and Cool DT Samples!

Hi Everyone, I'm so excited that I tried my chalkboard idea and it works!  Now this may be old news to some people but I never tried turning our plain black digital designs into white on a chalkboard background until last night and look how cool it looks!  Imagine these designs from our Photo Studio Digital Stamp Set on the corner of a dark photo or you could make cool photo mats and scrapbook pages. 

/

 I decided to do a tutorial and used our Christmas Wishes Digital Stamp Set.  I made the instructions super basic so anyone can try it. I used Photoshop Elements but Paint.net from www.getpaint.net is a FREE Image Editing Program that supports PNG files and has a INVERT Tab, which you need to be able to invert the designs to change them from black to white. PNG files just means that the lettering or design is cut out and transparent so you can place it on a dark background and invert each design to change them to white. All of our digital stamps are PNG files (which open just like a regular jpg). 

Now we need chalkboard backgrounds - UPDATE: available now with both with black and green 12" x 12" papers for .99 cents for the set in our craftyvintagegirl.com store. The 12" x 12" size offers more versatility so you can crop or shrink the size for cards and tags or create big projects like large signs and scrapbook pages! 

To turn black digital stamp designs into white on dark backgrounds like this chalkboard paper just follow the instructions on these sample shots. Basically you just need to 'invert' each stamp design when you place them as shown below.

It's easy to do and remember - if you make a mistake just go under EDIT and click on the BACK Button. Nothing is permanent until you save it - but be sure to give your project a new name so you don't loose your plain background.

 You can see on this close up shot it really has the chalkboard look

 You don't have to have a chalkboard background, you can use any dark color, or you can do it the opposite way and place all your black images on a white background and simply click on the INVERT Button (located under the FILTER TAB on the top and then the INVERT is on the drop down menu). After you invert it you may want to play with the contrast 

 If you do it using the above method you will get a really black background which may be perfect for some projects but I love the chalkboard look which is so trendy right now. 

 Here's the same Card Front and Back on the Chalkboard background to compare

Then I used some of the PNG designs from our CD 3, Creating With Vintage Typography.  You can see the INVERT Tab on the Drop Down Menu.

   Gee - can you tell I'm excited and want to play? My head is spinning with ideas!

I would really love to know what you think of this idea and if you have ever used this technique?  It seems so much easier and less fool proof than messing around with white ink and getting a perfect stamped image - especially when using large size designs like these.

Now you have to check out DT Member Sheila Rumney's New Tutorial Using Clipping Masks and see how to add a pattern background to lettering!It looks so great and I had no idea you could do this either.

Also, look at this adorable Christmas card by DT Member Vicki Chrisman using an image from CD 6 Vintage Christmas

Plus, here's a cute card by DT Member Cherry Nelson using an image from our Christmas Creative Scraps

PS - If you would like to get updates for this Blog you can add your email address to the Feedburner box on the top right side.

Thanks so much for your support and feedback, it's truly appreciated!
 
Sandy Redburn
Crafty Secrets

Visit Our CraftyVintageGirl.com  Store
Join Us on Facebook!

This Blog: http://heartwarmingvintage.blogspot.com
Our Website: http://www.craftysecrets.com
Toll Free Phone or Fax 1-888 597-8898
Local Phone 604 597-8817

Crafty Secrets Head Office
15430 78 A Ave.,
Surrey, BC V3S 8R4

USA Warehouse
250 H. Street, #436
Blaine,WA 98230

Christmas Image Deal, Sexy Numbers and Retro Christmas Digital, Congrats and Doily Table Runners!

 Hi Everyone,   I have a great deal - I just wish I had discovered this case of images in our USA warehouse earlier.  We found a bunch of Christmas Postcard Images - but we are sold out of the mini stamp set and chipboard that went with it.   Named Christmas Images Bundle, the package will include 3 of each of the 6 large designs (18 total in 5.5 x 3.5" size) and 36 of the small shapes (on 12 sheets total) for $2.50 - or FREE with any order over $15.00 until Jan 1, 2014.

See sample ideas and details below. You could create a great garland, ornaments and worth stashing for next year!

 I added our Retro Christmas Digital Download to our store yesterday but didn't have time to do the blog post.  You can print these on 8.5 x 11" paper or card stock over and over and crop and re-size them to make little charms or enlarge them.  Adorable and only $1.95.

Here's a set of 3 lovely cards Vicki made previously using paper from our CD 1, Creating With Vintage Patterns.

 Sexy Numbers has also been turned into a Digital Stamp Set Download but there are a few Clear Sets left

Here's a idea sheet with past samples. I'm sure our Design Team ladies will play with the digital set as everything is larger and more fun to color! The numbers are 2" high at 300 dpi and 3" high at 200 dpi which will still print fine.

 I noticed it was DT Member Michele Kovack 300th CraftySecrets post when I saw this sweet card she created with our Winter Wishes Digital Stamp Set!   Thanks Michele for showing off our digital stamps so well and showing you can use them with Copic Markers and make beautiful cards!  

 You can see details on Michele's blog and read her wonderful reminder to stop and count your blessings - even when life feels hectic like this time of year! See the full 300 sample Crafty Secrets Gallery. Whew - that's a lot of samples, Vicki must be the only one to beat that.

I also love this Snow Globes card Michele made last year and how she frosted it

Here's another one I spotted that she made with our Snow Globes set, now a Digital Set

I spotted this cool Snow Globe card by Marie-Alice at Splitcoast and love how she created the design!

These 3 little kids off our Winter Wishes set are one of my favorite designs and Marie-Alice made this card last year but I wanted to show it because I love the pretty pastel colors she did their jackets in and non-Christmas paper used but it all works beautifully. You can see the Splitcoast Crafty Secrets Gallery

We had one of our designs make the front cover of the Country Register Newspaper in the Manitoba and Saskatchewan Edition.  The  Country Register newspapers can be found throughout the USA and Canada in a network of independently owned and published specialty bi-monthly free newspapers for the consumer who enjoys unique gift stores including country, garden, antiques, craft and sewing shops. You can discover bed and breakfast places, tea rooms, local calendar events and classes. They also have articles and recipes.

Many of you have die cutting equipment and if you're making your own Christmas tags I wanted to show you these gift tags past DT member Marisa Grosson cut using her Spellbinders Scallop Nestabilities with images from our Christmas Booklet.

I also love this idea Vicki Chrisman did previously on how to turn a non-Christmas design into the holiday spirit just by the colors of paper you use and how she paper pieced these little outfits and turned them into Christmas fairies.  Our Born to Fly is now a Digital Stamp Set so you can easily print the fairy girls on light paper for their bodies and on colored paper and cut out the outfits.

Lastly,  I wanted to share this table runner idea that Country Living Magazine originally showed with their Decorate with Doilies post and it inspired a bunch of great doily table runners!  

Drat - I just sold a bunch of doilies at our last show but they always have great prices at our little thrift store.  Here's the links: 1. AshleyAnnPhotography  2. Michelle at VintageJunky  3. Pam Garrison 4. Tammy from GirlsWearBlue. 

 What do you think, do you like them or are they too fussy?


Thanks so much for your support and feedback, it's truly appreciated!
 
Sandy Redburn
Crafty Secrets

Visit Our CraftyVintageGirl.com  Store
Join Us on Facebook!

This Blog: http://heartwarmingvintage.blogspot.com
Our Website: http://www.craftysecrets.com
Toll Free Phone or Fax 1-888 597-8898
Local Phone 604 597-8817

Crafty Secrets Head Office
15430 78 A Ave.,
Surrey, BC V3S 8R4

USA Warehouse
250 H. Street, #436
Blaine,WA 98230