This Vintage Owl Book Plate - A Gift for You - Limited Time

It is a week till my birthday and for a birthday treat I wanted to give you a present.

I've had this wise old owl vintage book plate for a few years and I decided to share it with everyone. This book plate is from about 1925, I would guess.

I created a hi-res pdf so you can download it, print it up (on adhesive paper would be best) and then place in the books you treasure so much.

Did you know Ex Libris means "from the library of" and that book plates bearing that phrase have been used for hundreds of years?

In honor of me making it to another year, you can get this bookplate download for almost free. I say almost, because Etsy wouldn't allow me to mark it completely down. So you can get the download for 50 cents through November 6th. Use the code owlbday.

I hope you enjoy them.  Print up a bunch and give them as a gift or put them in those books you always end up loaning out.  Such a clever little owl.

You are Invited to Be Who You Are - Free Inspirational Printable

When I was a teenager in Southern California I picked up this postcard somewhere. Maybe at Pier One or maybe at some head shop or natural foods store by the beach. I have no idea. But, I have had it up on my walls most of the three decades that have followed. I taped it up so much that the back has had most of the paper torn off. All I can tell is that the last name of the photographer was King and it was printed in 1982.

I love everything about this postcard. The quote, the torn paper which is a broadside from 1967 printed in Boston, the glimpse of another flyer on the side, the wood wall.  Interesting that one generation made this broadside. Then someone sold a photo of it to the next generation. And now I am here passing it on. Although, I don't want to take this guys photo, so I decided to make a totally different kind of printable of this favorite quote of mine.

Here is the print I made. It's available in 5x7 and 8x10 and prints on a regular 8.5 x11 paper. Just click on the size you want and save to your computer.  I hope you enjoy it!

...And, wow, I just realized that I didn't get this quote exactly right. Can you spot it? I researched it and the quote is quoted both ways, but from an actual Thoreou book I found it as "what we are".  But, you know what? I'm going to embrace who and what I am - which is the kind of person that didn't get this quote exactly right - and just present it as is. An inspirational quote that I have enjoyed for years no matter what or who you are.

8x10 Print

Make your own Vintage Custom Christmas Card - Free Printable

I have several personalized Christmas cards from the 1940's-1960's. I love seeing the pictures chosen and the old vintage illustrations, many often handmade. I'm guessing that people bought them from a local photography studio. Some, of course, have clip art and were bought as a template from the photo stores or mail order companies.

I thought it would be fun to make these available to you to use to make your own "vintage" custom Christmas card (these are all actually flats). You could print them and send them or you could just use it as a web post or ecard.

This first card is from 1951 and it has spots for three pictures. It could be a family or kids or pets or a trio of friends. I love how sweetly the boy in this photo is holding his orange cat.

The first thing to do is to download the template. Make sure you download the original size.

Then crop the images you need in a squarish size and fit in squares (the size is roughly 300x300 in 300 dpi).  Then change your images to black and white, add a little sepia and a little noise so it matches the card more. Or you could leave them without the changes, it's up to you. 

I did a couple of samples to see how it looks. The first TV show I thought of that had three people is the show Ben and Kate. It's a new show this fall and I like it a lot. It's about a sister and brother living together and raising her daughter. So I did one for them. Then I did one of just pets because they're cute.

                                

The next one I did was meant for an image of a house or family picture. I like the idea of having an image of a house (of course, I would). Especially if you're sending it to people who know and miss that house or if you recently moved.

This card was sent in 1958 and there was a long message on the back saying the house had been in the family since 1884.  This card has deckle edges. You might want to crop them out and reproduce them on the computer or with fancy edge scissors. As long as the image you use is covering the white square it'll look good. That image size is 823x835 300 dpi. But, of course it could be a bit bigger.

The original size image is here.

Here is a sample that I did with an image that a friend recently posted of their new home. I did all the adjustments to this as with the other one.

I spent probably too much time on this, but you know, sometimes you want to do something just to do it. I hope that some of you might find some use for it. If you use it, I'd love to see what you do. 

Happy Holiday Season!

love poems

Valentines are so pretty and charming. It's so hard to pick just one. But, if you haven't gotten one or made yours yet, you might be starting to panic a bit. But, don't fear, there are lots and lots of printable valentines online. Just a search on Pinterest shows quite a few choices.

My new favorite are these printable (or ecards) created by Poets.org. Even if you don't use the image, the poems are a great thing to add to your valentine message.

This top one is great for those of us in the Pacific Northwest!

What a great way to showcase poetry and reach more people. You can see all the choices here. Also, if you are looking for a longer poem. They have a whole list of love poems here.

On a totally unrelated note. I recently did an interview with the website Twenty-Four Hours. You can find the interview here.

be mine....but not in a possessive way...

Hey, Valentines Day is Monday! Have you gotten your loved ones a card or a lovely little something. I am off to make something for mine right now. Usually I send out cards to friends, but this year it just kind of snuck up on me.

I had a co-worker recently express surprise that I like to celebrate Valentines Day. He seemed to expect that because of my natural rebellious nature and unconventional leanings that I would just ignore it as a day that was invented to blah blah blah, you know the rest.

It's a good guess from someone who knows me only in a work setting, but he has no idea how much I love paper sentiments and little handmade pretty things. I'm very old fashioned like that. I've always felt like Valentines Day is about just giving sweet surprises to the ones you love - and for most of my life that was friends only. It's nice to now have a romantic valentine (well, actually it's been over 7 years), but I've never thought it was necessary to celebrate Valentines Day.

If Monday snuck up on you, too. never fear. There are lots of handmade projects and printables available out there. Here are some of my favorites.

You could make some lovely fruit themed stickers and place them on your Valentine's fruit. Pack them in lunches or leave on the breakfast table. Super cute idea from Twig and Thistle.

I'm a fan of glitter and I'm a fan of banners, so this is a win win. Easy tutorial on the Lovely Indeed blog via Creature Comforts.


There are some really cute free printable valentines at the blog Gifts.com from Hello Lucky.

Also check out the great printable Valentines from artist Amy Rice. I really love her work.

There are also more ideas that I like on my Valentines Pinterest board, including this cute Valentine award seen above made from cupcake liners.

And if you need more ideas, here's my Valentines Day post from last year.

Okay, I gotta get going on my own Valentine making. Happy weekend!

it's almost christmas!

The time is closer and hopefully you're ready. I am finishing up some things while The Muppets Christmas Carol keeps me feeling festive and reminds me it's Christmas Eve. All the sudden these last few days it hasn't felt like Christmas to me for some reason.

Are you in need of little boxes for baked goods or small gifts? You can print out the cutest cuckoo clock boxes from My Paper Crane.

If you are finding yourself without gifts and running out of time. Here is a free printable you can use to create some really impressive coupon books for folks, brought to you by the Just Something I Made Blog. She does lots of printables, so check out the blog for more options.

Merry Christmas Everyone! I hope you have a especially nice time this year.

printables for christmas

Maybe this Christmas you are funds poor but rich in ideas and a color printer. Then luck is on your side! Lots of neat designers out there design free items that you can print out yourself. It's the perfect inexpensive (and last minute) gift.

Here are a few to get you started:

This Owl Lover 2011 Calender is making the rounds and seems to pretty popular, and why wouldn't it be? It's a calender, it's owls - and best yet you get to choose which owl art you want with each month. I really like that part. You can choose from 30 images!

There's a nice selection of some neat little boxes you can make for your homemade food gifts or whatever else you may need to box up.

Maybe you might want to print up some of your family recipes to share with a friend. Here's a neat way to create them for a pretty presentation. Recipe Card Maker.

I love these adorable bookplates you could print out for someone. Bookplates from Orange You Lucky.

Got some neat old bottles or boxes? These labels would make a really neat presentation. Vintage Flowery Labels, and Vintage Luggage Labels.

Hope these give you some ideas. I'll try and be back with more before Christmas.