Flea Market Finds

Hello all!  I'm delighted to be here to share some altered playing cards, created with the help of the gorgeous new Flea Market Finds collection by Cathe Holden for Spellbinders.  They approached me to see if I would be willing to create something with the new products and, when I saw them, I very quickly said, "Yes, please!".

So here is my quartet of playing cards - showcasing some of the papers, stamps, stickers and printed die-cuts available.  You can find links to the products throughout the post if you'd like to get a closer look at them.  (And - full disclosure - if you buy anything after clicking through from those links, I will earn a small commission - it won't cost you anything extra though!)

Flea Market Finds is the perfect name for the collection.  There are vintage advertisements and posters and cigarette cards, stamps and seals, decorative packaging, shipping labels and lots more, all gathered together and full of nostalgic Americana vibes - think Little House on the Prairie or The Waltons.

(In fact, I know already that some of this ephemera will be making its way into my next project at the dollshouse museum, Small Worlds, if I ever get round to it... it's going to be a store called Brimble's Mercantile which I'm basing on Ike Godsey's General Store in The Waltons - though I'll probably set it in a slightly more prosperous era than the depressed 1930s as it was on the show!).

Anyway, back to the playing card quartet!  I started by covering them with a vintage ledger design from the Neutrals Palette Sampler paper pad.

I stamped some of the glorious Antique Adverts stamps, tapping a combination of Archival Night and Ground Espresso onto the stamps to give some colour variation as well as a vintage look. 

I'm in love with that jug (pitcher, I suppose would be the correct terminology!) - that's why it turns up twice.

And then, without too much thought, I grabbed a few stickers from the Etiquettes sticker pad to start the collaging.  I've never really been much of a one for stickers, but these could convert me.

From there, I added in some printed die-cuts, from both the Home Arts Miscellany and the Happy Thought Miscellany... and some of my much-loved poppy and aquilegia seedheads.  Aquilegia is also known both as Granny's Bonnet and as Columbine, which seemed to work well with the nostalgic vintage Americana vibe.

Then I let loose with some crackle paste roughly applied in fairly random spots...

... some white spatter...

... and some gentle inking around the edges.

And where would I be without my fine twine?!

They didn't feel quite finished, and then I had a brainwave.  I used the Circle Label Icons stamps stamped onto the offcuts of the original ledger paper to create individual buttons to top the twine-tied flower bundles.  

That seemed to do the trick - just the right touch of added dimension to give them depth and detail.

So there you have it... some vintage Americana collaging with this lovely new ephemera and paper collection by Cathe Holden.  

I enjoy haunting flea markets, but I can't get to the American ones very easily (!) - so it's wonderful to have another way to get to play with these charming vintage adverts and images.

I'm sure I'll be back with some more Flea Market Finds soon... do head over to Spellbinders to take a look at the full collection - there are so many lovely things to play with.  

For now, I'll wish you a wonderful weekend and happy crafting all!

For as long as we could remember, Ike Godsey's general merchandise store had been the social center of our community. Friendships were forged over loaves of bread, the place was a clearing-house for news, rumor and often as not, gossip. Adventure in those days was having a nickel to spend and time to gaze into the candy counter for as long as we liked before making a selection.

From The Waltons TV series 7, episode 18, written by E.F. Wallengren

With those final buttons floating Up In The Air above the rest of the collage, I'd like to enter this as an out-of-left-field response to that challenge theme at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge this week.