*Christmas Vintage Tag Board*

     The CHRISTMAS VINTAGE TAG BOARD

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Making small, mixed media collages on manilla shipping tags is a personal favorite project of mine.  These particular manilla shipping tags were first stained with walnut ink and painted in places, and then given to me as a gift from an artist friend, Carolyn.

     On top of each *vintage* tag, I created a small tribute to an old fashioned Christmas, using saved ephemera, miniature decorations, canceled Christmas stamps of a religious nature showing the Madonna and Child, images of antique postcards, floral embellishments, and other tiny treasures.  
  
     While the concept of altered tags on a board used as an Advent Calendar for the month of December is hardly original, what I love about this project is that anyone who creates a tag board ends up with an original work of art ~ no two could ever be alike. 

      The board is made of two pieces of 32" x 20" foam board with polyester batting on top, covered by two layers of burlap which were stapled onto the back side.  The underlayer of burlap is flax-colored, and the top layer of burlap is off-white so the tags show up better.  For the days of December, I have used vintage, round wooden game markers - numbering 1-25, and glued them onto the burlap. Around the edge of the board I have placed decorative antique brass uphostery tacks.  The backs of each tag have been sprayed with Krylon "Make It Stone" for added strength, then a light spraying of gold for decoration.  Finally, each tag is adhered to the board with ivory-colored pearl straight pins.

     This was a most enjoyable Christmas-themed project!

*EAST*

EAST is an altered art book that I've worked on for a couple of years, adding to it every now and then. This is one of the reasons I love creating altered art books - you don't have to "finish" them, and you can continue with them as long as you like.
This particular "book" is really a stationery folder that was given to me as a child. I've turned it inside out - the outside was originally the colorful red and yellow batik-printed Japanese paper. The inside was very old bark paper with natural texture and with pockets. It was called "Mingei Letter Set" and unfortunately, I do not have any of the original stationery left. The folder remained intact, thankfully.
The additions I have placed in this book are Asian postage stamps, coins, photographs taken in Japan and Korea, miscellaneous cut-outs and calligraphy, rubber stamp images, cloth "beads" and painted wooden beads, chopsticks, pages from Oriental books and maps, decorative papers, photographs of my own artwork, a tiny Oriental silk knot, a paper bill (money), printed papers with gold foil, and finally an Origami crane that I made as a teenager. Unlike my usual sepia-toned vintage altered art books, this one is colorful and playful.

*The White Album*

The White Album

Color, of course, is intoxicating. But white is intriguing. Every tint, shade, tone and degree of the "color" white captures my attention and imagination. White equates peace and serenity to me, so what better way to celebrate white than a white album.

*The White Album* is my biggest and fattest altered art book yet.

44 pages of photos, fabrics, chunky items like buttons, lace, ribbons, and my usual beloved vintage ephemera.
The old photos in the book are part of my collection of vintage photos.

The new/contemporary photos of white things are photos I took myself specifically for this book. Their inclusion add a small touch of modern to the otherwise antique look of the book.

ABOVE PHOTO:  Left side: back cover of book. Right side: front cover of book.

Below are the pages in "The White Album"

click on any photo to enlarge it for better viewing

*TIME*

* TIME *

Altered Art Book by Lynn Lindley

Images of vintage clock faces always catch my eye, and I'm compelled to cut them out and save them. Over the years, I collected so many clock faces that I had more than enough to completely cover and decoupage a metal wastebasket with them. Even after that project, I continued to cut out and collect vintage clock faces out of habit. My idea for an altered art book with the subject of *TIME* seemed a logical venue for using my growing collection.

For weeks I jotted down phrases and sayings that had to do with time - and surprisingly, there were so many, I didn't even use them all. Dangling from a snippet of vintage seam binding is a miniature glass bottle ~ inside is the word "time" taken from the text of an old book. (Time in a bottle.) The tabs on each page have a time or date that is personally significant to me written in gold ink. Several of the hands on the clocks inside and on the cover of the book turn, and there are other 3-D objects such as minature clock faces and watches included as well.

To enlarge photos, click on the image once or twice.

(Above) The cover of *TIME* altered art book


The following photos (shown after the page titles) show the pages of my altered art book called *TIME*

These are the titles of the pages:

Passing The Test Of Time

Time Well Spent - If I Could Save Time In A Bottle

Time Will Tell - Time Is On My Side

Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? 25 or 6 to 4

Double Time - Keeping Time

Time Will Tell - The Clock Watchers

Time Heals All Wounds - Time Frame

Time Stands Still

Too Much Time On Her Hands

It's About Time

Time Flies

Time After Time

Always Be On Time

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