Fabulous antique sailor girl from a 1920 song sheet cover

Monday flew by, and Tuesday is already here! Here is a wonderful, large piece of clip art I found of a sailor girl/woman that was on a 1920 song sheet cover. Isn't she fabulous! I have had short hair for ages, and love seeing all the short hairstyles the ladies of the 20's had. It was considered rebellious back then. Hope you enjoy it!

Worn antique book cover

This is one of my recent finds while thrift store shopping. It is an old German grammar book from the early 1900's. I love the cover, and thought I would share it with you. Happy Saturday!

Studio car vintage ad

Happy Friday folks! Actually, in a little over 2 hours, it will be Saturday for me. Yesterday was crazy busy, and I felt like I was on the phone and running errands all day. I made a sweet pepper avocado soup from scratch, and forgot how much work goes into "from scratch" anything...and the mess it leaves. I was so tuckered out last night, I completely forgot to post anything. Today I had some time to start on a larger painting, with a background of palette knife acrylic paint and collaged text papers. Once I get on a roll with a large collage, I find it hard to stop. Alas, we had to eat supper at some point, so I threw in the towel after 3 hours of painting, cutting, and gluing.
Today's clip art is a vintage ad for a studio car that would tour around and offer portraits. This company was based out of St. Paul, MN....a place near and dear to my heart. I thought it was a fun little piece of history. Hope everyone has a safe & happy weekend!

Gibson girl and vintage map clip art

I missed posting yesterday, so today I am posting two new clip art freebies. The first is one I have had for several years, and is one of my favorites...a Gibson girl. She appears to be swimming, but it is kind of eerie. The second is a map of Spain, that came from a vintage book. Happy creating!

Antique German Dictionary Page Clip Art

Today's clip art comes from one of my weekend finds. It is an old German grammar book from 1907. The cover is fabulously worn and faded. Here is a page you can use as a background or whatever else you come up with. Happy creating!

Monday, and new goodies on the way!

I received my new business cards with my Hip Heart Studio logo on them this weekend, so I will soon be listing new items for sale at hipheartstudio.com!
Saturday was my birthday, and hubby and I did some thrift store and antique shopping. I didn't find much, but my 3 items are definitely treasures. I found a 1932 magazine with awesome ads and graphics, and 2 books that are 1900 or earlier. They are beautifully aged and fragile, which I find alluring. The magazine was only $2 at a thrift store, and I later saw the same magazine, from the 30's at an antique store for $22. I got a great deal on that one!
I will be posting some new clip art later today, in the evening most likely. For now, I am off to do a quick antique finish on some "crackle finished" canvases, then off to run some errands. Happy Monday! Let's make this a creative, productive, joy-filled week!

Hobby Lobby weekly coupon

I love a good coupon...in fact, there are certain items that I will only buy when I can use a coupon....like Liquitex Matte Medium, or Varnish. I am thrilled that a Hobby Lobby store just opened up yesterday, right down the road from me. I am headed there tomorrow morning, after having a nice large breakfast, and plan to spend as much time there as I want. It's my "pre-birthday" present to myself. My birthday is Saturday, but I didn't want to drag my poor husband along on another craft store shopping trip. He already was nice enough to wait on me this last weekend, when we went into a Hobby Lobby store in Orlando for the first time. I nearly fainted when we walked in! I had no idea what aisle to go down first. My creative brain went into hyper-overdrive. So, for all of you fellow coupon-ers, here is a link to a weekly Hobby Lobby coupon.
I also got an email from Blick.com today, announcing a sale, but I need to look into that first. I spent the day today in Miami, getting my MRI and nerve tests done. I left our house at 8:30, and didn't get back until 5:30. It was a very long day. I am turning in early, but will pop in tomorrow with some more clip art! Good night creative minds! Happy dreams!

My product review & mixed media paintings made with 7Gypsies tissue collage paper

As soon as I got an email from Stampington/The Shoppes at Somerset, I drooled over this tissue paper. I love using tissue paper for texture in my mixed media paintings and I immediately had two project ideas pop up in my head. I completed the first one, which is this set of four 12" X 12"mixed media paintings. I used the tissue paper as a background. One tip: when working with tissue paper, cut the size you will need ahead of time, and apply the matte medium (or whatever you used as a collage 'glue') to the base ahead of time. Do not try putting the matte medium onto your tissue paper. I suggest not using a lot of the medium or the paper gets soggy and easily tares and you are smoothing it onto your canvas/surface. I used a rubber brayer and gently smoothed areas with my fingers, allowing crinkles and light layering to occur. I waited until it had dried well before I put a topcoat of medium on it to seal it. After that, I was free to paint, draw, stamp, and collage on top of it.
Final conclusion: Try it! You'll love it! I have plenty left over for another project and am looking forward to playing with it again. However, since it is a bit pricey, practice with regular tissue paper first, if you have never used tissue paper in your collage pieces before. You will learn what mistakes to avoid, so you can move on to the fancy stuff without fear. The paper is available Here or you can look for it on Ebay, or other places where you buy your craft goodies.

An apology and a new honey bee clip art

I usually work on this blog in the evening, and yesterday, we had one heck of a lightening show. We had a storm that stuck with us for quite some time, and I didn't dare plug the computer in after hearing from someone else that their WASHING MACHINE, of all things, was fried by lightening the previous week. Florida definitely isn't fun this time of year. So, tonight I do have a new piece of clip art to add. I will also do another post on my product review of the new 7gypsies collage paper. I love it!

Monday clip art: hand marbled paper

Another week has arrived, and it is gearing up to be a busy one for me. I have another Dr. appointment in Miami this week, and will be getting an MRI and an EEG (to hopefully diagnose the cause of my nerve problems that I have had for about a year now). I will do my best to share something each day, but if I don't, you will at least know why. So far, one person has told me to think about food I would like to eat, another said to think of a song, yet another told me to just take a nap, and all have told me to KEEP MY EYES CLOSED before and during the MRI, so that I don't get freaked out by it. I may be tired from the stress of driving and being repeatedly shocked (EEG), and just take the advice of napping.
Today's clip art freebie is a piece of marbled paper that I made by using craft acrylic paints, swirled on waxed paper, and then laying down a piece of thick paper on top. It turns out really neat if you use some metallic paints along with some darker opaque colors. Hope you enjoy it!