Angels Are Everywhere and a Free Vintage Christmas Image

Hi Everyone

Are you having a great week? I sure hope so! Can you believe it's Thanksgiving week. Where on earth did October and November go? It sure seemed like it sped right through!

The first thing I'd like to do is thank everyone for all the sweet and supportive comments left on my last post. They sure lifted my spirits. The last year has really been a challenge but I see blue skies ahead!

In October, our area has tons of craft fairs and I try and attend as many as possible. My goal for these trips is to try and find some cute ideas to use for making Christmas presents. I'm primarily looking for ideas that won't cost a ton of money, are easy to make and make cute homemade gifts. I've never been disappointed in this quest, I always find something that I can recreate and this year was no different.

My find was a sweet little towel angel.

Now, maybe you've seen one or have made them before but the idea was a new one for me. So I looked it over for a few minutes, figured it all out and I had my plan in place. So here's how I made my angel towel.


Supplies needed:
One kitchen towel set
3 cotton balls
2 zip ties - 6" in length(mine were 8" and way to long)
3 rubber bands
scissors
ribbon
embellies

From the towel set you will need the dish cloth, the towel and an oblong pot holder that has rounded corners. Make sure you check the pot holders before you purchase. I ran across several sets with oblong pot holders but they had square corners on them. I didn't really want pointy wings, so I choose the sets with the rounded corners.

My plan was to have the solid side of the pot holder showing for the wings, but the tag was really obnoxious so I cut it off.

The pot holder hanger also functions as the hanger for the angel. Now fan fold the pot holder along the longest edge. Once folded, use rubber bands on both ends to hold the folds in place.

Place the zip tie in the middle of the pot holder. Make sure you place it so that it goes between the hanger and the holder.

Now pull the zip tie tight. Do it slowly and adjust it as needed to keep it in the center of the pot holder. Watch the little square connector as you tighten it. The connector should stay in the middle of the side of the pot holder that you want to show. This will keep the connector hidden when you have your angel all put together.

Trim the zip tie close to the connector, remove the rubber bands and spread out the fan and it should look like this.

Now lay the dish cloth out and try and get it as flat as possible. I turned in the edges of the cloth because I wanted the ends to look a little neater.

Tightly roll up the dish cloth, straightening up the edges as needed.

After it is all rolled up, use rubber bands on both ends to hold it together. Place your rubber bands about an inch or more from the ends. This will make it easier to tie on the ribbon. Wow, it's been about a whole 3 minutes and two pieces of the angel are done!

Now open up the towel and fold it in half.

Squish the 3 cotton balls together to try and form one big ball and place it at the top and center between your folded towel.

Now this is probably the trickiest part of the whole thing. I wanted my angel to have a nice A line dress so I started with a triangle fold like this.

Once this initial fold was done, I gathered it all together by squeezing closely under the cotton balls. Then it was pretty much fuss a litle, tighten up and squish the cotton balls and fuss some more. The whole time it was straightening folds and mushing and squishing cotton balls until it looked nice and round and neat. Once I was satisfied that it looked good, I used a rubber band to temporarily hold everthing in place, so that I could lay it down flat and just give it one more double check before I made it permanent.

The front looks pretty good.

The back doesn't look too bad! So it's ready for the next step

To attach the wings, slide the second zip tie underneath the first zip tie on the wings. Now be carefull here, with taking pictures and all, I forgot that I wanted the solid brown side to be the showing side and I placed my second zip tie on the patterned side vs the solid side.

Place the dish cloth roll over the head of the doll. Make sure the cloth is centered and that the "arms" are of equal length on both sides. I used a rubber band to temporarily hold the cloth on the head. Place the rubber band at about the center face area so that it doesn't interfer with the placement of the second zip tie.

Now lay the angel, face up on top of the wings making sure that the second zip tie is between the wings and the angel and that the wing hanger is located at the top of the head.

Tighten up the zip tie, making sure that it stays right under the head and that the connector piece winds up hidden between the angel body and the wings. Pull it slowly and get it as tight as you can so your angel head doesn't flop around.

Trim the end of the zip tie as close to the connector as possible and remove the rubber bands from the head.

Now tie some ribbon around the end of her arms to hold the roll and then remove the rubber bands.

Isn't that just the cutest towel angel? I think it took about 15 minutes from start to finish and most of that time was folding and squishing on her head. lol

Add a few more or a lot of embellies and you have an awesome little homemade gift for that special person. Once they tire of the angel, they can take it apart and have some useful kitchen items. That's what I call repurposing! lol

Two down and how many more do I have to make? YIKES! I better get busy! lol

Staying with the angel theme, here's a really sweet angel image for you. This card is circa 1946 through 1949. Isn't it sweet? Make sure you click on it before you save it.

Have a great week, plumb full of smiles!

Peggy

Visit PeggyLovesVintage's ArtFire Shop

Free Vintage Christmas Images - Tags

Hi Everyone,
Just a short post today, sorry I've been away for a while. My DFIL has been hospitalized for over a week now. His gallbladder had burst and he had a pretty nasty infection. While dealing with the gallbladder, it was found that he also has bile duct cancer. He has been diagnosed with Klastin's tumors. This particular type of cancer is pretty rare with only 2,000 to 4,000 cases found a year. So it looks like there are many new challenges coming in our future. So anyway, postings on the blog may be spaced out a little farther, but I'll do my best.

I did have this image all ready to share with you before dad was hospitalized. I hope I'm not too late with it and that there are a few of you out there still working on your Christmas cards and projects. :) This image is all set to print on an 8.5 x 11 sheet and I thought it might be good for tags. As always, make sure you click on the image so you can get it at a larger size.



Have a great week plumb full of smiles!
Peggy

Announcements, Sassy Lil Sketches, Free Vintage Get Well Image

Hi everyone, how's your week going? Great I hope! I have lots of information to share today, so I'm just going to jump right in.

First, I'd like to apologize to anyone who's had trouble accessing the web shop. Storms have just been beating us down and I always take it down when a storm comes through. Today more storms are predicted but then we're supposed to be in about a 5 day stretch of good weather. Yeah!

Second, I was asked to be the July sponsor over at Sassy Lil Sketches . It should be a lot of fun, so make sure you check it out and plan on playing along. The sketches will be available on the July 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th.

Third, have you seen the new cut outs, Flower Babies 1 and Flower Babies 2? They are just the cutest! They're available in my ebay and etsy shops.





Fourth, in the very near future I will be retiring these CDs, Christmas Volumes 1, 2, 3 and 4. Quit honestly these are some of my earliest attempts with the CDs. I have been wanting to reorganize and improve these CDs for a while and I've almost completed that process. Once I've finished, I'll retire the originals. So if you've been keeping an eye on them with the intent to purchase in the future, you need to act now. At the moment all of these CDs are only available in the etsy and web shops.

Lastly, the free image. This week I decided to share an image from a get well card. Isn't she just the cutest? I love her swirly top and striped pants.. lol. I thought she would also be great for a "job well done" card, so I included a modified version without the blood pressure cuff. Make sure you double click on the images before you save them.




That's it for now, so.....

Have a great week, full of smiles!
Peggy

Free Vintage Image, BBTB2 Challenge and Second Chance to Win

This post is set to stay at the top. To see my new posts please scroll down or select view older posts.... Thanks



I'm so excited! One of my most favorite sites, BBTB2 , is having a challenge using my images. The DT is so AMAZING and CREATIVE! I love each and every one of their wonderful projects. The prize for the challenge is a choice of any 5 Cut Outs from Here or Here

And because I'm so excited, I thought I'd add to the prize and give you a second chance to win! Now, how great is that? For the second chance, all you have to do is comment on this entry and sign up to be a follower to my blog by midnight CST June 1st and you'll be entered for a chance to win a choice of any 5 Cut Outs from Here or Here The winner will be randomly selected.

So here's the images which are to be used for the BBTB2 challenge. Make sure you double click on the image before you save it. Visit the BBTB2 blog for all the details and rules for the BBTB2 challenge. You have until June 1st to complete the challenge.











Don't forget the sales that I have going on etsy and ebay . You can pick any three CDs for $22.50. That's a huge $7.47 savings! Hurry, I'll only have the sale going for a short time!


Have a great day full of smiles!
Peggy

Easter Contest and Amy Duff contest entry

Times quickly running out! Are you almost done with your contest entry? Here's the great stuff that will be given away to some lucky winner! Just use the Vintage Easter bunny in any craft project using any kind of a medium. Submit your entry via a comment on the blog or send me an email and leave comments on the DT members blogs and you will be entered to win.



There's some really great stuff included:
So-So-Sweet 75 Paper Pack with glitter
Spare Parts designer silk flower brads
Soft Spoken Leaf embellishments
Package of silk roses
Package of Sticky Doos
Package of Paper Studio Self-Adhesive Gemstones
Package of Wiggle Eyes
Container of Fairy Dust Fine Glitter
2 Rolls of ribbon
An Easter Egg stamp from Stampabilities
5 Packages of Charms
and
Any 2 PeggyLovesVintage CDs (except the Collection of Cuties)


So hurry, you only have until April 2 at midnight- CST to get your entry in. Make sure you visit all the DT's blogs and leave your comments. You can find all the details here

Here's an entry from Amy Duff that I received via email. Didn't she do a great job! I love the aging on the polka dots! Thanks Amy for entering the contest.



So where's your entry at? There's still time to get that chance to win the prizes that are worth over $100.00.



Have a great week just plumb full of smiles and Easter bunnies. lol
Peggy

Actual Size vs Best Fit Viewing of Images

I hope everyone had a safe Thanksgiving and if you participated in Black Friday that you got all the great deals that you wanted. Personally, I'm not a Black Friday participant. I just can't get into that get up early and stand out in the cold mode. I've always been a night owl, maybe one of these days they'll have the Midnight to 4AM sale. I think I'd be there for that one (smile).

Procrastination central here! lol I guess it's a really good thing that I didn't choose Journalism as a career path. I'd sure be in trouble! I've had a terrible time this week figuring out what I wanted to blog about. I had several ideas but nothing that I really got excited about or was prepared enough to share. Guess, if I wrote for a living, I'd say I have a bad case of writers cramp. (lol)

I do have a tip/trick for you though. Have you ever received a digital image and went to look at it and it was huge? You have to scroll to the right, then scroll down and scroll back to the left, then down again and continue to do so until you've viewed the whole image. What a pain and it really ruins the experience!

What you might not realize is that you can fix this problem. It really is an issue of how you are viewing the picture/image. Every image viewer that I've run across has an option which is some combination of view actual size or fit to screen or best fit or something that like. Sometimes you'll find it in words, other times it's an icon selection. But I guarantee that the option will be there. Just hunt it out and make sure you set it to fit to screen, then all that scrolling will go away.

For example I use the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer software a lot. It comes up quickly and I can zoom in and out with ease and quickly print any image that I'm working with. Here's how you switch between Best Fit and Actual Size on it.



So look for the fit to screen option, it will be there whether it's a Windows application or an image editing application. It's a true life saver!

Have a great week full of smiles!
Peggy

Cinnamon Apples and Vintage Images Yum!

Wow! Thank you all for such a warm welcoming. I’ve had such a great time this week reading all the wonderful comments from everyone. If you’d like to send me a picture of your project that you’d made with the cutie Snowman, just send me a link or an image via my email address, which is over there on the right somewhere, and I’ll post it on the blog.

One post I’d like to talk about

Sheri said

Thanks so much for the darling snowman and puppy but for preserving the past. I LOVE all of your images and would buy them in a heartbeat if I had a pc. nope - just a MAC. I drool whenever I stop by. I wish you had a place where you could sign up to get updates into your mailbox so many do. Can't wait to play with this cutie. Thanks again!

Sheri, I have great news for you, my CDs do work on Macs, so stop your drooling girlie. I’m not a Mac user, so my knowledge base is very limited but I’ve had some great Mac helpers, thanks Lana and RubySlippers. The one thing that may not work for you is the autorun application that is on each CD. You’ll have to go with the manual access to the folders using Finder. I do believe that there is a Mac utility that runs a Windows app but if you don’t have that utility, no big deal, just use Finder and you’ll be able to get to the folders and images. I’ll also see what I can do about setting up the blog for automatic update notices.

So some of you might be thinking, what is she talking about, what is an autorun? It’s a little program that’s added to each Vintage Greeting Card Image CD and it automatically starts up when you put the CD in the drive. My autorun app displays a cute image that has icons that you can click on and it takes you right to the folder of images via the Windows File Manager application. Once you’re in File Manager you can select an image, copy and paste, move up or down in the folder, print an image or any of the other File Manager activities. Sometimes, the main image displays kind of low on the monitor and you can’t see all of the icons. If that happens to you, just left click and hold it on the image and drag it up just a bit.

Ok.. now some fun stuff, my sweet sis sent me an email on Halloween and she wanted Mom’s recipe for popcorn balls. Well… I couldn’t remember how Mom made them (sigh) but I do have Mom’s handy dandy recipe book that she used for everything, so away I went looking for the recipe. Mom’s recipe book is the wonderful Betty Crocker’s Cook Book that has everything under sun in it. By the way this makes a wonderful Wedding Shower gift, it has all the basics and will pretty much teach someone how to boil water. (smile) I couldn’t find a date anywhere but I’d guess it’s from the early 50’s might even be from the 40’s but I’m not really sure. Well Mom’s cook book is kind of ragged at the edges. It was well used and has definitely seen better days. The back is off and the index is long gone so I had to page through the different sections to try and find the popcorn ball recipe. What a hoot! I haven’t looked at it in quite a while and had a few chuckles as I perused the different sections. Anyway, here’s one recipe that made me chuckle:

Red Cinnamon Apples with Tiny Pork Sausages

Beautifully colored apples with little sausages sticking out at perky angles. Marian South (now Mrs. Russell K. Johnson of Davenport, Iowa) perfected the recipe as a Christmas Eve Supper specialty when she was on our Staff.

Boil together 5 min ….
1 cup sugar
½ cup water
1/3 cup small red cinnamon candies
Place peeled-side-down in the hot syrup and cook 5 min ….
6 cored firm apples (peeling removed from top halves)
Meanwhile, brown in skillet ……
18 little pork sausages

Remove apples from syrup and place peeled-side-up in individual custard or muffin cups or in 1 large baking pan. Place 3 browned sausages in center of each apple. Pour red cinnamon syrup over all. Bake until tender. Serve hot in leafy green wreaths of watercress or lettuce … accompanied by fluffy rice with hot Cheese Sauce.
Temperature 350 (mod. Oven).
Time: Bake 30 min.
Amount: 6 servings

So there you go…try this recipe for the cinnamon apples with perky little sausuages and make sure you have a modern oven.

Have a great day and I hope it’s full of smiles.
Peggy