Old Russian Tree Ornaments

The other day looking through old things in my grandmother’s house I discovered some old but very beautiful and charming Russian ornaments for the Christmas Tree and I was so glad to find them.  Now, I am not sure how long they have been hidden, but it must be many years because they are very fragile now.   

Aren't they pretty?

For Free Vintage Images to use in your projects don't forget to visit our Retro Scraps Blog. 

Have a wonderful week,

Erika

DIY Merry Christmas Wall Decor

I started working this past weekend (a little bit late, I must admit) on some DIY decoration projects for the Holidays and the first one I wanted to do was some lettering décor for the wall.  Here it is:

It says “Merry Christmas” in Spanish and I used simple letters made out of cardboard 8 ½ x 11” pages and I decorated them with different Christmas theme figurines. Here are some close ups: 

It was a very easy project that can be made in one morning, all it takes is finding the images we want to use, printing them, a little bit of paint and glue and more glue. 

A Walk in Time: Vintage Style Street Signs - Part I

I love all decorations inspired by the Vintage Style and I am also a fan of Street Signs, so when both are combined together, something really special comes out.   I am posting today some of my favorite street signs from different cities that we've had the great opportunity to visit.

The first ones are found in Belfast, Northern Ireland:

The next ones are from Tallin, Estonia:

Business Card Case in 1 2 3

I was in need of a little container for my business cards, and I started searching around my stuff to see if I had something that I could re-use or renovate for my purpose, when I found a nice old tin box that I believe used to carry mints.  Now it looks like this:

The size of the tin is perfect for my business cards and I renovated it simply in a quick 1 2 3 steps.

After choosing the decorative paper I would use for the lid of the box & printing it out, the easy steps were:

Step 1

Draw the shape of the lid into the paper.

Step 2

Cut the paper

Old Airplanes Tin Box

Another project I prepared for my family members in my visit to India is a Tin box for my nephew with Old Russian Airplanes Illustrations, here is the final result: 

The tin box is a simple plain Geometry Set, and to decorate it I choose the Old Russian Airplanes images I posted sometime ago.  If you would like to use the same images, click here.  

The process is very simple and you can try it at home.  I started by giving the tin box 2-3 coats of liquid gesso and let it dry. 
 

Pocket Mirror with a Vintage Touch

Today I present you a very quick & easy but yet very charming project.  It's a pocket mirror decorated with images of vintage ladies.  It works out nicely as gift for a young girl or teenager.  I decorated three of them and here it is how they look:

I found these pocket mirrors at a discount store for only 0, 90 cents, and immediately I knew I wanted to give them a vintage touch. 

The cover of the mirrors was plain.  I started then by cleaning the surface with water and soap and let it dry.

ABC Flashcards with an “Old” Look

One more gift I prepared for my family in India was a set of ABC flashcards for my little & beautiful niece and although the images are from a new book, I still wanted to give it an old look to the background.  This is how they look.

I applied the simple technique similar to the cards I made for father’s day, by painting the background with ochre water color to give it an old look.

I started by scanning all the images of the alphabet and inserting the images on a word document. Then I painted 8 ½ x 11 cardboard pages with the ochre water color and let it dry.

Vintage Little Girl’s Box

First of all I want to thank our dear friends and followers for giving us such a warm welcome back, thank you for all your emails, it is really nice of you and I am very happy to be back.  Thank you so much, we appreciate it!

Before I went on vacations I mentioned I had decorated a box for my sister in law and today I want to show you the pictures of that project.  It is a small jewelry box and I chose an image of two little girls for the lid that reminded me of her and her little beautiful daughter. Here it is:

The box is made of wood and I chose two colors to paint it: Mustard & Pink.  This decoupage project was done following our standard procedure that you can find Here.

I added a flower with a stencil on the front and the sides.

For more decorative accents, I used different vintage stamps around the box: a postage stamp, industrial company address, a carte postale, a butterfly & a bird.

A Walk in Time: Juna Bazaar in Pune

Did you ever think you would be seeing a pair of these again?

Or these ones? 

Well I certainly did not, but to my surprise I found these charming roller skates at the Juna Bazaar in the city of Pune, India.  My husband and I visited our very dear friends there and they took us to this fascinating bazaar.  

It brought me lot of memories and I truly Walked back in time! Here is more of what we found:

 

Juna Bazaar translates literally into “Old Market” and wao! you do find old things.  It operates on Wednesdays and Sundays.

We are back on the Train & Retro Scraps

Hellooo! I am glad to be back in the blog and workshop after a long & nice vacations.  My husband and I visited our family in India and had such a great time over there that we didn’t want to leave, but we are back with projects & images from that beautiful country that we will be sharing with you in near future.

I made a few “cosmetic” changes to the blog, and also decided to separate the Crafts & Décor from the Free Vintage Graphics and starting a new blog, so that each blog would be devoted to its own topic.  The new blog is “Boulevard de L'antique:  Retro Scraps ~Freebies~”

On the Retro Scraps ~Freebies~ blog you will find all types of vintage images for your artistic ventures and we will also post Digital Collages & Images from our own creation.  We invite you to follow Retro Scraps through the social media buttons so you won't miss the updates.  We will be constantly adding new images. 

So far, I have posted many of the images I had posted in the Crafts & Decor's Blog, and from tomorrow I am starting with the new ones.

We will start the articles now with an edition of “A walk in Time” series, this time about a flea market in the city of Pune, India.

Thank you so much for reading and following. Enjoy doing your crafts and have a wonderful weekend,

Erika

Retro Restaurant Ads & Vacations Break

My dear readers, lovely followers and wonderful friends: I will be travelling on vacations and visiting my family outside the country and will be absent from blogging for more or less one month and half. I have already few new craft projects I want to share with you, of some last minute easy gifts I prepared for my family, but I am running out of time, so will post them once I return. 

In the meantime I leave you with 3 nice Retro Advertisements from some local restaurants that used to be open to business in Panama City back in the 1970´s.

I hope you like them; my favorite is the one with the vintage moustache.

Thank you so much for reading and following. Enjoy your crafting and have a wonderful month, we will be back soon with more projects and great graphics.

Erika

Vintage Receipts

When time passes I normally do not keep the receipts of my shopping or other things, but I must admit I like vintage receipts, and over a period of time I have started collecting them.

I share today two receipts, one is panamanian and it actually belongs to my grandfather.  It is a receipt for a payment he made at a local store back in 1964. 

The next one is a British receipt with a nice queen Elizabeth II stamp on it, from 1958.

These images are nice ephemeras that can be used in different crafts or collages.

Have a nice weekend,

Erika