A STUDY OF THE FLEUR-DE-LIS...

In French, Fleur means flower and lis means lily (some translate it as iris) that is used as a decorative design or symbol.Did you know that the Fleur-de-lis is considered a stylized lily?In French, fleur-de-lis literally means " lily flower ".The fleur-de-lis is also said to be a symbol evoking the rising of the sun.The petals of the fleur-de-lis are said to represent faith, wisdom, and chivalry in heraldry which was added on to an earlier religious belief that the three petals stood for the Holy Trinity.The fleur-de-lis is a world wide recognized symbol, whether featured in art, architecture, religion, organization, monarchy, or a simple beautiful miracle of nature, it is a beautiful symbol, no? I hope you enjoyed my little study of the fleur-de-lis at the farm. Have a brilliantly beautiful weekend!

Blessings,
Miss Sandy

Information source

SHOW AND TELL: I SHOW, YOU TELL ...

Good day, dear readers, I thought that we could share a little circle time, just like back in our kindergarten days, and have a good old fashioned show and tell. This show and tell has a little bit of a twist. I thought I would show you what I recently purchased from Karla's boutique (Karla's Cottage) for a project and then I wanted to ask if you would tell me something.I have a serious fondness for paper dolls and to this day I regret that when I moved from home that I did not take the big shiny pink paper wrapped boot box full of my childhood playmates with me. Recently while helping my mother clean out my childhood home I searched in vain for them but think they may have been in the attic and if so they were surely mouse fodder by now.When I saw these listed at Karla's I thought they might begin a new collection for me. These two old magazine or newspaper cut outs are for me...These reminded me of the kind of paper dolls my Great Aunt Sylvia and I used to cut out of the Sears Catalog only ours were quite mod garbed in late 60's fashions.

And these three dancing darlings...Are for a collage project I want to do for a gift for my little granddaughter who's first birthday is fast approaching. The little clown is a tiny bonus...I also bought this lonely little doll's leg...Why? Simply because I liked it.Karla tucked a sweet stem of vintage posies in to fancy her up and she struck a pose all over the place showing off...Lastly, there was a sweet little ephemera pack...

Now that I have shown you my package of pretties comes the telling part. I have began working on a project with the hopes of teaching a live class in our area. I will not know until sometime in the next week or so if all the plans will come together. At the urging and encouragement of sweet Mary, I am also giving thought to hosting an online workshop. Here is where I need some input from you. If you were to be interested in a class taught by me, what would you like to learn? Tips? Technique? Tools? A specific project?

(Here is a sweet thank you gift for your help - a FREE PAPER DOLL IMAGE SHEET)

I use a wide variety of media in my artwork so it is a bit hard to narrow down or to know what others might like to learn. I really would love to hear your ideas and please do not be shy about leaving a comment on this subject, you never know, it might just be covered in my next tutorial! Just in case you are wondering, hosting a workshop will not take place of the occasional free tutorials I offer here. So, please tell me your thoughts on the subject and thank you so much for your help!

Oh, and before I go I wanted to tell you about a sweet give away over at Diane Knott's Musings, Diane and her daughter, Holly, have opened a new Etsy shoppe, Cottage By The Pond. They are giving away some of their handmade items so scurry on over and sign up!

Blessings,
Miss Sandy

THE FRUIT OF FRIENDSHIP...

I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.

-Emerson-

I spent Friday at the farm picking fruit with my best friend, Pam. This was my first time to take her there and introduce her to the farm since it came into my possession...and I was nervous. Why? I am not sure except I mostly did not want her to be disappointed. Like you, dear readers, she has seen pictures and heard stories and imagined what is in between the two and I did not want to disillusion any ideals she might have formed. What was I thinking, this could not have been further from the truth, we are friends after all. We have known each other for years and that first sweet blush of finding a kindred spirit has grown sweeter and ripened over time into a fully formed friendship. As we drove along the country back roads stories began to roll off my tongue, memories tumbling over themselves in my mind, spilling forth and gathering in our shared basket of friendship.Ripe memories of long ago days, of people who have passed, and those that still linger, some sad, some happy, some funny, and some telling, they piled up like plump juicy apples, one on top of another, adding to our basket of memories.Her stories began to intermingle with mine. There were our grannies and their gardens, our girlhoods, all good memories picked from the past, and, before I knew it we had arrived. My fanciful fears were flights of nothing that evaporated as she stepped from the car and said, "This is beautiful." After a small wander about we set to picking some fruit, side by side new memories blossomed, laughter rang out on the wind as the give and take of conversation flowed.One ant, as nimble as a spider plant... scurried up the ladder into the boughs of the waiting tree to begin picking fruit... while one grasshopper remained on the ground playing with the camera before she gave up her song of snapping photos to be of any real assistance. Different as night and day yet the same as two peas in a pod, we are apples and peaches... And still, we have managed to cultivate a fruitful friendship.

I woke up this morning feeling a very deep gratitude for the gift of friendship which is by choice, someone choosing to like you and accept you for who and what you are and encouraging you to grow and blossom and ripen into the best version of yourself. There is nothing so sweet on the taste of tongue as the word...friend.

I value your friendship here in the land of blog too. I have " met " so many wonderful, funny, creative, talented, caring, sharing, inspiring people here and my gratitude extends to each of you who takes a little time out of your day to visit with me here at Quill Cottage. Your presence never fails to brighten my day.

Below you will find some scans of images from a Victorian era instructional art book for children. These images are free for you to save to your computer and use in any manner in which you wish. They all bear a fruit theme, enjoy!(FREE IMAGE)

Love is flower-like;
Friendship is like a sheltering tree.

-S. T. Coleridge-(FREE IMAGE)(FREE IMAGE)

Friendship is a word, the sight of which in print makes the heart warm.

-Augustine Birrell-(FREE IMAGE)(FREE IMAGE)

Friendship is steady and peaceful; not much jealousy, and no heartburnings. It strengthens with time, and survives...It doubles our joys, divides our griefs, and warms our lives with a steady flame.

-Charles Reade-(FREE IMAGE)

(FREE IMAGE)

A true friend unbosoms freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangably...

-William Penn-(FREE IMAGE)

Blessings,
Miss Sandy

POP UP BOOK TUTORIAL...

Books let us into their souls and lay open to us the secrets of our own.

-William Hazlitt-

A couple of posts ago I shared a little pop up book with you from my early days in playing with paper. There was an expressed interest in learning to make the book so I have prepared a little tutorial for those of you who might be interested in making your own. Please note that in this tutorial I only give the mechanics of making the book and leave the decorating part strictly up to you.

This would be a great project to make with your children or grandchildren or imagine the delight of any little one who received a pop up book with themselves featured. Or, you can get really artful with this little volume making themed books, pop up your favorite inspiring quotes, or maybe just favorite mini snap shots of friends and family, you are only limited by your imagination. Have fun!

MATERIALS:

*Light weight card stock
*Paper to match card stock
*Scissor
*Glues - Glue stick, spray glue, or matte super heavy gel or matte gel medium
*Ruler
*Pencil
*Bone folder
*Brayer
*Ribbon
*Mini clothes pins or paper clips
*Card stock scraps
*Misc. ephemera, photos, paper scraps, lace, stickers, etc. (any type of flat embellishments you desire)

INSTRUCTIONS:

PREPARING THE BOOK PAGES:

*Cut 4 six inch squares of lightweight card stock.

*Cut 4 six squares of matching paper or ephemera.

TIP: Test the pliability of your paper if you choose to use vintage ephemera, sometimes it is too dry and brittle and will crack or tear when folding weakening the spine of your book. In this case I advise using a copy of your vintage piece.

*Using spray glue, glue card stock and your choice of paper together, back to back, bray to secure glue.

FOLDING AND ASSEMBLING THE BOOK:

*Assemble your book pages, cover side facing down.*Fold each page in half, folding the bottom of the page to meet the top matching the top and bottom edges then crease with a bone folder.TIP: If you want to do any inking on the edges of the inside or outside of the book or rubber stamping, you might want to do this before you start to fold, it just makes it easier. Allow ink to dry then begin folding.

*Unfold your pages and then fold each page right to left matching up the outside edges then creasing with the bone folder.*Open your pages back up. Using a scissor, cut on the bottom crease up to the center of the book page.*Brush matte gel medium onto one cut section, overlap other cut section, gluing in place, bray to secure glue. Repeat for each book section and allow to dry.*Once dry, turn each section so that the glued together flaps in the step above are positioned on the inside cross section.*Take each pop up section and turn it upside down. Gently push the loose tip toward the inside center, matching up the two outside edges, crease to hold shape, repeat for each section. You want to make sure you are only folding one thickness of card stock on the bottom or your book won't work properly.*Turn the sections back over and line the up just as you see in the photo below.*Take a section and brush matte gel medium onto one side, matching all the edges, press together with another section, smoothing well with your finger tips to secure glue.*Repeat process two more times to connect all the sections, leaving one side open, this will be the front and back cover of your book. Set aside to dry. You might want to secure your glued areas with mini clothes pins or paper clips to hold in place until it is dry.*Once dry book is dry, cut a front and back cover the size of your book, decorate. Flip covers over and secure ribbon ends with glue placing in the center of the book.*Glue decorated covers to open section of book.
POP UP MECHANISM:

*Cut 4 - 1 inch by 2 inch pieces of scrap card stock that coordinate with your papers.*Fold in half, matching 1 inch sides, and crease.*On the crease, measure in and mark 1/4 inch from each side. Measure up and mark 1/2 inch as shown in photo below.*Using a scissor, clip on pencil marks.*Open up with crease facing up, gently pull the cut section forward, matching one inch ends, creasing. Repeat for each mechanism.*Secure a single pop up mechanism to each section of your book with glue, making sure it does not go over the fold as shown below.*Choose an image, sticker, etc. to secure to the flat front of the mechanism with glue.NOTE: Test fit your pop up with the book both open and closed to be sure it is not too large or it will hang outside of your book. Also, if you want the ends of the mechanism hidden, cover them with snips of paper to match your background glued over the ends before you attach the image.

FINISHING THE BOOK:

*Decorate the inside of your book using flat ephemera, stickers, etc. nothing that gets really bulky and allow to dry.

Enjoy!

Blessings,
Miss Sandy

EDIT ADDED: If you would like a free PDF file of this tutorial for easy access please email me at srpbabb@gmail.com