Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Playing "Paper Birds"

One of my favorite pastimes when I was a little girl was playing "paper dolls". Do they even have paper dolls anymore? I could spend hours with a new set, cutting out the latest fashions whether it be Betsy McCall or some sort of glamorous Hollywood starlet. Well, I may not play with those anymore, but give me some little scissors and I still want to cut something out!


I made these last Spring and put them in old vintage album pages. That was a lot of fun, but this year I'm just using one of my old windows. Once I get started on these I don't want to quit, and there were scraps of paper and old dictionary pages strewn all over my studio.






Someone else is interested in birds. Miss Jenkins is my little shadow and sticks pretty close. Problem is she wants to walk all over my papers and then smell the musty old pages. yummmm... She found some old pressed flowers in the pages of the dictionary and while I was working I could hear crunch...crunch...crunch". yuck, I was just waiting for them to come back up.


anyway, sometimes I just need a "hands on" paper project.






I'm backing these with brown craft paper to give them some sturdiness, 
otherwise they can be too fragile without it.


I love the old bird prints from the 40's. I recently "unearthed" a set that I'd had stashed in the garage "sell" pile, but I think they'll be used in my "Holiday Cupboard" downstairs soon.


So here it is put together, 
I may hang on to it for a little while and enjoy my fine feathered friends.




The outside birdies are busy nesting around here. Robins tend to be messy nest makers and I had a couple of nests laying on my potting bench from last Fall. They have destroyed them, looting twigs and grass for new nests. 
I'm itching to get my potting area cleaned up and all the furniture out from under the deck. That usually has to wait until we open the pool, which will be early this year, hopefully. Potting some geraniums is on my "agenda" for the day. I'm not a gardener, but I do love me some containers of posies!

If you haven't visited Monday Marketplace, remember it runs all week. You can link up your Etsy and Online Boutique items, and then do a little browsing. Just scroll down to the next post.


Be sure and come back tomorrow because I'm editing the photos that I took at The Vintage Suitcase, a new shop opening this weekend. They'll be tomorrow's post, and let me tell you this place is wonderful!

I'll be linking up to these party places:
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm
Tuesday's Treasures at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style
Primp Your Stuff at Primp
White Wednesday at Faded Charm
Share the Love Wednesday at Very Merry Vintage Style
What's It Wednesday at Ivy and Elephants


Hope you're having a good week,
xoxo,

32 comments:

  1. Oh My.... looks like your little "helper" has the same thing in mind that mine do too!!
    I too loved to play with paper dolls. My mother was quite artistic & she would trace the doll & design the clothes & color them for me. Memories of wonderful rainy day times....
    Have a Wonderful Day!!
    Marilyn

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  2. Oh my do I remember paper dolls. I couldn't wait for each month's McCalls magazine.
    Love your window with the sweet birds.
    Hugs, Ginger

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  3. I love the look of this project, Debra! Birds are perfect for spring and the photo with Miss Jenkins is so cute!

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  4. Debra
    I loved paper dolls so much fun that I did with my mama. I absolutely love what you did with the birds and the old window.

    Its perfect.
    Much love to you
    Kate
    xoxo

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  5. Ha! I adore your little helper... I have three myself. One never fails to join me as soon as I open the door to my studio. She thinks that big table is just purrfect to lie right in the middle of, no matter what else may be laying there.

    LOVE the paper birds and how you framed them on the window. LOVELY!!!!

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  6. Your little helper is so cute! Mine always get into mischief when ever I start working on a project. All the pretties are just sooooo tempting for them! Love your birds....they are so sweet. Great project :o)
    ~Des

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  7. Those are beautiful, Debra and the pages look wonderful in that window - great idea!!!
    ~Angie

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  8. Very pretty, Debra! I love them framed in that old window. They do still make paper dolls! In fact, I find myself looking at them when I see them, but hold off buying any as my granddaughter is just too little yet to play with them.

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  9. Wow, they are sweet and the dictionary makes the birds more evocative. That's a sentence I never thought I would write! Must look for old dictionaries...

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  10. I used to love paper dolls, too. This is such a creative project. The birds look great on old dictionary pages and the old window is really special.

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  11. From my first grade teacher days ... I still love cutting out paper bits and pieces. This is the perfect project for that.

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  12. You are a girl after my own heart! I am drawn to all things "bird" and am loving the simple beauty of this project. I might just have to "borrow" your idea...hope you don't mind. Good Job!

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  13. I just love this project. I love old windows and the birds make it perfect.

    Cynthia

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  14. I love this project. I also love to cut things, much to my mother's dismay many times. Those are really cute bird pictures. Makes me long for the summer when the little birdies come over and take a dip in the bath and partake in the feast that I have left for them.

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  15. That looks great Debra!Snipping that paper is probably very soothing!
    Blessings, Lorraine

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  16. I have been doing the exact same thing--only I've been clipping flowers and putting them on pages of a fallen-apart copy of A Tale of Two Cities. Charles Dickens is probably rolling over in his grave.

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  17. What a great idea Debra!
    Have a wonderful week!

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  18. Your paper bird pages are so delightful. I love how you mounted them on an old window. Just beautiful!
    Mary Alice

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  19. Oh how I loved playing with paper dolls too. =) I remember making my own from my mom's Spiegel catalog (anyone remember Spiegel????). Your birds are just lovely!

    Jeanine

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  20. I adore your cut out birds!!
    My sister and I played with paper dolls for hours on end - what sweet fun it was.
    I know you can find vintage paper dolls today in the gift shops of museums and art galleries.

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  21. What a great way to use an old window! I love your cut-out birds! I spent many hours playing paper dolls when I was a child. Still love to cut and color, too.

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  22. Paper dolls!!! I loooooooooved playing paper dolls with my Grannie. God bless her. Do they still make Paper Doll books? Do Grannie's still spend their afternoons with their grand daughters teaching them manners while playing paper dolls? Linda Faye@southernsassiegirls

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  23. i just love this, debra!--wonderful use of an old window:)

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  24. You know what they say about "a bird in the hand"? Too bad scissors don't fit in mine!
    Did you find the names of each of the birds in the dictionary to use with the cut outs?
    Deb

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  25. Oh my goodness how lovely! Love this! And yes, I too used to dearly love to play with paper dolls. Hugs and blessings, Cindy

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  26. I love how those turned out. I saw something similar to this on Wuslu. They framed bird prints (like what you made) in distressed black frames and hung them from twine. Your version was a great way to reuse an old window.

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  27. Your bird prints are beautiful and the use of the old frame is the perfect way to showcase them.

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  28. Oh this looks fun, I, too, loved paper dolls and would like to give this a try. Thanks.

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  29. I love how you did this project with vintage paper birds.
    It does remind me of all the paper dolls I cut out. Great memories. Thanks for sharing on Simple & Sweet Fridays.

    Jody

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  30. Love all your bird projects, beautiful. I too love bird projects, one of favorite part of paper projects for me is cutting things out, always has been.
    Ah paper dolls, what fun. I might still like to play with them, hey I'm old, you can do things when you're old and people just think you're being eccentric, lol.
    I sure envy you the beautiful vintage bird pics. Guess I'd have to use the beautiful bird images provided by the Graphics Fairy, think almost all of ones she offers are also vintage. Now to find an old dictionary to use pages out of.
    You have a way with showcasing the birds, love how you've done the pages. The other post you showed with the old window and the bird pics on the blackboard is gorgeous also. Was the blackboard frame a mirror at one time? Love it. Have wonderful weekend.

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  31. Your kitty is so precious, love her. Our dog loves to lie on my papers when I'm working on projects.
    When I first saw your bird images on dictionary pages I didn't see they were on a window.
    When we lived in KY I found a 3ft. square window with 12 panes, free. It was quite heavy so I had hubs build a frame for l/r wall to hang the window. I put botanical pics I'd printed on back of panes.
    I hated to leave that frame when we left KY but we didn't have room for it in the truck or when we got to CO. We had to store too much while we lived in our travel trailer looking for a house.
    It still bothers me as I'd love to have that frame now. We also had to leave several old wood windows, arrrgggghhh.
    I did find a thesaurus at a thrift store recently so will print bird images to put on the pages to put in my one window I have left. So glad I found your blog again.

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