Friday Freebies - Free use photo & papers. Plus a link to free Somerset Digital Mag

How have you been? It has been crazy around here. First the ceiling thing & then a trip out of town threw a wrench in my already unbalanced schedule. I'll spend the next few days trying to get everything back on track. 

1st thing on my personal to-do list is blogging! I am surprised how much I've missed taking time out  to decompress & organize my thoughts. I've also missed visiting my favorite blogs & am looking forward to seeing what everybody's been up to lately.  Ok. Enough of my chatter - let's get to some freebies:

 Do you like Stampington & Co. Magazines? 

Have you downloaded the FREE Digital issue yet? Click here to get your free copy. Follow the link & you'll also find instructions for entering their random drawing for a $15 gift certificate to the Shoppe at Somerset. 

Following are some fun paper bits.  Feel free to use them in your projects. If you need a better resolution or closeup, just send me your email & I'll get right to you. (Find my contact info in my profile).

  October 15 -21 Mama & Aunt Flory

These grande dames followed me home from Bohemian Vintage. They're looking for a good time & I thought someone out there might have fun playing with them. 

This time sheet is from B.V. too. The original is 10.5" wide & this is only the top half. This page is from the same ledger as the filled out sheet I posted last month. If you missed that one & would like to check it out, click here.

I'm not sure where I picked up this fun page from an old book of patents. There's a stack of brittle pages around here somewhere. If I stumble over them & the shop name is still attached, I'll pass it along.

I hope some of these can be of use. If you make anything and want to share, I'll be happy to post your creation.

If you're in the bloggy neighborhood Monday, please pop back in. The artist Laura Koniver, MD of Heartsong Fine Art will be stopping by with a fascinating post on creativity & health. She is also generously sponsoring this week's (delayed) Thursday Giveaway.

Wishing everyone a  wonderful weekend! I hope you come back in a few days & look forward to seeing you soon.

Free-use vintage photos

Ruth Mullin, Helen Crozier, Juliet Rice, Elizabeth Reach, Elinor Robinson, Bessie Wilson

Oops almost forgot to share these today. Here are some of the photos I bought from Bohemian Vintage yesterday. If you missed yesterday's post on this fun neighborhood shop, click here.

1912 'Jacks'

These photos for anyone to use. If you need a better resolution, drop me a line with your email & I'll send it over. If you make something cool, I'll be happy to show off your creation on this blog. I've included the text off the back of each photo.

1912 Jed

Edward Phillips Greene age 8 months

Brady J Evans Rison (or Bison?) Ark.

I hope you enjoy the photos. If you are in the bloggy neighborhood tomorrow, please stop by - I'll be sharing the part 1 photos of a 2 part tour.

Some of my Etsy Faves

I do love etsy! Though I buy way more than I sell. I was rearranging some of my finds tonight (maintaining the illusion of cleaning the studio). I've too many lovelies to mention them all here. I'll just post a few & save the rest for another day.

My latest toy came from The Fab Miss B. I'm a sucker for tiny metal moving parts. Anybody know what it is? I'll tell you at the end of this post. Pop by & check out her great vintage stuff! Like these cool Pyrex Science Beakers. Very very tempting but I'm saving my pennies for this weekend.

She also has a wonderfully eclectic blog HERE

The 1st piece I ever bought on etsy was this ACEO from Acarrdian

Pool of Love by Diana Carr

Check out this interesting piece she has for sale right now

Eve's Remorse by Diane Carr

In addition to her shop, Diane has more of her artwork on Flickr HERE

Now don't tell my husband but I am just mad about this boy

Portrait of a boy with eyes askance by Lisa Falzon

As well as everything else at Meluseena!

Queen Elizabeth brooch by Lisa Falzon

You can find out what new things this talented artist is up to on her blog. She also has a highly addictive "micro-fiction" blog where all stories are 50 words long (Take that Twitter!)

This wood burning portrait of Artis Gilmore just shouted take me home!

Artis Gilmore by Brian Bleakley

So I did. Looks like Brian's etsy shop is empty today. He's got a cool banner though. You can see more of his artwork at his website, brianbleakley.com

And for a fun mix of paper/wood cut collage supplies you can't beat The Porkchop Show!

Haha - I'm supposed to be saving up for the weekend (more about that tomorrow) . But when I went to find some cool porky cut-outs to feature I couldn't resist these great gears!

Don't worry I left plenty of cool stuff for you! Like these:

Insane Asylum Paper Cut Keys by Porkchop Show

I could go on & on .... really. I have way too much fun poking around on etsy & many places the prices are so amazing even a penny pincher like myself can indulge a little. But it's getting late. Believe it or not my original intention tonight was to simply post a reminder about tomorrow's random drawing at noon (EST) for the custom 16" x 20" photo printed on canvas. If you haven't entered yet, click HERE for contest details. And if you have....Good Luck!

Oh, by the way, the device from The Fab Miss B is a vintage postage scale and stamp holder. Did you guess right? Man you're old...awww...I'm just kidding!!

Freebies for Friday

Hey there. Haven't had time to finish any new stuff. But thought I'd post pics for any one who wants to use them in a project.

For many years I collected vintage / antique postcards.

No rhyme or reason, just images that caught my eye.

Sometimes what interested me most was the untold stories. Love the old cash register in this one. Click on any of these to enlarge.

Eventually I need to put some on DeviantArt as stock images. It is always fun to see what people do with them. If you make anything with these, I'd love to see it. Happy to post your creation on this blog too, if you want.

Barbara Moustafa of Rusty Mermaid Dolls has done some fun digital collages with pics I've posted in the past. I'll try to get some up here this weekend.

Illustration Friday's prompt to day is Idle. I've got a couple of ideas but it may be a few days before I get a chance to set one down. In the meantime, go see what other fun art has been inspired by this prompt.

Oh, Melange prompt is Harbor this week. Click HERE to visit or add your own.

If you're looking for some more fun free images, ArtFreebies always has some great stuff in the archives & more pieces every day or so. There is a cool owl posted there today for the Soartful Saturdays art challenge.

Final Note: If you haven't yet entered next Thursday's Giveaway, what's holding you back? You could be the lucky winner! The fab prize provided by OnlinePosterPrinting.com is a 16" x 20" canvas print of your favorite summer photo. To enter all you have to do is leave a comment describing your pic before noon (EST) 7/31. For contest details CLICK HERE

Monday's Muse - History, Memory, Poetry

Years ago I managed a cavernous 25 yr old antiques shop. The owner was a retired Air Force Colonel with a passion for collecting. Everyone suspected the shop existed as an excuse for him to stay on the hunt. He would purchase entire estates simply to acquire "that special something." Needless to say, I spent a lot of time plowing through overstuffed dressers & unmarked boxes. The man had (literally) rooms full of items that he had forgotten about. In the "library" under a stack of mouldering magazines from the late 1800s, I found some WWII era photo albums. Most of the photos are only marked with time & place. Very few names. The Colonel didn't recognize them & figured they must be from some random estate sale. For $10 they were mine.

Bricquebec - July 1944

I've no idea who these people are. I believe the original owner is the balding fellow 2nd in from the right as he appears in many of the photos taken across Europe. The photo above is the 1st in the album.

Nancy - 1946

These albums are bursting with pictures of monuments, ruins, cannons, scenery, military parades & picnics. Every few pages there is a similar shot - rows & rows of crosses. Only the date & location changes.

1947 - Luxembourg

Patton's Grave

Each Memorial Day I find myself pulling these albums out & paging through. I wonder who these people are. What did they see & think & feel? Are any of them around today and what stories could they tell?

This year, these questions sent me googling. Click on the links below the photos (these were the titles on the original pics) to see what connections I've found. Please keep in mind that these links aren't necessarily associated with the photos, just my own word-association game. (For example, the Mme Pell link connects to a USA WWII propaganda film Salute To France)

Picnic Mme Pell 1945

Memorial Day for the War Dead
by Yehuda Amichai

Memorial day for the war dead.  Add now
the grief of all your losses to their grief,
even of a woman that has left you.  Mix
sorrow with sorrow, like time-saving history,
which stacks holiday and sacrifice and mourning
on one day for easy, convenient memory.

Oh, sweet world soaked, like bread,
in sweet milk for the terrible toothless God.
"Behind all this some great happiness is hiding."
No use to weep inside and to scream outside.
Behind all this perhaps some great happiness is hiding.

Memorial day.  Bitter salt is dressed up
as a little girl with flowers.
The streets are cordoned off with ropes,
for the marching together of the living and the dead.
Children with a grief not their own march slowly,
like stepping over broken glass.

The flautist's mouth will stay like that for many days.
A dead soldier swims above little heads
with the swimming movements of the dead,
with the ancient error the dead have
about the place of the living water.

A flag loses contact with reality and flies off.
A shopwindow is decorated with
dresses of beautiful women, in blue and white.
And everything in three languages:
Hebrew, Arabic, and Death.

A great and royal animal is dying
all through the night under the jasmine
tree with a constant stare at the world.

A man whose son died in the war walks in the street
like a woman with a dead embryo in her womb.
"Behind all this some great happiness is hiding."