Saturday, June 02, 2012

Vintage Photo Find

A couple weeks ago I found an awesome treasure at an estate sale....an old photo album....filled with old photos! They range in date from the 1920s - 40s (based on cars and fashions in the photos)
What an incredible find! On one hand, it is sort of sad that no one in the family wanted these glimpses of days gone by but on the other hand, now they will have a new life!
As I pulled these beauties from the ancient album (and I do mean PULLED as they were glued in with what appears to be old type school glue!) I was witness to graduations, marriages, births, new homes... It made me want to know these people better but alas, that will never happen so I must only imagine who they are and the lives they lead.
As I have been pondering what exactly to do with all these many snapshots of time (over 50 of them!!!) I saw Tim Holtz latest blog post....about aging vintage photos!!! Woohoooo!
blogger is not letting me link to the website so here is the URL www.timholtz.com look for the June 1, 2012 post.
Normally I would not destroy an original photo, but this one actually had a double so I chose the one that was damaged and played around. As you can see, it is creased and has some discoloration.
Below you can see how I 'aged' it even more using Distressed Inks. I thought the little guy looked dapper in Pine Needles green and I tinted his wagon with Barn Door red. I then darkened the rest of the photo with layers of Old Paper, Tea Dye and Walnut Stain. I made sure to enhance the creases in the upper right (just cause I love that look lol)
I then created the tag. I smudged Distress Inks over the tag and spritzed with water so they would bleed. I then darked the edges and corners with Tie Dye and Walnut Stain and spritzed again. I stamped random images in black knowing that only bits would be showing. I stamped the bingo card (Tim Holtz from Stampers Anonymous "Life Possibilities") directly onto the photo using Memories dye ink, Chestnut. The 'childish' text is from a sheet of scrap book paper I bought over 10 years ago and just keep tearing out sections when I need them. (I am down to about 3" square of that 12x12 page lol)
I added an old gold button that I aged with alcohol inks and finally more antique buttons threaded onto ribbon to finish it all off.
Here is a close-up.
And lastly, my 1 year old camera died...which needless to say upset me very much! What was worse, I found out that this is a known problem and the company doesn't care! They make lot of money having you ship your camera, they do a minor adjustment and then charge you an arm and a leg to get it back!
Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me! I will never ever buy or deal with a Nikon product ever again!
Long story short, I bought a Canon! And as much as I loved the features on the Nikon, I am over the moon the features on my new Canon SX150!!!
I love playing around in photoshop but sometimes it is time consuming. My camera can do something that I had to manually do before......leave my subject in color and make the rest black and white!
This is one of the roses in my garden (which just started blooming this week!)

16 comments:

www.hokiecoyote.com said...

I love your tag!

Shelly Hickox said...

What an amazing find - I'm totally jealous!! I only dream of getting cools stuff like that at estate sales.

I love the photo you chose too - the green is perfect. Great job!

Barbara said...

Love your tag and your flower photo. I love my Canon!

Sue said...

I love this tag & what a great find although it's sad to think of lost photos. Anyway love the way you have coloured this & as you have used an original it adds to the overall effect. Sx

April said...

Really cute picture and you did a great job on your tag!

Seahorse Ranch Girl said...

I like this, too. The faded colors and simple elements make a nice design.

TAM said...

Fabulous tag - what a fantastic find at the estate sale.
Loving your rose as well

EmeralDQueen said...

I love the picture you did a great job with this technique :)

Ana K. said...

Great tag and photo is...so cute. Great job!

Cynthia said...

I LOVE your tag!! And that photo is just hilarious!! That poor woman looks like a giant--no wonder that kid's upset! =D

Pia said...

just so beautiful tag
hugs Pia

Parabolic Muse said...

Okay, THIS is so COOL! I love what you've done and how you assembled this piece. It's awesome.

Bummer about the camera.

Winnie said...

Cool tag. Love that you are giving life to old disgarded photos. Love how you tinted it.

Anna said...

What a wonderful find!! Hope we will be seeing more "vintage" works from you!

Kate Yetter said...

Lovely vintage photo find! Love your tag. I love your simple embellies and sentiment!

Pearl Maple said...

gorgeous tag full of all kinds of itneresting details