Crafting and Cutting

This week I have been doing some crafting, something which I haven’t done for ages because I’m a perfectionist and very impatient. If a project doesn’t come out perfect and isn’t quick to complete then I lose interest and/or patience. So I’ve been focusing on something quick and relatively fool proof; making Christmas money envelopes from vintage annuals. I took a few into work to show my colleagues what I had been doing at the weekend and I now have 12 orders from family and friends. I was originally making the envelopes to sell at the Vintage and Handmade Fair in October, so I best get cracking if I’m going to make enough for my orders and have a decent amount to take to the vintage fair. Luckily I have stacks of vintage annuals to choose from, although female themed envelopes are much harder to make than the ‘male’ themed ones. I’m finding that boy’s annuals are full of colourful battle illustrations and cowboys comic strips, whereas the vast majority of the girl’s annuals contain a select number of beautiful images, accompanied by lots and lots of written articles. It seems girls were educationally ahead of the boys even in the 50s?

I’ve also been flicking through some of my vintage women’s magazines to find cosmetic and hair inspired adverts to frame above my dressing table. I'll follow up with a picture of them in prime position once I’ve hung them. The only problem with cutting the adverts out of one of my magazines was that last night I decided that I wanted to start collecting issues of the said magazine, ‘Woman’s Illustrated’, and have now found that it isn’t very easy to get hold of, even on Ebay! The horror! It actually kept me awake last night as I mentally cursed myself for not being patient enough to photocopy the adverts from the magazine rather than bulldoze in with a pair of scissors. Aghhh.

I’m watching a couple of ‘Woman’s Illustrated’ on Ebay at the moment but if anybody else comes across any when charity shopping and carbooting and decide they’d like to sell them, please think of me. I’m also collecting ‘Mother Magazine’, but managed to not start chopping these to pieces. I am however kept awake by the fact that when in a shop in Brick Lane a few months ago, I decided to ignore the urge to buy a whole stack of them (at £1 each!) and only picked up two. Aghhh. I’m going to blame my Asperger’s for my tendency to obsess over mistakes and missed opportunities, although I’m sure it’s something every vintage magpie experiences…that beautiful rare thing that you failed to buy.

My favourite ad from Mother magazine.

This 50s ad fell out of a stack of men's magazine I picked up a a carboot a few weeks ago. I love it, especially the colours.