Last Minute DIY Gift Tags

These retro-inspired holiday gift tags are available at Junkmill Relics.
Make your own with Junkmill's Retro Holiday Collage Sheet, available for instant download.

Christmas gift tag by Christine Sanchez.

Looking for a way to perk up those packages under the tree? Check out this idea from customer Christine Sanchez in Canada.

She added images from Junkmill's 12 Days of Christmas Collage Sheets to handmade glitter tags. Quick and easy with a lot of wow-factor. How lovely!

All of Junkmill's holiday image collections are available for instant download following checkout so you can get to crafting right away!

And, as a gift to you, my readers, I put together this free holiday collage sheet sampler (below) using some of my favorite images from the shop. Turn the images into tags, add them to greeting cards or try your hand at some DIY wood slice ornaments. (Right-click image to save collage sheet).

Happy holidays from Junkmill!

Near Portland for Halloween?

If you're in the Portland, Oregon area this weekend, I wholeheartedly recommend a trip to the Joy Cinema in Tigard for the Halloween Scare-A-Thon, featuring five classic, back-to-back monster movies with tons of trivia and prizes.

I recently had the occasion to visit the Joy for their Weird Wednesday showing of Sting of Death with my dear friend Miss Kris from the Laughing Vixen Lounge.

From the opening introductions by Jeff Punk Rock Martin (the owner) and Mr. Monster Kid Radio (Derek M. Koch) to the awesome MST3K vibe, it was more fun than I'd had at the movies in a long time. Plus, they have beer, pizza and (honestly) some of the best popcorn I've ever had.

I'm super bummed to be stuck here in Michigan, but I'll be there in spirit! Happy Halloween you ghouls.

New Stickers

Just added new apothecary stickers to the shop. I'm busy trimming coordinating poison labels tonight while I binge on new "Rosewood" episodes. (I'm a sucker for police procedurals.) 

I suspect I'll have carpal-tunnel-induced claw hands by morning, but hopefully they work well enough to keep listing new goodies. 

It's Back, Bigger than Ever!

5th Annual Attack of the 14 Nights of Halloween 
All you hip dolls and cool ghouls, head on over to the Laughing Vixen Lounge blog for the 5th annual Attack of the 14 Nights of Halloween Giveaway. One lucky winner will walk away with a Prize Pack full of goodies worth $300 donated by 10 wickedly fabulous shops. 

Murder Mystery Scavenger Hunt 
Special giveaway — Earn entries in the Murder Mystery Scavenger Hunt just by browsing Etsy! It works like a game of Clue, with clues hidden in 10 amazing Etsy shops. Submit your guess of Who Done it? on 10/31 and 11/1. One random winner from all correct guesses will win an $90 Prize Pack!

Halloween Movie Marathon
Follow along with the Laughing Vixen for 2 full weeks of spooky movie reviews. Find some new flicks to watch this season, or maybe relive some old favorites, and receive EXTRA ENTRIES in the big giveaway.

An Inch a Day

Have I mentioned my obsession with inchies? I'm quite in love these little 1" square collage creations. Here's why:

• I love instant gratification. At just one inch square, they're a quick fix when I'm feeling overwhelmed with a 50-page altered book that seems to be taking foreeeever. 

• I love experimenting. Inchies require no commitment. If I want to try a new technique, test new inks or play with a stack of old paper unearthed at an estate sale, it's the perfect format. If the experiment doesn't go so well, oh well. It's just one inch.

• I love squares. I relish the golden ratio, my favorite number is 4, and I get a rush from perfectly perpendicular lines (90-degree angles have a strange visceral and calming effect on my nervous nature), so squares just make sense.

• I love tiny things. Gumball machine toys, miniature porcelain animals, buttons, charms ... you name it, I have a stash of it somewhere. 

• I love LOTS of tiny things. One inchie is just, well, one inch of paper mish-mashed together. But dozens of inchies all lined up in a grid or piled high in an old cigar box ... now that's something.

"Safety" Matches

A few of my favorite vintage matchbox labels.

I love the bold hues, the unrefined illustrations and the

spot-color printing, but the real appeal lies in the "safety" angle. 

Lots Doing!

Linen-textured postcards from the 1960s.

I found these at a little charity-run thrift store in Grand Rapids, Michigan. 

They sold quickly in the shop, but I made a few scans before sending 

them on their way. I just love the bold colors and silly cartoon animals!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Gil Elvgren Illustration

Prologue: Strange Beasts of the Past

While perusing my old altered books, I found a few more pages to share from the original Strange Beasts. Above, a two-page spread completed while teaching altered art journaling at Delta College in Bay City, Michigan. This was a guided exercise to help students uncover their own artistic voice while introducing the concepts of ransom note lettering and found poetry. Below, another adventure in grungy lime-yellow with ribbon woven through the facing page. At the bottom, more experiments with geometric relations ... stripes and squares seem to be my favorite method of adding some sense of order to the otherwise chaotic pages.

DDT Is Good for Me

Laboratory tests prove it: Babies who drink soda during their formative years have a higher chance of "fitting in" as teenagers.

I'm a time traveler at heart. I spend an extraordinary amount of time daydreaming of future worlds and musing on the past, and these old advertisements always seem to spark a jumping off point for my little alternate world adventures.

If 100 years ago we thought soda was good for babies, what might we think of our current ways 100 years from now? Maybe future generations will look at old advertisements for baby formula and think, "Well, that's just wacky," or products like Lunchables and Cap'n Crunch will be seen as reckless in retrospect. 

If DDT was once promoted as safe and beneficial, I suppose anything is possible... 

"Added comfort, health and safety ..."

"So pure, so good, so wholesome ..."

"A delicious blended food drink ..." (Eww.)