From the Harry Potter Closet

In our current residence, we have a closet that is under the stairs.  I call it the "Harry Potter" closet.  All of my crafting supplies have been banished to this closet after losing their home back east.  (This house is smaller & I have no more "studio" to work in.)

One of the things that I moved cross country was a great find from the World's Largest Garage Sale that I shopped at with my mom and brother before moving.

I purchased a stack of "The Art Amateur magazine; devoted to art in the household."  They were published back in 1893-1894.  I was thinking about some ideas for crafts, decor, and swapping last night so I pulled them out of the HP closet to peruse.

Although it is too large for me to scan an entire page, I do have some cool images that I wanted to share:

Of course, like anything today, this magazine began with several pages of advertisements.  Obviously from the title you have guessed that everything is art themed.  Some of my favorite images from the August 1894 issue are some of the book plates:

I posted this whole section so that you could read the information that accompanied the book plates.  Nifty!

Anyone wishing to share some craft ideas using these images, feel free to comment.  I have a couple ideas bouncing around in my head; just need them time to make them happen.

First Arrivals

The swaps came in a huge pile yesterday.  (Maybe not huge, but all at once.)  Here they are:

This came from Asheville, NC:  we were to write about our week and the plans we had for the weekend.

Blythe Doll came from Arizona:  5 book suggestions.

From Washington State:  Random postcard with greeting.  (This sender is new to the west like me.)

These envelopes came from Missouri and were made from a calendar.

I find it ironic that I would get bird calendar envelopes since that is what I sent.  (Only mine went to Australia!)

Here is the inside view.

This swapper also sent some extras!

Pages from a book & some cutouts.

Learn a Spanish phrase-a-day calendar.

Stickers.  (Sage has her eyes on these!)

My final treasure of the day was a package from California with loads of 6x6 scrapbook pages & stickers.

Greeting card with the papers.

I think I love this hobby!!!  There were also some neat stamps, but Sage is tired of waiting for her turn at the computer, so I'll save those for another day.