The Gift of Cancer from Joan Crawford

Here's Mommy Dearest all dressed up in Persian lamb, playing Santa Craw with a carton of smokes.  Enjoy!

All images are high resolution and free for your use. Please don't add them to digital collections for resale. Click below to visit my shop!

Call Me Maybe

Calling all crafters: I've just listed a bunch of new retro images at my shop. The Retro Jello collage sheet contains lots of weird molded salads. Retro Kitchens is filled with what women want most (matching appliances). And Woman's Work embraces all the joys of cooking and cleaning. Stop by the shop and see them all. No need to call first - we're always open.

All images are high resolution and free for your use. Please don't add them to digital collections for resale. Click below to visit my shop!

The Language of Flowers Deux

In honor of a tradition that dates all the way back to last year, here are gift tags that feature Victorian flowers and the hidden messages they convey (not all of which are flattering). Each tag is about the size of an index card and has been altered to enhance its vintage appeal. May they make your holidays a little happier.

All images are high resolution and free for your use. Please don't add them to digital collections for resale. Click below to visit my shop!

Sci-Fi Santa

If you've ever gotten high enough to sit through a screening of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, then you already know: when that jolly red elf meets those little green men, hilarity expires! So here's Santa with crrrazy critters from outer space, as seen on the cover of this 1950s science fiction pulp magazine. It's pretty cheesy but the ones in my shop are even worse. Dewdrop inn and view them, won't you?

All images are high resolution and free for your use. Please don't add them to digital collections for resale. Click below to visit my shop!

I Think It's a Duck

It might be a pheasant, or some kind of peacock, or maybe a totally mythical bird. In any case, that's definitely Brahma seated on top. The whole pantheon of Hindi gods is featured - represented, anyway - in a new collage sheet I've just released. Why not visit my shop and enjoy a little trip to aum sweet aum.

All images are high resolution and free for your use. Please don't add them to digital collections for resale. Click below to visit my shop!

Kate Beaton Greenaway

I first encountered Kate Greenaway's work in a shop in Chicago's Old Town, incongruously displayed among sex posters and drug paraphernalia and bootleg rock albums in what was then the city's hippie epicenter. Below is the beautiful cover of the book that caught my eye: The Language of Flowers. (The text has been removed so you can use it as a card.)

Greenaway's cheerful palette and lively lines have kept her work fresh and appealing for over a century. Her world is sweet, but not sticky. Pretty, but not precious. Her solemn-faced children wear frilly bonnets and bows but they never seem frivolous.

I read up on KG while working on a collage sheet of her paintings, and learned that she once wanted to be a humorous illustrator. A cartoonist. Imagine: Kate Greenaway could have become the Kate Beaton of her day. In the ink sketch below you can see how, even early on, her compositions told a story quickly and clearly.

Kate lived with her brother and her dog in the custom home that success allowed her to commission. Her work was popular, but what about her? In one of the doodles that often decorated her letters, she depicts herself as a hermit in a cave. In reality her home was far more inviting, with a special tea room right next to her studio where she relaxed with friends.

By the turn of the century tastes had changed and Kate Greenaway's work was out of style. She died at age 55, a victim of breast cancer. She is survived by an ever-renewing group of fans and an immortal legion of graceful, charming children.

For more of her work, search my shop for Greenaway or just visit the Collage Sheets section.

All images are high resolution and free for your use. Please don't add them to digital collections for resale. Click below to visit my shop!

I Am Thankful

When I sit down to Thanksgiving dinner, I will be thankful that I didn't have to

feed it,

milk it,

kill it,

or pull it from the ground.

I'll also be very grateful to everyone who did, and hope they get to enjoy the fruits of their labor as much as the rest of us will. Happy Thanksgiving!