Category: Tips

2011 Submission Deadlines

Announcing submission deadlines for designs, artwork, ads, articles and images …

February 11 (Spring Issue) August 6 (Halloween Issue)
May 13 (Summer Issue) October 28 (Christmas Issue)
Please email your submissions to: C365.images@gmail.com
Along with this information about each piece:
• Your name/business name

• Preferred email contact address

• Web address(es) where people can purchase your work

• Name of your ornament/design (if applicable)

• Size

• Price

• Material/brief description

Please submit a high resolution image photographed against a light colored background. High resolution images are usually the “Fine” setting on your digital cameral. Be careful when you email your images to me. Some email or web programs will automatically downsize images as they send them. Check your settings and don’t let the program do this!

Any design selected for publication must be available for purchase at the time of publication.

I will email to confirm that I have received your submission.

Don’t hesitate to ask questions!

Octoberfest … it’s free!

FREE!

Did that get your attention? It’s the deal of the day!

Ghoultide Scarecrow

Ghoultide Gathering Pumpkinman, October 2, 2010
– A Scott Smith, Rucus Studio Creation

Would you like to connect with like-minded people? Those who share your passion for collecting? Consider this my personal invitation to join me at the Glass Links email discusison list.

Long before Celebrate365 was even a concept, I began the Glass Links. It was the mid-1990s … dial-up was the norm. Very few stores were online with shop. Gosh, even Christopher Radko didn’t have a web site. The Glass Links was born of necessity. Collectors simply needed to find out what was out there. What better way than to communicate with one another through that new way of talking — email!

While the Glass Links began as a way of discussing glass ornaments, it has certainly evolved from its initial 12 members! The discussion list is now part of Celebrate365 and it is open to one and all. So, whether you are a collector, a designer, a manufacturer or a folk artist, we all have one thing in common. We love holidays and things that relate to them.

Sound like something you’d like to be part of? Give it a try.

Ah, my email box is already overflowing! I really don’t need anymore coming my way. We understand. That’s why we offer a lot of options. If you join, you may opt to receive your mail as:

  • individual messages
  • one digest per day (one email containing all the messages for the given day)
  • NO mail! Check in ONLINE and read/respond to messages.

We aim to please. And, did I mention it’s FREE?

Give it a try? We don’t hold you hostage. If you decide we aren’t for you, it’s simple to unsubscribe.

Here’s where you need to go: CLICK HERE.

One final comment:

I need to physically approve each new subscriber. And, I’ll be traveling until Monday, October 4. I won’t have internet access again until Monday morning. So please be patient until I can activate you.

Unless I personally know you, your first 4 posts will be moderated. That just means that I will need to read & approve them before your email appears for others to read. It’s just my way of seeing that you are real and not one of those pesky spammers!

So, please join us. Let us know what you collect, design or hand craft! Join others who share your passion.

 

 

Design Inspiration: Vintage Halloween Doilies

Vintage Halloween Doily Sometimes happy discoveries occur when I’m searching for one thing but come away with an unexpected treasure.  That’s what happened when I was looking for vintage Halloween graphics online.

Set of Vintage Paper Doilies –

Orange, yellow & green
1920s-1930s, 5.5″ diameter
Made in the USA
Vintage Halloween Doily I found this image of a colorful paper doily and soon discovered that there were two other matching designs.

Halloween Collectibles author Mark Ledenbach notes that the set of doilies were printed in these three colors: orange, yellow, green.
Inspiration Quilt And, imagine my surprise when I discovered this version on Martha Dellasega Gray’s Q is for Quilter web site.

An avid quilter, Gray designed this 38″ diameter table topper based upon the green version of the 5.5″ paper Halloween doily. Follow her instructions and progress as the vintage doily inspired a modern interpretation. Please CLICK here.
Imagine my further surprised when I attended Mark Craven’s annual Vintage Holiday show Memorial Day weekend in Columbus, Ohio.  I found the orange version at the top of this page.  Of course, I just had to have it!

Martha’s project proves that good design is timeless.  Further, good design can transcend genres and mediums.  I shared my happy discovery with several artists who also found the designs inspiring.

See the Halloween 2010 issue of Celebrate365 to view the full Design Inspiration article. Folk artists Vergie Lightfoot, Susie Pastor and Lori Rudolph each created works inspired by these vintage paper doiles.  Each designed in a different medium.

To purchase a single copy of this issue and discover their creations, please CLICK here.

Tinsel Time … the Magical Shimmer of German Lametta

I confess.  I have a thing for tinsel.  Not just any tinsel, mind you.  I want that wonderful, heavy metal stuff from my childhood, those silvery strands that my father patiently hung on the tree one by one.

What incredible dedication.  And, what a magical sight to behold! Mom certainly did not have time for that!  Taking down the tree was just as time consuming.  Off they came one by one to be carefully flattened and saved for another year.
How did this tradition begin in our little family?  I never knew.  Since decorating the tree was Dad’s domain, I think that tinsel must have been a Mitchell family tradition remembered from his own childhood Christmases in Dayton, Ohio.

Wow! Have you ever seen so many icicles?

Tinsel

I know that tinsel or lametta originated in Germany in the early 1600s.  German glassblowers from the Lauscha region crafted crystal ornaments, some looked just like icicles.  When the candles were lit on the tree, oh how those icicles glistened!  As the years passed, craftsmen created icicles from tin and even silver.  By the 1920s, the time when my grandfather Edgar Mitchell was celebrating Christmas in Dayton, Ohio with his wife and children, German craftsmen had invented lametta, tinsel icicles made from lead.  My grandmother’s family was German-speaking.  Perhaps that’s how my father’s love for a Christmas tree dripping in tinsel began.

Later generations have not experienced the magic of tinsel on Christmas morning.  Lead based lametta has been banned from the American market since the 1960s.  The past two Decembers, I’ve walked the aisles of German Christmas markets in search of the real thing.  Sadly, this magical tradition seems to be out of vogue in German households nowadays.  Although we visited markets, stores and flea markets in city after city, sightings of that old-fashioned lametta were few and far between.
But, I am persistent. During the past two years, little by little, I’ve gathered quite a collection of tinsel lametta, both vintage and newly manufactured.  I’ve come to appreciate the graphics on those early packets.  They represent an era – a time gone by.

I hope that you will appreciate them as much as I do.  Who knows?  Perhaps you’ll find something new and affordable to collect!

Click here or on the angel to view the tinsel collection.  New stock arrive this fall!