THE CAT'S MEOW!

Dear Reader

Here are pix of the first ever ATC's I have made. They were for the Running with Scissors March ATC Challenge. Check out tj-runningwithscissors.ning.com if you want to join in - great for using up scraps and thinking miniature. I love all things miniature like doll's houses, bonsai, fairy houses, ships in bottles, cameos, seed pearls, chihauhas (no, I'm not going to turn up for class with a dog in my crafting bag lol - but then again .....). So I don't know why I've not tried ATCs before. Anyway, I'm a new convert. As these were my first ATC's I decided to make them with leftover paper scraps I've had from when I first started crafting about 18 months ago. Like a lot of people my first knowledge of paper crafting was watching Dawn Bibby on QVC. I made a tentative start but I wanted something different from die cuts and decoupage and I didn't know where else to go or what to do so I visited Dawn's shop in Yorkshire one Sunday. I bought this paper there and used it in my first attempts at putting cards together. I picked it because I love all things from the 1920s/30s and particularly the fashions of that time. I would have been hopeless wearing them - far too curvy - but they were so stylish and such a move from what had gone before. If you think that 30years previous women were still in the Victoria era and in those long dresses buttoned up to the neck and tied in with corsets and stays you can see what an amazing era of freedom for women that this era must have been. My mum had an original 1920's flapper dress and I once wore it for a wedding. I felt a million dollars in it 60 years after it had originally been made. Anyway I've completely digressed away from the ATC's. The papers are graphic 45 (Fashionista Collection) - I think an American company. Everything else - the ribbon and bling - are from my stash. I love words (you've probably guessed that already given the amount I'm posting here about a tiny ATC lol) so the sentiments and sayings I use in my crafting are very important to me. I absolutely love the saying "The cat's meow". Now this isn't something I can rememer my granny saying but it is something I can remember from my youth. The expression comes from the '20s and means 'outstanding'. But I rememer it being used in a sarcastic or put down kind of way (typical for Grimsby where we're quick to put down anyone being seen to get above themselves). I particularly remember a lady once turning up at a concert wearing a huge, nay massive, bow at the neckline of her dress. The woman in front of me turned to her friend and whispered (but not that quietly) "Well! Who does she think she is? She looks like the cat's meow!". I thought the woman was being rude but I did like the expression! Ever since, whenever I see an over-sized bow (and I've tied a few at crafting recently!) I always think of it.