Patterns in Pink

This week, my collage is a little different. I used a selection of hand made papers from my scrap box and combined them with rubber stamping, pen and ink, and a bird cut from letterpress makeready (makeready is the process that gets an image ready to print. I use paper over and over again to get the color and position of the letterpress plates in the correct spot and the patterns and textures that occur can be very interesting). I'm offering this collage as a print in my Etsy shop.

Collage week 22

New Cards

New in my Etsy shop is this letterpress note card. It's one of the illustrations from my 2014 calendar and was printed from my hand cut linoleum block. The image was inspired by the succulents and cacti that I have on the windowsill in my office. The white pot in the back was the inspiration for the middle pot on the card.

New Note Card

Nothing but Trouble

For some reason, the collage for this week gave me a lot of trouble. The first layer I put down was really ugly so I covered it up. I tried a rubber stamp and it smeared so I covered it up. Nothing was coming together. The result is a simple collage. Not a lot of layers or techniques. Just vintage wallpaper, 2 Japanese washi papers, a vintage Japanese match box label, a postage stamp and a Chinese character.

Collage week 21

Yellow Stamps

I just purchased several packs of vintage stamps. There were over 1000 of them and it took  some time to organize by color. Some of my favorites are the yellow and orange ones. My collage for week 20 is done on a 4" x 4" canvas. The background is made up of vintage papers with a bit of white acrylic paint. On top is a piece of marbled paper, a Russian rubber stamps, and 3 of my new vintage postage stamps - the yellow one is from Germany and the other two are from the Netherlands.

Collage week 20

Flea Market Finds

Last Sunday, I went to the flea market and I found some money. Vintage money. One of the vendors had a whole box full and each bill was $1. The detail and colors caught my eye. Of course I, the ephemera junkie, had to have some. Keep an eye out - they will soon be used in my collages.

Vintage Money

Tiny Butterfly Collage

For week 19, I've done another tiny collage on canvas. It measures just 2.5" x 3.5".  I started with a dark, chocolate brown acrylic paint, layered 3 different hand made papers and rubber stamped in gold ink. I then added a butterfly, some vintage music and my chop in Japanese characters. You would think a tiny collage would be easier than a large one, but they actually can take longer to get the layout just right.

Collage Week 19

Week 18

My collage for week 18 is a few days late but here it is. It started with a print of my ink bottle on a vintage postcard. I then mounted the card on a book cover from my stash of mid century Reader's Digest books. Add some hand made paper, a bit of music and a butterfly and the collage is done. I did a collage using the same ink bottle last year. You can see it here.

Collage week 18

I normally don't like to cut up perfectly good books, but many of the older Reader's Digest books that I have are cracked along the spine and starting to fall apart so I don't feel quite so badly. The cover's on the older books have wonderful patterns - I keep some for collaging and the rest just to keep.