French Stamps

Now that my Christmas gift buying, wrapping and shipping are all done, I had a little time for a new collage. I received these nice stamps on a package from France, and combined them with scraps of handmade and vintage paper, a coffee filter and some type rubber stamps.

Three quarters

I'm up to number 75- three quarters of the way through my 100 tags. This collage is on a jumbo "postcard" tag and uses a vintage seed pack, handmade papers and 2 Ukrainian postage stamps.

Tag 75

Feeling Blue

Two tags for today, each with a blue theme.

Tag 44 uses a part of a vintage letter and a postage stamp from Ireland.

Tag 44

Tag 45 also uses a part of a vintage letter and it is combined with two different papers that line security envelopes (like your bills or bank statement).

Tag 45

Collage Tag Challenge

I did 4 new tags, all using my little coffee filters. The filters get really nice patterns from the coffee (they smell good too!) and the transparency is nice for layering.

Tag 16

Tag 17

Tag 18

Tag 19

When life gives you unexpected free time

...collage!

I purchased some nice old book covers from Red Cottage on Etsy. The base of this collage is a leather cover and part of the spine. The stains on the cover were so beautiful that I didn't want to cover too much. I added some vintage papers, rubber stamp pattern, and postage stamps.

Collage on an antique leather book cover

Time flies by

I can't believe how fast the time goes. I never seem to have enough time to get everything done. I did get a few new collages completed however.

A few months ago, I purchased a massive collection of vintage postage stamps. The books had been left out in the rain so everything was damp. It took me weeks to go through all of the books, peel the stamps off the sheets and flatten everything. The butterfly stamps in the following collages are from that collection. The first three use stamps from Hungary and the last one has a stamp from Bulgaria.

52 Weeks of Collage Part 2 Week 48

A vintage Russian postcard, book cover, hand made paper, and a postage stamp.

collage week 48

52 Weeks of Collage Part 2 Week 41

Week 41 is posted late due to internet issues, now solved.

collage week 41

52 Weeks of Collage Part 2 Week 38

This week, I did a collage duo on matboard. These are made from rubber stamps, a scrap of an antique french letter, handmade decorative papers and vintage postage stamps.

Collage week 38

52 Weeks of Collage Part 2 Week 32

My collage this week is done on canvas. For the background, I used the insides of various business envelopes with security patterns. I layered on  some vintage postage stamps, some labels and part of an old letter. It's finished off with red and white string and some postage-related rubber stamps.

collage week 32

52 Weeks of Collage Part 2 Week 28

I did this week's collage using my favorite vintage documents, rubber stamps and scraps of handmade paper. Then, I felt it needed something. Since my sewing machine was out, I started randomly stitching on top of the collage. I still felt it needed something. I found 2 postage stamps that had black lines going through them that went perfectly with the stitching. Done.

collage week 28

52 Weeks of Collage Part 2 Week 23

I really like doing collage cubes and working on all the sides. This cube is 2.5" square so it's smaller than the 4" ones I've done in the past. I layered acrylic paint, rubber stamps and gold star tissue paper. On top went vintage type, postage stamps, black and gold washi paper and more rubber stamps.

week 23 - sides 1 & 2

week 23 - sides 2 & 3

week 23 - sides 3 & 4

week 23 - sides 4 & 1

Group of Collage Cubes

52 Weeks of Collage Part 2 Week 16

This week, I did my collage on an 8" x 8" wood panel. A nice piece of old ledger paper, some tickets, postage stamps, and a rubber stamp were used.

collage week 16

52 Weeks of Collage Part 2 Week 4

I missed posting a collage yesterday due to an appointment with my Sales and Use tax forms that did not go well. I do not know why they make those things so hard to figure out. Luckily, a nice person at the Board of Equalization helped me out and now, my taxes are all done.

My collage for this week was done on canvas using old French, Italian and Japanese documents along with tickets, postage stamps and music.

Collage week 4

52 weeks of Collage Part 2 - Week 2

Week 2 is another collage on a wood panel. This one uses vintage documents and postage stamps. I am LOVING the wood panels. They are nice and square and you can wrap around the edges evenly. Some of the canvases I have purchased in the past were lumpy and uneven which made it very hard to get the corners nice.

52 weeks of Collage Part 2 Week 2

Collage Cubes

In 2014 I did my 52 weeks of collage. For weeks 35 and 36, I collaged on wood cubes which was fun and a little different. One was given away for an art exchange so I purchased a few more cubes to do some new ones.
 

Collage Cubes from 52 weeks of Collage, 2014

Below is one of the new collage cubes.  I painted the cube with acrylic paint and then used vintage postage stamps, antique documents, bits of old money and rubber stamps.

Top

Sides 1 and 2

Sides 2 and 3

Sides 3 and 4

New Collage

I purchased some vintage Japanese pharmacy labels (from Etsy seller ApricotCircus) in a lovely shade of lavender and was inspired to do this collage. I also used some pages from an antique Japanese book, a sample of one of my old note cards, handmade papers and vintage stamps. The postage stamps aren't Japanese, but the colors went really well.

Japanese Ephemera Collage

Last But Not Least

My last collage of the year! Due to illness, I didn't quite make all of the 52 collages but I did manage to do 49 of them. Week 52 collage is another one done on a vintage Reader's Digest Condensed Book cover. These book covers were nice for collaging on - they were inexpensive at my local thrift shop, usually about 50 cents a book. One side is patterned and one side is a solid color so each book gives you two options. All of the books I purchased were falling apart so I didn't feel too bad about cutting them up. Maybe next year, I should do 52 collages just on book covers... now there's a thought.

This collage was done using my usual favorites - vintage type and music (from a marching band) Japanese rice cake and Chinese soap wrappers, vintage postage stamps, bus tickets and rubber stamps.

Collage week 52

Numbers Game

Week 50 collage is done on a vintage Bingo playing card. The background of type and numbers is interesting to layer on and I like the size (3.75" x 6.5"). I combined it with some type (from a House Industries type catalog), a vintage postage stamp, decorative paper, a rubber stamp and a ticket from the Yellow Cab Company. Wow, only 10 cents for the ride!

Collage week 50

Collages Continue

I've finally been able to get back to my collages and this is week 47. I love doing type collages using my vintage documents so that's what I've used for this collage. It combines mostly French documents, rubber stamps and a vintage postage stamp. The calligraphy on the documents is so beautiful - I wish my handwriting was half as nice.

Collage week 47