52 Weeks of Collage Part 2 Week 21

I've missed 2 weeks of my 52 weeks of collage but I have a good reason. I've been going through my bucket list for 2017 and checked off #9-Plan A Trip. I've just had a fabulous vacation in Vietnam and will be posting about that later.

Meanwhile, here is my collage for week 21. It's a small 4" x 4.75". The butterfly is hand-colored and it's layered on vintage documents, hand made papers and rubber stamping.

collage week 21

52 Weeks of Collage Part 2 Week 18

I love using old documents in my collages and this week I used lots of my scraps - tickets, ledger paper,  a love letter from 1916.

52 Weeks of Collage Part 2 Week 17

This week's collage features some of my Japanese scraps -a vintage photo of a geisha, an old apothecary label, some Japanese calligraphy, and floral washi paper.

collage week 17

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 15

This week I did another tiny collage on scrap matte board. The board is a beige color and I used scraps  of hand made papers and vintage documents.

collage week 15

Janusz Stanny

I love the illustrations of Polish artist Janusz Stanny (1932-2014). I purchased this book on Ebay - it dates from 1962 and was published in Warsaw. I thought it might be poetry but I've translated a bit it's more of a nature lesson. The images are beautiful in their simplicity. I particularly like the way the fur is done on the wild boar and deer.

52 Weeks of Collage Part 2 Week 14

This week I used a bunch of scraps for my collage. I have a box of tiny scraps that are left-overs from larger pieces of paper. These always come in handy for something and I hate to waste them.

my box of scraps

Sometimes I try to do a whole collage using only pieces from the scrap box and this week I came up with a pair. The duo is done on scrap mat board that is a pale gray. I stamped on the boards in gold and brown ink and then layered on bits and pieces in different patterns of pink. Vintage type and music make it not too sweet.

collage duo week 14

52 Weeks of Collage Part 2 Week 13

This week's collage has a gardening theme. I used a vintage gardening book cover, an old seed packet a vintage butterfly, some hand made papers and a tiny bird.

collage week 13

Vintage Polish Illustration

I just purchased this fabulous vintage book from a Polish seller on Ebay. I can't read it but I know that the first story is "Sleeping Beauty" so I assume it is a book of fairy tales (I couldn't translate the title). The book was published in Warsaw and dates from 1961 but I think it was originally published in Moscow in 1950. Anyway, I purchased it for the wonderful borders on every page. The illustrator is Michal Bylina (Polish, 1904-1982).

52 Weeks of Collage Part 2 Week 12

I have a stash of old Reader's Digest book covers and I used one for the base of this week's collage. I rubber stamped leaves and type and then added a strip from a vintage document. On a separate card, I stamped a pattern and then layered some hand made paper. I added a bird cut from a vintage print (the bird is a copy - scanned into my computer and printed as needed to keep the original) and glued the smaller card onto the book cover.

collage week 12

52 Weeks of Collage Part 2 Week 11

Everything is coming up roses! I just purchased a pack of vintage wallpaper from Etsy shop reginasstudio (the ledger paper in the background is from the same shop) and was inspired by a piece with a large pink rose. I whitewashed one of my wood panels and then rubber stamped a pattern with gold ink. The wallpaper, a few scraps of Japanese washi paper and a fragment of a vintage document complete the collage.

collage week 11

52 Weeks of Collage Part 2 Week 10

Spring has suddenly arrived - it went from cold (by Southern California standards) and rainy to sunny and 80 in just a few days. This week is a little bird collage on wood panel - robin red breast to welcome spring. Vintage music, documents and wallpaper plus rubber stamps were used to create the collage.

collage week 10

52 Weeks of Collage Part 2 Week 9

This week, I used another wood panel and mounted vintage music for the background. I layered on a paper doily and gold star paper. I printed a bird image on a vintage French document and hand colored the bird. The blue-gray handmade paper was printed in gold with a rubber stamp.

Collage week 9

52 Weeks of Collage Part 2 Week 8

This week, I did a collage on a tiny canvas. This size gives me a chance to use up some of my scraps. I stamped the background with one of my hand cut eraser stamps. Some scraps of hand made papers and a Japanese stamp finish it off.

Collage week 8

52 Weeks of Collage Part 2 Week 7

Totally forgot to post last night... My collage for week 7 is done on a wood panel. I used vintage Japanese paper as a base and layered on a letterpressed fan of my own design, hand made washi papers and an image of a geisha from an old postcard. I scanned and re-printed the geisha image onto rice paper so the calligraphy layer shows through for a nice background pattern.

Collage week 7

52 Weeks of Collage Part 2 Week 6

More butterflies this week. I used all different documents to collage a background and on top, layered a butterfly, hand made Japanese papers and some rubber stamping.

Collage week 6

Mouse Obsession

For some reason, I am (mildly) obsessed with felted mice. I find them completely adorable while my husband finds them totally creepy. Granted, we are having a slight mouse problem in the house right now...the pitter patter of little feet in the walls...so I can see his point. But the felted mice are soooo cute. I've purchased a few of them from various sellers on Etsy - they are so endearing in the photos that I have no control.

Here are a pair that I purchased from Mouse Stories. The maker, Ksenia, made sure I was happy with the little critters before she sent them (all the way from Russia). The attention to detail is amazing. I'm not sure which is my favorite - the cutie with the suitcase (you know I love vintage suitcases!) or the little guy wearing a kitty on his sweater.

Too cute!

Love the tiny suitcase!

Tiny knit sweater with a kitty on it

52 Weeks of Collage Part 2 Week 5

This week, I did another collage on a wood panel. This one features two butterflies, Japanese calligraphy and handmade papers, and some vintage music.

Collage Week 5

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 3

When I create a collage, I always end up with lots of extra little pieces and they end up in a scrap box. My collage this week is made from those scraps.

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

52 weeks of Collage Part 2 - Week 1

One of my goals for 2017 is to do another 52 weeks of collage. I purchased some birch wood panels at my local art store to try as a base for collage. They worked great! It's hard to rubber stamp on canvas because the surface is uneven but the wood is nice and flat. The wood panels can get expensive but I got these on sale. I like that if you don't have a place to hang them, the panels easily sit on a shelf since they are 1.5 inches deep.

On my first collage, I used black and gold handmade and vintage papers letting the natural wood show. The wood grain just adds another element.

52 Weeks Part 2 - Week 1

Rubber stamps work really well on the wood

New in the Shop

A new card for my Etsy shop. This image was inspired by the cactus plants I have on my windowsill. I have them in ceramic pots and am trying not to kill them. The card is letterpress printed from my hand carved linoleum blocks in black and green ink.

New in the shop

New Year's Resolutions

Everyone has to have a few New Year's Resolutions, whether they are kept or not is another matter. Here are a few of mine in no particular order.

1. Try not to have all my stuff take over the guest room so that when guests actually come, I don't  have to spend weeks cleaning it out (this one will be hard to keep).

2. Create round 2 of a Collage A Week (Another 52 Collages).
2a. Self-publish a book of my collages so when they sell, I still have a record.
2b. Use up some of my collage materials before I buy new ones.

3. Re-photograph all the product in my Etsy shop.

4. Post to my blog - as well as Instagram -  a bit more often (I really was a slacker this year).

5. Find some new craft shows.

6. Organize Everything (not likely to happen).

7. Take a Shibori dying class.

8. Garden clean-up once a month, not once a year.

9. Plan a trip.

10. Finish the projects I have started before moving on to something new.

11. Keep my drafting table clean (really a horrendous mess right now).

12. Don't stress out if none of the above gets done.