Monday, October 12

Handmade Vintage-Style Collage Papers

Hi everyone!

Autumn has arrived here in the western part of Germany. It had been raining for the better part of last week along with a significant temperature drop. Not that I'm complaining. After a scorching summer we can certainly use a bit of rain. The trees are happy and so are the birds. 

A stack of handmade collage papers

Downstairs, the light in my studio isn't the best at the moment, but I still wanted to share my recent makes. I gathered old book pages, toned sketching pages and regular printer paper and applied various paints, inks, pencils and pens in a predetermined color palette. I wanted to keep these fairly neutral, as I will be using them as backgrounds in my art journals. My palette consisted of white, cream, taupe, raw umber and black. 

fineliner flowers and leaves

I also enjoyed making a batch of flowers and leaves as "collage fodder". I used fineliners in black to draw simple flower and leaf shapes in a loose and scribbly fashion, filling up two sheets of drawing paper. I cut all of them out - which required quite a bit of patience!

Leaf prints

These leaf prints were done with stencils and ink sprays. Splotches are inevitable, however, I don't really mind, as most of them will be covered with either paint or other collage pieces. These were done on grey-toned sketching paper. 

After I was done I felt like creating a journal page. I selected a few of my papers, tore them up (yes, I hesitated at first) and adhered them in my journal with gel medium along with a few of my scribbly flowers. I'm loving all the texture and patterns!

vintage-style art journal page

Thank you for visiting my blog. Have a great day!

Monday, October 5

Junk Journal Fun

Hi everyone!

I endeavour to make art every day, but when I don't have much time or energy I pull out my handmade junk journal for some simple art. Usually that means throwing down some paint, making marks and perhaps adding a bit of collage. The junk journal pages already have color or pattern on them which serve as a starting point. I just allow myself to play and have fun!

For those interested, I have included my video of how I made the junk journal at the bottom of this post. This is a longer video (about 10 minutes) as I am demonstrating how to make it from scratch. 

Junk Journal Page with Face

The above page includes a background of vintage music sheet, stamps and stencils. You can watch the YouTube shorts here:


Journal Page with Acrylic Paint

The above is a recent page I made with acrylic paint and lots of colorful layers and bold marks. You can watch the full YouTube video here:


And lastly I'm sharing the video of how to make the Junk Journal here:


Thank you so much for visiting! Have a great week ahead!