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. 

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. 

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!

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!

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