Here’s another collage inspired by Emily Dickinson. This one is on a chunky canvas and I tried something new for the background, I stitched organza fabric onto of the vintage music paper. I think it adds a nice soft romantic touch. The focal point is a stained wooden tag with vintage book paper, a silhouette on canvas, the quote and a bird charm. I also added a muslin flower with a vintage button and wrapped some lace around the canvas too.
Here’s another recent collage. Guess I’m on a quote kick, this one is inspired by a William Blake quote. It’s on 5″ x 7″ canvas board painted grey with vintage music sheet background. The cage is on a transparency and it’s embellished with a silver bird charm, metal key, metal clip, vintage measuring tape and letter beads.
I adore Emily Dickinson’s poetry. This collage was inspired by one of her most famous quotes. It’s on a 5″ x 7″ canvas board. The main images are of a bird cage and womans silhouette with a bird sitting on top of the cage. I embellished it with vintage measuring tape, a flower I made from muslin and a vintage button and a fountain pen nib.
Over at the Simon Says Stamp and Show the theme this week is Men Only. Here’s a very manly card I made using a cool stamp from River City Rubber Works. The text stamp is from Stampers Anonymous. The background is vintage math book paper and I also added a piece of vintage tape measure.
For while I’ve been admiring an art style that I can only describe as “primitive mixed media girls”. It’s a mixture of paint, paper, embellishments, etc. hand draw and cut into the shapes of girls with a very “prim” look. I’ve decided even though I don’t think I’m very proficient at drawing (or even painting) that I’d like to give this style a go. This is my first attempt at it, so please don’t be too harsh 🙂 I’m pretty happy with the results for a first try, I need to work on my painting techniques for sure!
Since I love Alice in Wonderland so much I thought she’d be a good place to start. On watercolor paper I drew the basic shape of the girl with a pencil then painted her in with acrylic paints and highlighted with Gelato sticks. I then cut out her clothes, glued them down and traced over all the edges with a fine tip black micron pen. Then I cut her out adding a bow and vintage button. Next I glued her to a painted canvas, adding the definition for “curious” cut from a vintage dictionary.
Melting wax that is. I decided I hadn’t played with bees wax for awhile so I got my little crock pot out and played around with it the other day. I made some more captured fairy in a jar art cards, like I did in the past, dipping the collaged jars into the bees wax, they always turn out cute. I also did a bird collage I’m really happy with. I started with a wooden tag and collaged vintage music sheet and images of a bird and egg and the word “fly” cut from a vintage book. Then I took a brush and covered the tag with the melted wax. One of the cool things about wax is it can be remelted. So in a couple spots were it was too thick and cloudy I used my heat tool and melted it a bit to thin it out. You can also use a mini iron to melt the wax as well. I then added some game pieces that spell “egg” and faux grass for a nest. I covered a 5 x 7 canvas board in vintage dictionary paper, mounted the tag in the middle on cardstock and then added a few vintage buttons.
Here’s a couple of my fairy art cards:
doesn’t he look shocked to be captured?:
and this is my bird and egg collage:
I’ve got some new pendants being listed in my Etsy shop, just in time for the holidays. Here’s a couple of new vintage dictionary illustration soldered pendants. BTW if anyone is looking for a certain animal or illustration for a custom pendant let me know, I might have it and I’m glad to do special orders if I can.
Here’s a cute koala bear:
this hedgehog is so fun, although he looks more like a porcupine to me 🙂 :
and I love this tapir, he’s really cool and unusal:
When I was little and asked my parents what something meant they always told me to “go look it up”, i.e in the dictionary, encyclopedia, etc. It’s not that they didn’t want to help me, they wanted me to learn to use the books and find the answers for myself. Maybe that’s why I now love old dictionaries? I remember mine was red, with little cut out half circles on the pages where the letters where, funny how things like that stick with you.
Here’s a few soldered pendants made with illustrations from a wonderful vintage dictionary from the early 20’s. I added black patina to all the soldering and the backs of the pieces are their definitions.
a really cool raven:
a fat little toad ( I just love him!):
and a lovely bird in flight:
I recently found a couple more gorgeous vintage children’s books, one was in pretty bad shape and that makes it easier to cut it up:) They both have some wonderful illustrations that I’m turning into soldered pendants. Here’s a few I’ve made so far.
This first one I really love, the white cow is so sweet but mostly because I feel so clever with what I put on the back side:
This next one is a sweet Momma Cat and her kittens:
A birds nest and bird flying away (love this one!):
and this one is a child riding a horse under a full moon, really neat:
All these pendants are currently for sale here in my Etsy shop. And I’ll be adding even more in the next few days.
Here’s another paper and felt collage, this time I wanted to try something new with my sewing machine so I adhered a bird onto vintage music paper and then lightly sketched a bird cage on the paper and then sewed over my pencils lines with my sewing machine, I think it turned out pretty cool and I’ll be trying this technique more often. It was a little nerve wracking knowing if I totally messed up I couldn’t fix it but I think with some more practice I can do lots more “free hand” stitching.
