Book and Paper Arts (page 3 of 15)

Altered Book Cover: Some Birds

This is an altered book cover. I used original ephemera to make this mixed-media collage using a vintage book cover as the canvas. (Scroll all the way down to see video of the making of this piece.) Elements in include (click on image for full resolution):

  • Vintage book cover, 1880s
  • Tintype of two women, 1860s
  • French envelope with mourning border, 1906
  • French postcard with gorgeous handwriting
  • Border of French ledger page 1912
  • Bird from Swiss bird guide, 1911

The piece measures 8.25″ x 11″ (21cm x 28cm). It can be framed or wired for hanging as is. Cost is £95 GBP with £7 worldwide shipping (this is approximately $128 USD plus $10) but please use this currency converter for exact exchange rate. Please use the Buy It Now button below or contact me at: [read more]

Altered Book Cover Kit: Free Scans

These scans go with a Youtube video I made where I altered a vintage book cover. You can scroll down to see the video and then you can use these scans to do something similar. Just click on any image for a larger resolution then copy then paste into an editing program such as Paint. (I use Word. It’s not really a visual app but it’s what I’m used to from when I learned by doing it wrong.😁)

The book cover is for sale here.

I have more scans on Etsy [read more]

French Receipts and Invoices: Free Scans

And here you go, some handwritten invoices on super charming letterheads from the 1900s. These make great backgrounds for collage or additions to art journal pages. Click on any image for a larger resolution then right click and copy then paste into an editing program such as Paint. You may want to resize. Happy [read more]

The Book of You: How to Keep and Make an Illustrated Journal

Have you ever thought your story deserves a book but didn’t know where to start? In my latest online course The Book of You you will learn about techniques and strategies for making and keeping a visual diary: a place to illustrate your memories and record your present, making a book that is a witness to you and your life, both the adventurous and the everyday. (Click here to see the course!)

If you have any doubts about whether you need to be making a book of you, imagine if your grandmother had kept a book like this, full of  visual notes about her shoes, the food she enjoyed, who she met, her home – its rooms and furniture, where she enjoyed walking and why, the music she liked, adding her to-do lists and her thoughts. Can you imagine what a treasure this would be? Well now you are going to make one for yourself.

Inside this course are ideas, prompts, and practical instruction on how to start your book and make pages that are fun and interesting: a visual library of your experiences and memories. We will cover:

  • Choosing and preparing a book
  • Suggested supplies
  • What’s in a portable [read more]

Scans: Vintage Butterflies & Moths: 1895

These plates are from Our Country’s Butterflies & Moths by W.J. Gordon circa 1895. “Our Country” was a popular series in Great Britain about this time, a field guide to nature of all kind. While these illustrations shimmer with colour they also have enough patina (as you would if you were 125 years old!) to give them depth and mystery. Besides, who doesn’t love a good page with wings?

To use, click on any image to enlarge then right click, copy, then paste into your favourite editing program such as Paint. (I use Word which is not usually used for images but I find it easy to use and it does what it says on the tin). Please note you may want to resize for your particular style and [read more]

Vintage Paper and Text Scans for Collage Layouts

These high-res scans of vintage printed and handwritten text can be used in a wide variety of mixed-media projects: put them down for backgrounds or rough tear for embellishing and that ripped wallpaper look that is so evocative. Please note that you may want to resize these images. (I like them quite a bit smaller. You may also need to print some images in landscape rather than portrait mode.) They include:

  • French handwritten doc 1831
  • Welsh text 1848
  • Swiss German textbook page 1912
  • Latin 1854
  • French dictionary 1842
  • Maths table (Warnes) [read more]

SOLD: Art Journal: Beautiful pages in marbled covers

SOLD:

This art journal is made from mixed pages that are ribbon-bound into a vintage book cover from 1936. The cover boards are marbled and slightly distressed appropriate to its age. The papers are made from a variety of papers with florals, butterflies, vintage handwritten documents, and heavy watercolour paper. They were boiled in a bath of tea, and eco printed with red and yellow onion skins and rust. The binding is a “ring” style, an open spine loosely bound with ribbons made of ivory sari silk. To see a larger version of any photo, scroll down to the image gallery and click on any photo to enlarge. There are 45 pages for 90 sides. It measures 7″ x 5.5″ (18cm x 14cm). This book is very much meant to be worked in. To see a video with ideas of how to work on messy pages follow this link.

Cost is £85 GBP plus £13 worldwide shipping (free UK shipping). This is approximately $114 USD + $17.  To buy go to my Etsy shop here or email me at [read more]

Altered Tin Pocket Shrine

For centuries, people went on pilgrimages to holy places. It was often a long, hard, and dangerous journey. If you were wealthy, you might have carried a portable shrine to aid in your on-the-road devotions. This mixed media piece is my homage to those small shrines. It is a mixed media piece inside of a vintage tobacco tin. The tin has been altered with a faux rust finished. Inside is a red velvet plaque honouring Bernadette of Lourdes. On the other side is a French holy card from the 1890s and a tiny key. The cover is embellished with vintage mother of pearl buttons and a distressed rosary pochette. Inside is a vintage dizaine, a kind of mini-rosary, made of milk glass, with a metal crucifix and religious medal of Mary, circa 1930s. (Please note, the leather pocket is delicate and the dizaine should be removed and replaced very gently.) To see a larger version of any image, just click on a photograph below.)

Piece measures 4.25″ x 3.25″ x 1″ (11cm x 8.5 cm x 2.25cm). Cost is £115 GBP with worldwide shipping of £10. This is approximately $153 USD + $13 but please use this currency [read more]

Large French Rosary Vintage Mother of Pearl

This lovely piece is a large vintage rosary from France. Its hand-cut beads and art nouveau linking charm of typical of rosaries from the 1890s. The linking charm consists of delicately made lilies and a small cross, and has a gold-tone centre. The Christ-figure on the cruficix is silver.

The rosary measures 22″ (56cm) from end to end. The crucifix measures 2.5″ (6cm). While this would make a special devotional object, it can also be treasured as a piece of antique French jewelry to be displayed or worn as a necklace. (To see larger detail, click on any image below.)

Cost is £135 GBP plus £10 worldwide shipping (£2 for the UK). this is approximately $181  USD plus $14 but please use this currency converter for the exact exchange rate. To purchase, please contact me at [read more]

Free Scans of Botanical Butterflies

Here are two high-res scans from the vintage magazine Hardwicke’s Science Gossip. Just click on any photo to get a larger resolution the right-click and copy into an editing program such as Paint. Enjoy!

[read more]

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