Recycled vintage books

Aussie Scrap Source is running a series of daily posts during the school holidays on upcycling items for scrapbooking purposes. This is my little project which is up there at the moment:


It's no secret that I love text papers. A while ago my parents were clearing out their study and gave me a few old old books. I had started to alter one of them, and then left it because I got too busy with other things.

But while researching another scrapbooking project recently, I stumbled upon a whole pile of quotes from Brian Andreas. They were so delightful and they conjured up wonderful imagery that I decided to make an illustrated book featuring them. Some of you have mentioned to me that I should try making illustrations, and I thought that this gave me the perfect opportunity to try it!

Her umbrella was filled with rain she had collected in her travels & on hot summer days she would open it up for the neighborhood kids & we would splash in the puddles. Brian Andreas

To start, I adhered layers of pages together in my little book to form sturdy sets of text backgrounds. I have just finished an online course in mixed media by Christy Tomlinson. I was so busy while the course was running, that I didn't even get a chance to make any art, so I decided to try out some of Christy's techniques in my little album.

I only do this until I get dizzy & then I lay down on my back & watch the clouds, she said. It sounds simple but you won't believe how many people forget the second part. Brian Andreas

I've used paints, mists, masks, stamps, rubons and doodling to create fun backgrounds for my illustrations. I just added layer upon layer upon layer of paints, then mists, then stamped and added some rubons. There are probably a dozen or so layers on each background.

Diluted paints and mists allow the beautiful vintage text to show through.

To create the illustrations I went through all the little pieces of patterned papers I had lying around in my stash. I sketched my designs on spare paper to start with, then went to work building my images using different papers.



I said I could not see her eyes under her hat & she smiled mysteriously & said she liked it that way. Brian Andreas

I tried making some little She Art girls, featured in Christy's course. I don't know if I've done them justice, although I'm pretty happy with them for a first time effort.

I have a renewed commitment to elegance, she said,in case you think I'm just spending money for the fun of it. Brian Andreas

She wasn't sure where she'd been and she wasn't sure of where she was going, but she was on her way. Brian Andreas

But I think that I prefer the little whimsical scenes. Here's a close up again of the album cover. I painted it with mushroom colour paint (it was red to start) and then added my favourite Tim Holtz splatter stamp.


I have heaps of sets of pages prepared and ready to work on, and a whole series more quotes. Can't wait to get some more time to play :). But for now it's school holidays and Jamie and I are busy planning outings for the days I'm not working. We have movies, visits with friends, playdates, plaster fun house and toy library trips. Oh what fun.

Kathie xx