6 pieces of Ephemera made from one 6" x 6" paper

 Here's a quick and simple way to create six ephemera pieces for a journal or to add to cards and it uses just one 6" x 6" piece of paper. This is a great way to use up some of those small paper pads in your stash! And, there's no waste - every little piece is used!

Here are the paper pieces you need to cut. Basically, one 2" strip is cut off either top or bottom and then a one-inch piece cut off one of the ends of that piece. The larger piece will become a pocket and the small piece will be a cluster.

The remaining piece is 4" x 6" so you cut that piece in half, leaving two 3" x 4" pieces. One becomes a tag - cut off the top corners and keep those pieces! A one-inch piece is cut off the remaining piece giving you a 3" x 1" piece which will be a "bookplate" and a 3" square.  The square is now cut in half diagonally to make two corner tuck spots.

Now you just need to decorate these pieces as desired. The few extras I added were some pieces of lace, some bling, a few paper flowers, a word from Tim Holtz's Small Talk stickers and a few fussy-cut focal points.  The tiny tag corners and the "thumb hole" punched on the pocket were all added to the little cluster for added layers.  All the finished pieces are below. 

Collage Challenge - Weeks 7 & 8

Week 7

 

Prompts:

1) a photo (vintage photo)

2) something in a garage (shovel)

3) a rubber stamp used in two different colors (lace circle stamp)

4) a headline (didn't use)

5) a sewing item (sewing pattern instructions in background and mannikin chipboard piece)

Bonus: random pieces of washi tape (4 pcs. Tim Holtz washi tape)

I also added two labels to fill out the collage.

Week 8

Prompts:

1) a person/people (girl in foreground)

2) a business card (lower right)

3) anything related to the sea (magazine image of coast of Italy)

4) a vegetable plant (bottom - Swiss chard)

5) a map (background)

Bonus: a charm (dangling from girl's arm)

I also added some washi tape on both sides of the page and a "remember" sticker.

Collage Challenge - Weeks 5 & 6

Week 5

Prompts: 

1) something maroon (flower)

2) a repeating pattern found in nature (ice flow - background)

3) an eating or cooking utensil (2 handmade spoons)

4) something hung on a wall (framed pictures)

5) a doodle (border at top)

Bonus: typewriter text (piece of old typed newsletter)

Week 6

This week's prompt was very different from all the others in the past two years.

Prompt:

Pick a room in a home, real or imagined. Find at least 3 images of things that could go in this room and create a collage with them.

I picked a bedroom, using the shabby-chic iron daybed as the focal point. Below is a pale blue patterned rug and a shabby chic night stand. Behind the bed at the top is a framed rose (upper left) and drapery (upper right). I also added the pretty light blue lamp and the words "cozy place" I found in a magazine. This was a hard one to start, but once begun, it could have been a much larger collage!

 

February Swaps

In addition to the few challenges I'm doing, I signed up for several swaps this month.  

The first one was to use a one of the foil techniques shown in this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8cqCbmiGOI

For the first card I adhered aluminum foil to a piece of card stock and ran it through a Queen of Hearts

 embossing folder. Then I colored certain areas with alcohol markers. I don't have many Copies to I didn't have a large variety of colors. This is mounted on a red mat and then on a black card.

The second card started the same way - aluminum foil adhered to a piece of card stock and then run through an embossing folder. I scored the piece into six "tiles" and then brayered white acrylic paint over the raised areas. This is mounted on a white mat on a very dark blue card. I used the same blue card stock to die cut three of the sentiments and glued them together for extra dimension.

The second swap was for a card with ribbon on it. I had been using a digital journal kit and had some leftovers so layered them on to a cream-colored card with a ribbon tied vertically.

Another swap was for "whimsical money" - we had to make two pieces for two partners. I used large pieces from an old puzzle. I covered the pieces with scraps of Gelli-printed papers and added a few more details with paint and ink. I added focal points of butterflies to three and stamped on the denominations. For the fourth, it already had the 3 and 4 printed so I used them for the denomination. I covered all with matte medium to protect them. They are certainly whimsical and "funky."

And, finally, I signed up again for the monthly junk journal page swap. The page measures 5" w x 7" high.

The front page is collaged with scraps of papers. The tuck/ journaling space flip in the lower right corner is made from a page of a magazine. I collaged on the top and bottom and used a "whale tail" punch as a closure. The tag that slips into the tuck is a large paint chip with a layers of collage papers and a vintage playing card.

The back of the page has coffee-dyed paper on it. The horizontal belly band was made with many tiny pieces of scrap papers, stamps, images, etc. glued onto a small strip of card stock. It's attached at the sides and the tag slips behind it. The tag is, again, collaged pieces of papers and a focal point of a bird.

I'm so glad these are all completed and in the mail to their recipients. I love participating in swaps as they force you "out of your box" to do something you might not do otherwise.

Retro kids' Valentines

Last week's challenge on  my online art group was to make or buy some retro kids' Valentines and send them as RAKs to other members.

I had a digital kit of Valentines which was perfect for this challenge. I made five cards with these images.

The first two were regular cards and I added heart doilies behind the images.

The other three were added to these fold-up cards I'd purchased years ago. If you fold up
 two of the flaps it makes a heart pocket. I added heart stickers to keep them closed.

This was a quick and simple project and I hope the RAKs bring smiles to some faces.

 

Collage Challenge - Weeks 3 & 4

Week 3

Prompts:

1) something fast (cheetahs)

2) lace - a portion, a photo or illustration (2 pieces)

3) a game piece (Scrabble tiles)

4) ledger paper (background)

5) text in foreign language (background - French)

Bonus: something lavender (paper, flower, postage stamps)

Week 4

Prompts:

1) something "fancy" (dress)

2) something that starts with H (house)

3) part of a recipe (cupcake recipe)

4) a tree with fruit or blossoms (flowering tree at top)

5) something torn (several papers torn)

Bonus: something used in an office (typewriter, labels)