Piecing together a collage journal

The longer I experiment with collage art, the more fun it gets. It's funny how little bits of paper can get me so excited and enthusiastic about the art of making a journal. I love this idea of putting a collage together out of seemingly random pieces of paper, into something that is interesting and beautiful.

Previously I wrote about my trip to San Francisco in January to visit my friend and fellow correspondence-art artist Pamela, and how I fell in love with her collage book made with Reader's Digest covers. I was very much inspired to make my own, and that's what I've done here. Pamela got me started by giving me extra covers she had on hand, and then cutting down some file folders to make the pages. Once the pages were hole punched and everything assembled with rings, I was ready to go.

A Reader's Digest collage journal

With this journal, the covers were no work at all. Reader's Digest books, like this one from the 1970s, can be found in abundance at any thrift store. I didn't like the rings at first, but now I can see that they are pretty useful in being able to move collages around. I've seen people use twine or other heavy fibers to bind hole-punched pages like in this journal. I might try that next time.

I didn't have any themes in mind as I was creating, I simply wanted to use papers from authentic sources; no images from a craft paper pad or digital printouts. I used some vintage papers like from old books, but I also used things like postcards I have received in the mail over the past year, receipts from places I shopped, maps, forms, photographs, and postage stamps, of course. I also used washi tape and rubber stamps with ink.

More of the pages are here:
 
 

Video is here:

https://youtu.be/xMxfqog19v4