MaryJo Koch
Quarry Books, 2009
Vintage Collage Journals is a must-read if you love journaling and all things vintage, as this publication shows you how to marry these two passions to create lovely daybooks – a great way to put your collection of vintage ephemera to use.
Through the pages of her various journals – all richly illustrated with her own sketches and paintings – the author demonstrates how old prints, labels, postcards, advertisements, ticket stubs, menus and other ephemera can bring a blank page to life, using collage techniques like layering, stamping, painting and glazing, image transfer and decoupage, to name a few.
The book offers 14 projects, grouped into travel journals, food and wine journals, nature and garden journals, and family keepsake journals. In each project, the author concisely explains what materials to use (down to the size of pen and color of paint) and how to work them to achieve similar results.
Alongside the general instructions for each journal the author explains in more detail the methods she used, which are either painting techniques or collage techniques. For instance, in one nature journal she shows, step by step, how to paint vintage-style eggs with gouache. For a dessert journal, she explains how to tint pages with acrylic paint so that you can create your own special color palette for your pages. In the family keepsake journal, she demonstrates an image transfer technique using a photocopied image and a blender pen, while in one nature journal she explains how to collage a paper napkin.
As a bonus, seven pages of full-color vintage clipart – 40 pieces in all – are included at the end of the book to help you get started. It’s best to use a color copier to make duplicates of the clipart as these are printed recto verso.
For lovers of vintage ephemera and old-school journals replete with handwritten notes and pen-and-ink illustrations, this book is full of eye candy, inviting you to look closer and explore each picture carefully. Add in the succinct instructions for the tried-and-true painting and collage techniques, and you’ve got a book that deserves a spot in your library.
Note: I purchased this book with my own funds and was in no way compensated for this review.
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