Some of the mixed media projects I created this past summer required quite a bit of old book papers for collage purposes. So much so I ran out of the book pages. Truth be told it wasn't the projects themselves that used up the paper it was the number of projects I was creating..... lol
Mixed media, collage and decoupage crafts use a LOT of paper containing pictures, illustrations, graphics, words, ephemera, etc. and I am always on the lookout for papers of this nature. In thinking about some of the crafts projects I wanted to do this summer and fall I decided that some of the Harper's Young People Illustrations from the old book I had would be perfect.
To give you a little background - Last spring when looking around my house for some old papers I found an old Harper's Young People Illustrations Book from 1889 that was in poor condition and with some of the pages already missing.
I don't know where this book came from and who it belonged to. Most of the old books I have belonged to my great Aunt Flossie but I didn't think this was one of hers. The time-frame was right but the book wasn't signed with her name - which she always did on the inside of the front cover.
I can remember as a young girl asking her why she signed all her books and she said; "so that anyone who borrows them will know who the books belong to." Makes sense to me. So, for my whole life every book I've ever bought I've signed the inside of the front cover, too. Kind of a sweet tribute to my great Aunt.
I was pretty sure this book didn't belong to my great Aunt but had no idea where it came from or who gave it to me. After all this time suffice to say I'll probably never know.
From what I could tell there were 52 weekly magazine volume's contained within that were dated from November 1888 until November of 1889. Each of the weekly volume's sold for one penny.
In looking at the book in poor shape and missing some of the pages I thought it still might be perfect for collage purposes so I started to tear some of the pages out. I didn't tear too many out because right away I found myself looking at some of the beautiful black and white illustrations that were contained within the book.
They were enchanting: illustrations of Victorian children, Victorian girls with dolls, Victorian families, Victorian children at school, Victorian children reading books, holiday and seasonal illustrations and more. I couldn't help but admire the artistic capabilities of the artists who had drawn them back in 1888 to 1889.
So, while tearing out the pages I started to set some that I really liked aside. Needless to say I wound up with a large pile I wanted to keep. That still left me with a large pile to collage with so I was happy.
Contained within the book were many illustrations of Victorian girls, books, and dolls. Well, as you know, I love graphics of girls and dolls so, for sure, I wouldn't be using any of these for collage purposes. I also love books and knew I wouldn't be tearing any of those illustrations up either for collage purposes.
I loved the illustrations so much I decided to take some pictures of the black and white illustrations I had set aside so I could see them blown up on the computer. I wanted to see the fine details in the drawings and have found taking pictures and uploading them to the computer is a great way to see them blown up.
Another advantage of doing this is I can share some of them with you and show you some of the blown-up areas in the illustrations that enchanted me which I did in several Linda's Blog posts.
After removing the background from the illustrations I decided to collage them into a Victorian Toile Design as I have always loved these fabric designs and wanted to create some of my own.
When I was satisfied with the design I decided to create brown, blue, black/white, and burgundy colorized versions of this design as I wanted a Victorian authentic look. Victorian Toile Designs are usually some sort of scene depicting a rural scene, usually involving animals and people.
Well, in looking at some of the illustrations I thought they would be perfect for a new
"Victorian Books Toile Design" of custom products in my "We Love Books" custom products gallery so, of course, I created a bunch of custom product designs.
Well, after doing all that and thinking about some of the crafts projects I wanted to do this summer and fall I thought about all the Victorian images I had created and thought it would be nice to offer two free e-books with printable collage sheets that could be used for scrapbook, mixed media, collage, decoupage and other paper crafts.
There are a LOT of images to choose from so I decided to start with the Victorian book related images and separated these into two categories for two e-books: 1) Harper's Young People Books Illustrations and Sayings For Crafts Free E-Book, and 2) Victorian Books Collage Sheets For Scrapbook Free E-Book.
In the first e-book the images are the actual Harper's Young People Books illustrations with the backgrounds removed. In the second e-book the images are several on my Victorian books toile designs in the blue, burgundy, brown, and black/white colorized versions.
My first e-book contains contains fourteen individual 8 1/2" by 11" book collage and sayings sheets.
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Copyright © 2004 - 2023 - All Rights Reserved - Written By Linda Walsh of Linda Walsh Originals and Linda's Blog. Linda is a doll maker and doll pattern designer.
