Mountains of magazines....

I love magazines and subscribe to a rediculous number of them that cover a wide range of subjects - fashion, quilting, flowers, mixed media, dolls, sewing, health - the list goes on.  I try to read them as they come in because they can accumulate into big piles really fast.

One of the things I enjoy about magazines is feeling free to tear
things out of them.  I tear out stories, pretty pictures, things I want to make, words or phrases that catch my eye, all kinds of things.  Those, too, can accumulate into big piles!

As the piles of "tear outs" grows, I do a few things to keep them under control.  For the articles and instructions I bought a three ring binder and plastic pockets to put the articles into.  I keep the photo of the item on top, instructions in the back.  They aren't indexed - I prefer to flip through the pockets and often find a project I had forgotten about.


One thing I love to do is make collages of my torn pages.  I make them in color schemes, filling in areas as I find more things that fit the collage - it can take months to finish one as I wait to come across just the right image or word.  They are super simple to make, I use big sheets of inexpensive watercolor paper (it has more "tooth" than oaktag) and a glue stick. 

I am always seeing things that I think will be inspirations for a project, or a color scheme that I want to remember, or clothes that I want to remember for the fabric used or sewing details.  Jewelry, collage, quilts and dolls are a few more subjects that I keep a lookout for.  For those tear outs I use speckled composition books - I glue the images into the books, keeping a book for each subject.  I sometimes make notes of what caught my eye.  I collage the covers of the books to make them more fun and colorful.  They are great reference books and I turn to them frequently when I'm looking for inspiration.


I know that the electronic age is going to eventually lead to the demise of printed magazines - a very sad prospect indeed!  The electronic version of my speckled books is Pinterest and I am totally addicted.  I love that my pins are shared with my followers and that with just a few clicks, a Pin is shared with an endless stream of people.  What fun! 

I love my collages, I've shared some here - finished and "in progress".  They are SO much fun to make!

Despite all my cutting, tearing and collaging, I've still accumulated a big pile of magazines - mostly mixed media art and quilting magazines.  I have begun going through all of them, keeping only the pages/images I want.  I kind of gasp when I think of how much I've spent on all of them but then when I realize how much I have learned, how many friends I've made (through being published), how much I have been inspired, well, they are a real bargain. 

Three cheers for magazines - I hope they will be around for a long time to come!