There are so many inexpensive ways to use magazines for arts and crafts!

  Recently, my Grandmother gave me all of her magazines from Sept. and Oct. I ripped out several sheets that had full-page pictures of fall foliage.  I used the same technique mentioned in my Thou Art a Sea post to get these pages into a nice, ink absorbing condition.  You certainly don’t have to do anything to the magazine pages to do this project.   I just like playing around with paper and experimenting with different things.

  After they were sanded well, I soaked them in coffee and tea to darken them a little and let them dry on paper towels.  I brayered some ink on a couple of  them to enhance the color and I also added some new colors onto some of them.

Next I printed out three paper dolls.  This is the same paper doll I’ve used for many projects.  She’s a nice size and comes with bright, colorful outfits.  Here’s the link if you’d like to print yourself a “Brook’s Glace Spool Cotton” paper doll of your own. I cut out her real outfits and used them as patterns to create fall foliage dresses.

  I cut out some hats to match, added buttons and belts out of contrasting prints, and then put a little something special in each of their hands.  I also added tiny accesories with a black felt-tip pen. I matted them with some decorative papers and inked around the edges with orange and linen distressing ink.  They were glued onto Strathmore watercolor postcards.  I love these because they are pre-printed on the back to look like real post-cards, and the paper is thick and sturdy.

  I had fun making these fall beauties and I still have lots of “foliage”  left over for more projects!