More Collactober

Rounding up the rest of my #Collactober2026 entries, as I've been participating (sporadically and not in order lol) in this fun and inspiring October collage event, which is hosted each year by @lofficinedenative and @prism_voyager on Instagram.

Day 19: Helping Hands

This collage started off pretty literally, with a pair of hands from an illustrated knitting book, helpfully showing us how to "cast on" our stitches. I made a background from Chinese dictionary paper, vintage trading stamps, the edge of a ledger, and part of a map. There was quite a lot of leftover space, so I added three black and white flowers from a coloring book. And... yes... a tropical fish. No, I don't know why. Except he (or she?!) is yellow and triangular and kind just FITS there. Let's not think too hard about this, k?

Day 20: Inner Vision

Vintage map of Manhattan, black and white florals, Big Dollar Trading Stamps (thank you @smilynstef for my hoard!) dictionary paper and... a Sewing Pattern Lady who is clearly experiencing a psychic vision of some description. Or possibly just a headache? 

Day 12: Together

Once again using my friend Gina's (aka @ginaisarty here on IG) gorgeous clipart book, in this case for the beautiful fishes AND those cool numerals. I've put them #TOGETHER with... some crocheted squares form a crafting book, ledger paper, part of a map of Bucks County, PA (where I grew up; my mom just gave me some of my dad's old maps and I'm slightly obsessed) and of course some vintage trading stamps that @smilynstef scored for me! ♥

Day 22: Collective Roots

Wouldja believe that the flowers AND the butterflies in this collage are stickers? From The Botanist's Sticker Anthology, a very cool, curated, DK sticker book that @smilynstef gave me last year for my birthday and despite using it A LOT I've barely made a dent in it's 200+ pages. I confess that I trimmed the images a bit because in my 3x5" format, the white border was a little too prominent and I hated to cover up my background. What's in the background? Some German text paper, part of a knitting pattern a vintage envelope, a corner of sheet music and the words, "How To" which I saw in the trash and had to "rescue" lol. 

Day 16: Universal Language

Did you know that many wild birds can make dozens of distinct songs and calls that other birds will recognize? Some birds have a "vocabulary" of a hundred different sounds, to signify danger or predators, warn others away from their territory, coordinate migration, or initiate mating. The original "twitter" users are alive and well and visiting my feeder and bird bath, I assure you!   

I made a background from some non-verbal things I thought signified a srt of language: sheet music, a map, a few pieces of foreign text paper (those are kinda verbal, lol) and finally some HEARTS! 

Day 23: Breakthrough

Here's a shocking true confession: the only way I can even marginally claim that this represents "breakthrough" is that the shape of the tiger's neck (as drawn and digitally collaged by my friend Gina @ginaisarty in her clip art book) kind of looks like he stuck his handsome tiger's head right through my background collage. Basically, I just wanted to make a freestyle collage with a tiger. What can I say?!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to @prism_voyager and @lofficinedenative for hosting #collactober2026 which I enjoyed very much! I only finished and posted about 12 collages but I loved making every single one!