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One of my go-to art activities when I’m stressed and looking for some peace is collage work. I usually turn to collage art when I’m feeling particularly stressed and struggle to come up with ideas for paintings. It can be a mindful, soothing activity and doesn’t require many materials to create. You also don’t need to be an expert in drawing or painting to create a beautiful collage.
What is a Collage?
A collage is an assemblage of paper and small, miscellaneous items glued to a sheet of paper, cardboard, canvas, or other flat surface. Just about any paper scrap or small item can be used in a collage, from yarn and fabric, to beads, brochures, and scraps of wrapping paper. As long as it sticks to the canvas, you can use it in your collage.
Collage Supplies
You don’t need many materials to start creating a collage, some of what you need you probably already have in your home. Here’s what you will need to create your collage:
1. Collage Base: Any size canvas, canvas board, or flat sheet of cardboard
2. Paper Items: Paper, photos, magazines, old postcards, other ephemera
3. Glue
4. Scissors
5. Small Items (Optional): glitter, ribbons, small buttons, dried flowers, other small lightweight items
Collage Base
You can have many options for what material to use as the collage board:
· Canvas
· Sheet of cardboard
You’ll be pasting everything onto the collage board so make sure it’s study enough to hold everything you plan to paste down. You can use a stretched canvas or canvas board/panel for your collage, but I’ve always used cut pieces of discarded cardboard for collages.
Paper Items
For the paper items in your collage, you can use:
· Catalogs and magazines
· Postcards
· Used greeting cards
· Wrapping paper
· Brochures, notecards
· Old calendars
· Tissue paper
· Scrapbook paper
· Construction paper
Glue
You can use different types of glue for pasting the paper and small items to your collage base:
· Glue sticks
· Liquid Glue: tacky glue, decoupage glue, craft glue, glue gun, etc.
· Mod Podge
Glue sticks are my preferred glue when I’m working in collage. It dries cleanly and it’s not messy.
Using glue sticks are not suitable if you are gluing small objects or heavier paper scraps in your collage (like cards and cardstock). You will need a stronger form of glue to stick those objects to your collage board.
Glue pens are another suitable alternative to glue sticks for pasting down paper and won’t leave air bubbles.
Some form of liquid glue or Mod Podge is another great option because it keeps heavier cardstock paper and any small, miscellaneous items stuck to your collage board.
The downside to these liquid glues is you can get air bubbles trapped underneath the paper when you’re gluing it down. If you use too much glue, you can also oversaturate the paper and ruin it.
Scissors
You can use multipurpose scissors you may already have in your kitchen drawer, but craft scissors or kids’ scissors are best so you can cut small areas with precision. Do not use fabric/sewing scissors or kitchen shears since you could damage the blade if you use them on the wrong item.
Small Items
For small 3D small items you could use:
· Yarn, string, embroidery floss
· Ribbon
· Beads (seed beads work best)
· Buttons
· Dried flower petals, Dried Flowers
· Fabric scraps
· Glitter, Confetti
Whatever you select, make sure the object isn’t too heavy and that you have the right glue to stick it to the collage base. Use a glue gun, Mod Podge, decoupage glue, or other liquid glue for pasting these items since they will be heavier. After pasting, keep the collage board lying flat until the glue is completely dried so the items don’t fall off.
Create!
Once you have everything, start creating! Collaging should feel fun and freeing, so focus on enjoying the process rather than obsessing over the end result.
Happy collaging!
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