Friday 29 March 2013

MAKE YOUR OWN COLLAGE SHEETS!


 
Am I a genius or what?  Yes, undoubtedly not, but I may get top marks for persistence at any rate.  Out of a magazine fell a delicious catalogue (on that wonderful new non-shiny paper you see a lot of lately) for rustic weathered furniture.  I couldn't afford the furniture but I loved all the colours, patterns and textures in the catalogue, and thats when I came up with the idea of turning these images into a home-made collage sheet.  You can see below what I did - I cut interesting sections out in strips and began pasting them onto a base sheet.
And this is the sheet when it was almost finished.  I was really pleased with how it was turning out.  The next step was to colour copy it (I have one of those print/scan/copy machines) and preserve the original, while cutting up the print into yet more strips.

And I could then use the strips to frame a black painted page I'd begun - the border looks great if I say so myself, and the slightly fed-up looking Modigliani lady just seemed to belong there.
I have discovered that my Posca Paint Pen works best on an acrylic paint surface - its not good at all on top of the Caran D'Ache crayons - so I used this to write the simple message.  As always I just concentrate on getting the words down and go back to fancy up the lettering later.
As you can see below - I basically thicken up the letters and add doodly, curly bits to each letter.  I'm also training myself not to write in such straight lines with equally sized lettering - not always successfully I might add!  Did I mention that I am good at perseverance?
So anyway, this is the finished page - very simple and quick, but it says what I wanted to get down and I rather like the simplicity of it for a change.  Perhaps I just wasn't in a very doodly mood that day?

I hope you might feel encouraged to have a go at making your own collage sheets - there's so much (free!) material out there that you could use, all you have to do is identify colours, patterns and shapes that catch your eye.  My next project is going to be a collage sheet made entirely of lettering - for which I am mining newspapers (including the free local property newsletter, printed on more of that lovely matte paper).

Happy Easter everyone, and hope it is joyful, peaceful and happy for you all .....
Rosie

8 comments:

Cath Wilson said...

Smashing - it works well with Scrapbook paper scraps, too, if you have any of those! Lovely work x

Deborah said...

People pay good money for collage sheets as fantastic as yours. It has made a fantastic border to your page.
Happy Easter to you and yours x.

Elizabeth Armstrong said...

Fabby fab post! You can also pick up many groovy catalogues at make up counters in department stores and many boutiques print on this paper as well. I am busy stashing them too!

Sandra Hall said...

Great idea Rosie - I like the idea of none shiny paper too. I made my own collage sheet using paint and stamping which turned out great but the wet medium bent the paper too much, never thought about scanning it before use! x

alexa said...

Just glorious! I'm just a tad sad that so much of your lovely paper is behind the chalkboard - nice as it is too :). (Glad you made a copy). And your lady is wonderful - I love her pose. And then there's your wonderfully witty journalling. A real tonic.

Rhonda Halushka said...

What a fantastic idea! Thanks for sharing it!

Traceyr said...

♥ your journal page and great idea to use 'junk mail' as collage paper. Love your doodling too.

happy Easter :)

Pat Beaumont said...

great post - inspiring in many ways