Collage Art

Thinking of my Mom on Mother's Day - she loved flowers and taught me when I was very young to press and dry flowers.

So we usually had all the phone books full of drying flowers.  This used to be a problem when my husband actually used the phone book to find a number.  But now that we use the internet to find phone numbers, I can use all the old phone books exclusively for drying flowers.

When my sister introduced me to collage several years ago, I finally found a use for all those dried flowers!

 Start with art paper - if doing birthday or Christmas cards, I start by cutting the paper into approximately 5" squares.

The first layer is tissue paper - I paint white tissue paper if I'm looking for a particular color.  For Christmas cards, there are tons of Christmas themed tissue papers available.  I cut the tissue into approximately the same size as the art paper - a bit larger to completely cover the art paper.

The key ingredient is the medium - using a paintbrush, paint the art paper with it, then lay the tissue on top and paint again.

Then add accent paper, dried flowers, and anything your imagination can provide, adding a layer of medium after each element is added.  At the end, I use a paint brush and paint to highlight as needed.

This is from a photo I took of my sister-in-law that made a perfect scene for collage.  But, you don't have to be an artist - collage is the most forgiving of art projects.  When my mother was nearly blind with macular degeneration and 92 years old, we were still doing collage together.  Sometimes I found flowers glued to the table or the floor, but she made some stunning greeting cards too.  If you are an artist, of course, you can do amazing things with collage - like this one that my cousin, who is an accomplished artist, did for me.