Collage making for mindfulness and creative practice
Part 1:
Make Collage cards
Welcome to a series of blog posts about collage making for beginners.
Feel encourages, feel inspired and most of all, try it out!
Collage cards or mini collages are the ideal first attempt at collage making, 10 min mindfulness art practice, or as a warm-up to kickstart a collaging session.
What you will need:
-scissors or executor knife
-glue
-magazines, brochures, or old books that you are happy to cut up
-small pieces of card stock, like a business card approx. 85 x 55 mm
When I started to run collage clubs in Bristol, I found some people were overwhelmed by creating a full-sized collage on a night.
I also found myself hesitant after a creative hiatus due to anxiety. I was daunted to glue down my vintage magazine images, the pictures where simple to rare and just committing to stick down a full-sized artwork felt stressful.
This is how collage cards came to be, and I love creating them.
The wallet-sized collages are a cross between affirmation cards and artists trading cards. There is also a hashtag on Instagram called #minicollage with I can recommend.
With collage making there are no hard set rules, nothing is wrong, and you should never stress over imagery or words you have not got on hand. Work with what is in from of you at the moment, with this well known saying in mind: Change what you can
leave what you can't change, have the wisdom to know the difference.
Let's get started :)
Today I would like to encourage you to make an Affirmation Collage Card, that is business card sized, about 85 x 55 cm, you can try and re-purpose bus tickets, playing cards expired credit cards whatever you can find works.
What is an affirmation?
It is 'the practice of positive thinking and self-empowerment—fostering a belief that "a positive mental attitude supported by affirmations will achieve success in anything."
Affirmations in my mind can also be a Matra or some self-soothing words.
If you can think of such an affirmation straight away, great let's get riffling though you stash of collage materials and look for words and images that can convey your message. Cut them out and lay them out together see how the composition works together.
If you are not sure, let the text and images in your material stash guide you, whatever is relevant will stand out to you. Trust the process.
You can be abstract with an image that evokes the desired emotion in you.
You can be very much to the point but direct wording.
You can combine image and worlds like this NOW card with the obscured picture of a reading child. Remember to read, now is precious, do what you most love.
Once you made your first card you may find you only just began, just got excited to create more... enjoy and relax. x
I will post some more about the topic of making collage.