Last week in the Collage Art Collective, I asked this question: What is it about collage that inspires you? Of the many responses I received, several mentioned their love of the “thrill of the hunt”, looking to add interesting papers to their collection, and then using those papers to create a different and unique collage.
Are you one of those people who love the thrill of the hunt?
Do you constantly have your eye open to finding interesting papers? Where do you look? Is it relatively easy to come across papers or is it difficult?
What do you typically do with your papers? Do you store them away and plan not to use them, or do you keep them close by to use in a collage? I certainly am hoping that you keep your papers handy so that you have them accessible for creating!
Using your papers
If you aren’t sure about what kind of collage to make with your special papers, there are a couple of things you can do.
One idea is to create a smaller gluebook, for example the size of a passport or a little bigger, and use only two or three paper pieces in your collages. You can use rubber stamping as your background or use a piece of pattern paper for your background. You can choose a theme for your gluebook such as florals, penmanship/handwriting, or an era such as the 1940s and 50s.
If you need some examples of how to make 3-piece collages work, see this video I made on this subject.
A second idea is to use collage art assignments. If you are not sure about what papers to choose, or you don’t have a lot of time to devote to paper selections, an assignment can help because it takes a lot of the guess work out for you.
- Something pointy? Hmmm. I have an illustration of an owl, which has a pointy beak.
- Numbers? I’ve got a page from an old calculus book
- Text in a foreign alphabet? I’ve got a bit of Chinese text
- Handwriting? I’ve got a piece of left-over postcard
- A plant or botanical? A sticker from a flower sticker pack
See how that came together on the left page? A bonus prompt is included in every assignment, just in case you don’t have one of the five and want to exchange it out. You could even add in the bonus prompts, if you’d like.
Sometimes a collage doesn’t come together quickly, and that’s ok too. What if you don’t have text in a foreign alphabet, for example? You might have that in the back of your head for a couple of days and are quietly on the lookout for something. Later, you’re clearing off your counter of voting materials and see directions written in Korean for casting a ballot. SCORE! It could happen, right? 
There’s the aspect of “the thrill of the hunt” in looking for collage prompt papers, too. If you don’t have a lot of time to collage but still want to actively engage your creative skills, working on an assignment over the course of a week can be just the thing to help you reach that goal.
Volume 3 of the Collage Weekly Planner comes out in December (I’m just about to send the files to the printer), with 52 new assignments. If you’ve been thinking about getting volume 1 or volume 2, both books are on sale now through the end of the week. The digital versions are also available if you would rather just use the assignments in your own gluebook.
Everything else in the shop is on sale through November 27th. No coupon codes are needed. You’ll see the markdown in the cart before payment.
Wherever you find your inspiration, I hope you keep hunting for papers and use them in collage!
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