Collage Scrapbooking

I made my first collage for an assignment in the 4th grade. We were asked to make one all about ourselves. So, out came the old magazines and catalogs, scissors, markers, rubber cement, and a large white poster board. I remember it took a long time to find just the right pictures and just the right words to represent me, and it took a long time to cover the poster board. I also remember making a huge mess and not wanting to clean it up--but in the end, I was proud of my creation and happy to show it off to the class.

Collage Defined
As an art technique, collage first appeared in the early 20th century. Artists like Picasso and Georges Braque began pasting and attaching objects such as wood, paper, and metal to the traditional flat canvas. Soon, other artists used this method of creation, and now collage is a familiar technique in contemporary art.

The technique of collage has recently found its way into the world of scrapbooking, and has been received with open arms. Beautiful, fun, meaningful pages can be created using the technique, or style of collage.

The word ‘collage’ appropriately comes from a French word that means, “to paste.” And, although collage art is easy enough to recognize, I thought I’d share some definitions just to further establish what collage really is:

• Collage is any piece of art with an additional layer glued on the surface. (National Collage Society)


• A picture or design created by adhering such basically flat elements as newspaper, wallpaper, printed text and illustrations, photographs, cloth, string, etc., to a flat surface, when the result becomes three-dimensional. (www.collagetown.us)


• Collage is an art form in which the artist creates or takes a number of items and places them together within the boundaries of paper, frame or screen. The goal is to craft a message or feeling by the very patterns and content. (www.collagetown.com)

(The third definition is my favorite because it mentions the goal of collage, which I think is an extremely important and helpful consideration when creating a scrapbook collage page.)

Another word associated with collage and scrapbooking is ephemera. “Ephemera is a term used to embrace a wide range of minor, everyday documents, most intended for one-time or short-term use, including postcards, broadsides and posters, baseball cards, tickets, bookmarks, photographs-and the list goes on” (The Epherma Society Of America).

I like to think of ephemera as items that represent certain events, places, eras, or memories, which can be used on a collage page. I have an old scrapbook I started when I was 13 years old, and it’s full of ephemera: ticket stubs, report cards, certificates, letters, gift cards, programs, and even candy wrappers. Personal mementos collected, or the wide varieties of ephemera now available from scrapbook companies make valuable additions to collage pages.

Collage Prep
Collage may seem like a difficult process. It really isn’t, but it can take some time! Here are some ways to prepare:

• Choose a theme or goal for your collage. Decide what your collage is going to be all about. Do you want to depict an event, an emotion, a characteristic, or a stage of life? Decide if you want to use a poem, journaling, or significant words to communicate your theme.


• Choose any photos you want to include on the page.


• Look at your photos, if any, and consider using them, along with the theme of your collage, to establish a color scheme.


• Gather supporting materials. Collect the papers, and ephemera, the words and journaling, and any embellishments that will support the theme of your collage and the color scheme you have chosen.


• Remember my favorite definition of collage-- it included that “the goal is to craft a message or feeling by the very patterns and content”. Keep this in mind as you gather your supplies and create your collage. Use all your photos, words, colors, and materials to “craft” your unique message.

Collage Creation
Once you have gathered all the possible makings for your collage, it’s time to begin putting it all together. Here are some steps you may want to follow:

• Start with a blank canvas. This can be one or two sheets of cardstock, depending on whether your collage will be a one or two page layout. Or, your blank canvas may be a card, a tag, a composition book, or an album cover. Usually, the entire blank “canvas” of your collage will eventually be covered by other materials, but if you plan on letting some show through, be sure to choose a “canvas” in a color that will work well with your chosen color scheme.


• Build from the bottom up. Create a layered foundation or background on your canvas with papers and other materials. Often scrapbook collage pages have torn pieces of paper arranged to create the background. But, this is not a necessity. Background materials with straight edges can also be pieced together and layered. Choose the look and feel you want.


• Arrange, rearrange, and play with your photo(s), words, and ephemera to get a feel for where they look best. Position them in different ways on the background until you are happy with what you see. It’s useful to determine the placement of the biggest items like photos and journaling before you determine the placement of smaller accents.


• Once you are happy with the arrangement of the elements of your collage, secure them to the background.

Collage Tips & Tricks
Here are some useful hints to consider as you create your collage:

• Use a non-permanent adhesive to stick down the different elements on the page. Then, if you later don’t like the placement, you can easily remove and rearrange.


• Don’t place non-archival ephemera, such as metal, directly onto photographs. Use an acid-neutralizing spray on papers that aren’t archival safe before adding them to your collage.


• If you are intimidated by creating an entire collage page, Use the same basic steps to create a small tag or card first.


• Don’t clutter the area directly around photos with too many different elements.


• Consider using paints, fabrics, paper clay, and stitching on your collage.


• Scan, resize, and print newspaper articles and other ephemera for use on your collage. This way they can be just the size you want and will also be archival safe.


• If you love the look of collage, but don’t have time to create it, there is a huge variety of pre-made collage style patterned papers, stickers, and embellishments for use.


• Use ink to highlight the edges of the different layered pieces of paper you use on your collage.


• Use strong adhesives to hold heavy elements to your collage page.


• For people that have a tough time doing collage, I always suggest just doing a "regular" layout and then bump the table and you get an interesting collage look! I'm not kidding.........some of my best collage looks started with a bump to the table and then I add a few extra touches! (Blue Crew Member, Jane Anne)


• Look for items that are all the same color palette or manufacturer. I think it gives a more unified look and may be easier for a beginner to work with. (Blue Crew Member, Amy Stultz)

For more collage ideas and inspiration, check out the gallery

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