Paper collage cards are fun and easy to make, it doesn’t take a lot of time and you could even recycle old paintings or drawings in the process.
What you will need:
Printed papers (see bellow)
Blank cards, or Bristol paper
Gel medium or mod podge or white glue
A brush
Acrylic paint, inks, markers… (optional)
A pencil
I am a Blick Art Materials affiliate and I receive a small compensation for sales. That does not effect in any way the cost of the purchaser’s order but it helps me keeping the content of this blog free.
The only recycled bristol on the market, these pads are designed to appeal to students, with superior construction and heavier weight covers. 96 lb (260 gsm) weight.
Start by gathering paper for your collage
You can make the paper using a variety of techniques:
You can make colored paper using a gel printing plate
You can paint directly on paper
You can stamp on paper
You can use stencils to add textures
You can make textured paper using various materials like bubble paper
You can also use already made paper:
Origami paper
Tissue paper
pages from magazines
You can use a gel printing plateYou can use a gel printing plateUsing stencilsPainting directly on paperUsing origami paperMaking textures with bubble wrap
Once you gathered your papers, it saves time to cut them into strips so you can work directly and form letters by ripping the pre-cut strips.
Pre-cutting papers into strips Strips of paper ready to be used for collage
You can paint a background on the cards if you want to
This is optional, but you could decide to paint a background, either with fluid acrylics or with full bodied acrylic paint.
Painting a background with silver acrylic paintPainting a background with orange fluid acrylic.
I am a Blick Art Materials affiliate and I receive a small compensation for sales. That does not effect in any way the cost of the purchaser’s order but it helps me keeping the content of this blog free.
Pigments are ground and milled to provide consistent good coverage without over-inking. Clean-up with water. 12 non-toxic colors in a variety of tube and jar sizes.
Once your background had time to dry (you could also use a hairdryer) , time for the fun part to start!
Paper collage
I recommend you place the elements of your collage before starting to fix them with medium or glue so you can check the composition and make sure everything will fit.
Checking the composition before fixing the collage
You can use tweezers to move the little strips of paper more easily.
If you want to add a shape to fill, here I wanted to had a heart shape, draw it before with pencil.
drawing a heart shape to fill with collageThen I fill the shape with overlapping strips of papers, fixing each one with gel medium
I used gloss medium as a fixative, but before it makes the surface appear glossier, I spread it on the whole surface of the card for consistency.
using gloss medium to fix the paper strips on the collage card
Then you can leave your card to dry. If it becomes a bit warped, you can either iron it at a low temperature or use a paper press.
Here are 3 collage cards , one with a blank background and two with painted backgrounds
Originally from France, I have been living in North Vancouver, Canada for the past 20 years.
My work has been collected and exhibited extensively in Canada and internationally. I am also part of the Art Rentals and sales program of the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Many of my paintings have been published in Art books and magazines (Artist Magazine, Watercolor Artist Magazine, Acrylic Magazine, International Artist Magazine). I wrote 2 art instruction books with North Light/F+W Books.
I have been writing for the last 5 years for my blog: paintingdemos.com, that has a mailing list of about 10 000 subscribers and about 20 000 visitors per month.
I am an active member in the community, as a co-founder of the North Shore Art crawl, a co-founder of a weekly life drawing group, a board member of the North Vancouver Arts Council, and have been invited as a juror for public art, art grants and juried exhibitions. You can read more about my collaborations here.
