Saturday, July 31, 2010

Paper collage from magazines

Sometimes you just need to get your hands a little dirty. One of my favorite things to do is to get out some old magazines and create collages related to whatever is going on in my life. Some are more serious than others. Some are just for fun. Some function as my own personalized motivational posters. It doesn't matter, the process is always the same. This is keep it simple kind of stuff involving nothing more than cardstock, old magazines, a glue stick and some scissors. Often I keep supplies around for my girls too, so that they can collage with me.

Digital Collage

I love playing in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. I use the programs for digital scrapbook pages and other graphic arts all the time. Occasionally, I feel the need to work out some itchiness in the brain, and so I make a digital collage. I often start with a vintage photo or piece of artwork and go from there. Using digital stamps and adding various textures and papers in layers, then altering them to create all kinds of unplanned effects, is a lot of fun for me.

Here are some of my favorite works. Click on the box to see larger versions, and/or on "Show info" to learn more about each one.

OK. So I want a place that I can archive projects. This will, hopefully, be it. With any luck, it'll be a little less haphazard than my posts on Facebook and LJ and other random places. Crossing our fingers.

So, what kind of crafting do I do? Mostly it's paper stuff -- card making, collage and scrapbooking. I like to do a fair amount of digital work, but in my head, it's still just paper. I'm using a computer, but thinking paper. Nonetheless, there are times when you need to get messy with glue and ink. There are times a computer just won't do it. Which is when I start trolling through drawers of chaotic paper scraps and magazines to play.

I'm hoping that I'll find some time (and, ahem, courage) to work more with altered books, art journaling and watercolors. We'll see how it goes. (If you have ideas, speak up!)

Anyway, I'm going to start the blog rolling with some projects I've done in the past, mostly so that I can archive them safely somewhere.