Keep calm and collage on
There’s no doubt these last few weeks have been confusing and worrying.
I veer from feeling relatively calm about Coronavirus to scrolling through too much news or social media and going into an anxious spin (usually right before bed).
It’s now more than ever that hobbies and creativity can really help calm our minds.
When I started collage it was for fun and it still very much is.
But in the past few weeks I have realised just how important it is to me and my mental health. It provides an outlet and focus away from what’s happening in the news.
For a long time I was inquisitive about collage but never quite knew how to get started. Do I use scissors or a craft knife? What’s the best glue? How do I get materials?
After sitting on the fence for a while and thinking about creating my first collage by hand, I pulled together some materials and gave it a shot.
If you are just starting out and looking to start making collages, here are a few tips:
First things first, you will need:
old magazines or books you are happy to cut up
Small scissors
Glue (Prit Stick it similar)
Card - I use A4
1. Collect your materials - Start cutting out any images of people, objects, animals etc you find interesting or that intrigue you. Rip out pages with interesting backgrounds.
If you don’t have magazines to hand but you do have a printer, take a look through some of these open access image libraries with images that are out of copyright - here’s a handy list -https://www.apollo-magazine.com/open-access-image-libraries-a-handy-list/
Print off any that you find interesting and add to your collection.
2 - Getting started - Lay out your backgrounds on one side and then your objects/people/animals on another. Start playing around and see what works together. You could pick a theme and challenge yourself to create a collage with that subject in mind. Start to create and place your collage on a piece of card or in a scrapbook and when happy with how it looks, glue it in place.
3. Photographing your work - if you have decided you’d like to upload your handcut collage to Instagram, getting a good photograph is key. I photograph my collages right beside the window using my phone and use a bit of white card to reflect the light. I then use the Snapseed app to crop the picture and make any small tweaks perhaps to the brightness or contrast before saving to my phone.
4 - Sharing your work - when I first started , I decided to create 12 collages before setting up my Instagram account and posting them. I discovered other handcut collage artists through hashtags and an incredible supportive positive collage community. By far the best thing I have done is to take part in weekly themed challenges - take a look at @gluetogether @pariscollagecollective and @februllage. From here you will start to see hashtags people are using and you can start to follow both your favourite accounts and hashtags.
5. Further reading - There are a few art and collage books that I have really drawn on for inspiration (below)
Show your Work! and Keep Going! by Austin Kleon
Check out a few of my favourite Instagram collage accounts -
What’s great about collage is that there’s no right or wrong, you can just have fun. It takes your mind off things. It allows some escapism and we could all do with a little bit of that right now.
Entertaining kids at home at Easter
With a few weeks off nursery on the horizon, I'm getting my thinking cap on as to how I can keep my 4 and 2 year-olds entertained.
Whilst we're hoping for some crisp Spring days in the park, I'm also prepared for rain and some time at home. To stop the girls from going mad and bickering with each other, I've come up with a few crafty ideas to keep them amused:
Mrs Mactivity
Mrs Mactivity is a website I've only just discovered and it's fab. It's packed full of mostly free designs you can print off and make/colour at home. There are regular themed designs - in the past week we have been having great fun making the Easter cards (see above). It's a website set up by a collective of ex and current teachers and designers with the aim to make learning fun. Many designs are currently free, there's also a subscription option offering unlimited downloads and some extra content.
Collage
Get a stack of old magazines and cut up faces, bodies, objects -anything really.
I tend to cut things out in advance and put them on the table with a piece of white card and glue. Both girls will happily sit for maybe 20 minutes sticking the cuttings all over the page. I find it quite fascinating to see what they come up with!
Shortly after we did the first collage together, our eldest was asked to bring a picture in to nursery school for Show and Tell to illustrate 'Autumn Arriving'. I cut out anything remotely Autumnal from the weekend's newspapers and recent magazines and she had some artwork ready to take to school.
Gingerbread decorating
Some supermarkets - Sainsbury's and Morrisons are two - sell Gingerbread decorating sets.
For under £2 you get at least 5 gingerbread men, coloured icing and sprinkles.
I lay out the gingerbread and accessories and leave my eldest to decorate. She usually spends a good 10 minutes decorating before getting round to eating it.
I tried making gingerbread myself but it was a disaster! This keeps things simple and the children love it!
Window Colouring
A good, no mess activity that works well for getting great pictures of your children.
We use Crayola washables which wipe off easily and let the girls colour on our glass kitchen doors.
You can then get some photographs of them in action by photographing them from outside.
Head to my blog post here to see more examples.
Flower Pressing
I have fond memories of having a flower press as a child - carefully collecting flowers from the garden and placing them in the press - using the results on birthday cards or homemade art.
It's quite an old school idea but there's something quite nice about introducing the little ones to nature and making a game out of collecting flowers and leaves from the garden or on the walk home from school/nursery.
We bought this one from Amazon and it's a good size with plenty of space for holding your flowers.
I'd love to hear your ideas for what to do with the kids on a day at home, let me know in the comments below.
Getting started with Hand Lettering
Fonts and Hand Lettering are a constant fascination to me.
I can be put right off a TV programme if the titles or credits are an odd font. And don't get me started on Comic Sans, it's just the worst!
One of my plans for 2017 was to learn Modern Calligraphy. Actually I couldn't decide between Modern Calligraphy or Brush Lettering so I took an evening class in both.
Modern Calligraphy requires patience and precision. If this is something you want to try, I'd do a class - Quill London is great and Lucy, the founder, has written an excellent book called 'Modern Calligraphy'. From there, armed with your supplies, it's all about practice.
I found the same with Brush Lettering - whether you are using a paintbrush or brush pens, it's practice, practice, practice, mastering each letter in the alphabet and then learning to form words and sentences.
Following on from those classes, I'm now trying Hand Lettering.
This is totally new to me but I am loving scouring Pinterest for ideas to try. I also started following Mye De Leon on Instagram. She's an illustrator based in Singapore who creates beautiful work. Her book 'Mastering Hand Lettering' is my favourite on the subject so far. It's beautifully presented and easy to follow.
What I love most about Hand Lettering is getting lost in a little project. I look at my eldest (who is almost 4) and when she does her sticker projects you can see that she is completely engaged in her own little world.
Getting involved in a new hobby, whether it's painting, calligraphy, hand lettering, collage or something else is a great way of switching off, getting away from the iPhone or computer and taking some time out.
Who knows whether this current project will last a few weeks or years but I figure it's never too late to try something new and have a bit of fun with it!
These are some of the supplies I am using to get started with Hand Lettering:
Rhodia Dot Pad
Zig Calligraphy II pen by Kuretake
Kuretake Bimoji pens
Tombow Brush pens
HB pencil, an eraser and sharpener
I decided to put myself out there and start a separate Instagram account just for Hand lettering - it's called @letsgolettering
If you have any tips on pens to use for Hand Lettering or books to read on the subject, let me know in the comments below.
Learning to Scrapbook
I remember when I was about 11 years-old - it was September, a brand new term at school. Sharpened pencils, a new shiny pencil case and maybe even a pristine set of new colouring pencils, too good to be removed from their box.
A friend had returned from a Summer holiday adventure and was neatly arranging her keepsakes from her trip in a scrapbook.
Photographs, tickets, notes, all mixed with pretty pastel coloured card and intricate designs printed on delicate paper.
I was mesmerised and watched wide-eyed as she glued, coloured and weaved together her findings in a book bound together with ribbon.
The truth is for a long time, and particularly at school, art was never my thing. Painting and drawing I loved but I was simply not good enough (or encouraged) to take art as a subject at GCSE.
It's only now, in my thirties, that I'm exploring new crafts and having fun trying new skills. There's no pressure to pass exams, just to learn and have fun.
I came across Project Craft at Paperchase by chance when looking for a new diary on their website.
I discovered the flagship store in London's Tottenham Court Road offers a range of craft classes, just a few hours long and enough to dip your toe in to see if you warm to it.
I chose the Scrapbooking class for a very reasonable £20 (including all supplies). There's also Card Making, Creative Journaling, Origami Flowers, Paper Cactus making and more.
Cameron, a friendly and enthusiastic art student (who also works part-time at Paperchase) was my teacher for the afternoon and encouraged me to choose a theme for my scrapbook - I chose travel.
I had brought along pictures, tickets and cuttings from a previous (poor) scrapbooking attempt and he helped me weave all the materials together into a double-page spread using coloured card, designer paper, washi tape and coloured string (for the bunting). He also showed me how to create pockets to store tickets and small mementos.
This was a brilliant introduction to Scrapbooking. My main reason for booking the class was so that for future travels I can involve our two girls and we can continue to create the scrapbook together.
In the two hours I also learnt:
How to be more confident using a cutting mat and knife
That it's much better to use double sided tape than Pritt Stick (curls at the edges)
How to be creative with washi tape (I always just used it like sellotape before - hello washi tape bunting!)