Guest Post: the iheart blog

Hi! I'm Becky from the iheart blog. I started blogging as a way to improve my photography skills and get the creative juices flowing. Being a newlywed, I don't have a huge decorating budget so I've loved coming up with projects that are cheap/made with stuff I already had. Below is my first foray into the world of mixed media collages. It is pretty easy if a little time consuming, but well worth the effort!

For the past year or so, I have been seeing other bloggers with really neat collage art that they have created. I'll admit, I was in awe and slightly intimidated. Until one day, the fates stepped in, and I was a substitute art teacher. The students project was to draw a picture, and then rip out the colors they needed from magazine pages. The light bulb went off and so began my adventure into the collage art world.

The supplies for this project are pretty simple:



Paper products! I started sifting through magazines while I was still at school and then continued searching through my old bridal magazines (who doesn't have a bunch of old magazines lying around?!?). For the colors that I didn't think I had enough of, I supplemented it with some card stock and paint chips. Old books, wrapping paper, even cut up pieces of fabric would work. Once you decide on a color palette, just start ripping up pages that contain those colors. I went for a Mediterranean vibe.



Keep your colors separate as you go- I used prep dishes and pyrex bowls. Don't be afraid to go with different shades within each color otherwise you will be looking forever! Varying the size of your papers is also important. I filled most dishes 2/3 full and that ended up being more than enough! The great thing about this project is if you don't rip enough to start with, you can just go back to ripping and fill in as needed.

Once you are satisfied with your paper stash, it is time to start creating. I used an 11x14 canvas. You can use whatever size you choose. I marked my canvas with a line every two inches so I'd be able to keep the colors semi-even (I ditched the gray).



Now, you will need to start mod podging your paper onto the canvas. I just put a dab on the back of each piece with a foam brush and placed it on the canvas. Be as random as possible to ensure your different shades are spread evenly. Layer as much as you like to get the look you want. I chose to wrap the colors all the way onto the edges so I wouldn't have to frame it or worry about painting the edges. Simply use some of your straight edge pieces or just trim them when you are all finished.



I also overlapped a little bit of each color into the next section to help it flow better. You honestly cannot mess this up! Just glue and plop it onto the canvas. Once all of your bits of paper are in place, slather on the mod podge. This is your time to get all those edges glue down really good! I had some wrinkling occur during this stage, but I liked the texture that it added. Now you just need to let it dry for a couple of hours.



Here is my finished product:



Not going to lie, it turned out better than I expected. I love all the texture and different colors. I think doing one in all neutrals or black/white/grays would be quite neat as well. Of course, I couldn't just leave it plain like this so I jazzed it up with some of my tissue paper flowers.



I would love to see other people's projects, so stop by my blog and share your results! I'm excited to see what other people come up with for color palettes or even possibly designs-maybe a wavy pattern? Thanks for letting me share mine with you ;)