Scraps: The Book and The Collage

I was recently sent an amazing book entitled Scraps, An Inspirational Field Guide to Collage, by Elsebeth Gynther & Christine Clemmensen. I devoured it like chocolate. Page by page, idea by idea. Delicious!
I’ve never really done a full-on collage before, well, not what I would consider a collage. I guess because I’ve always felt a bit lost on how and where to start. My puzzled mind: What would I collage? Should it be personal? Just decorative? The pressure! And then I would move on to some other project, leaving collage art to those for whom it came more natural.

But since diving into Scraps, I couldn’t help but be inspired, all my questions answered, ideas flooding in. I have other books on collage, as I’ve always loved collage art, but never have I been more motivated to create one than after spending time with this book. Scraps is both a non-intimidating guide for beginners as well as a good shot in the arm for experienced collage and assemblage artists.
So, today, I gathered my goods and created my first real collage. After getting to a certain point I stopped and photographed it blank, then later digitally added text to the image. Click to enlarge.My final piece is a gift to my sister, Jennifer. We have been through so much together over the last few years, and now as lone siblings from the sudden loss of our brothers and sister, I thought it would be a beautiful gift of hope -for both of us, as I couldn’t help but be blessed while making it.Grab the blank image, embellish and create something nice for youself or someone else if you’d like.