Use What's Handy to Make Art

Are there any old magazines laying around your house? Do you have a bin full of leftover collage or scrapbook papers? Don't throw them out! Instead, use them to make art. It's a great way to keep your creativity sharpened, while turning your scraps into small treasures. With a glue stick, scissors and some small supports (watercolor paper scraps, blank artist trading cards, even cut up cereal boxes) you can make postcards, greeting cards and small collages.

I enjoy making note cards, which I use for personal correspondence, or give to studio visitors as mementos. It's easy to whip up several while watching TV at night. Here are some examples of designs I've made using cardstock or watercolor paper as supports, and then affixed to the front of blank note cards:

Magazine images, typography from a sales flyer, collage paper and scrapbook paper were used  here

Scrapbook paper, part of a painted Tyvek envelope, collage papers and a sliver of a photo in an art magazine were used to make this design

Small pieces of my own hand painted collage papers were used here

This "landscape" is made entirely from leftover scrapbook papers

Even old phone books can be useful. The white circular object is a piece of plastic label from a soft drink bottle that was heated using an iron. Parchment paper was inserted between the iron and the label to protect the iron from being damaged.

Lots of odds and ends from my found paper stash make up this design

This was made from a single magazine ad. I was drawn by its Matisse-like shapes and bright colors! I simply punched out  one inch squares with a paper punch and rearranged them

The two pieces below were made by cutting out and cutting up typography. Headlines and article titles are good sources of interesting and unusual fonts.

I hope you're inspired to try this form of entertainment if you haven't already. It's quite satisfying to create small works using papers already at your disposal. Making pieces such as these can teach you much about color, composition and other elements of good design. You may even find that creating art from scraps is often more fun and less intimidating than larger, more "serious" works!

Text and images ©2016 Lynn Edwards

Making Collage Postcards

Just can't seem to tear myself away from playing with my new EK square punch! Here's yet another collage postcard I made the other day with this helpful little tool:

The papers I used were already in my paper stash, so it was simply a matter of selecting colors and patterns that looked good together and using the punch on them. The 140# watercolor paper the 1x1 inch squares are adhered to had been cut for another project but never used. So without the need to do anything beyond creating 24 squares, the postcard went together lightning fast. I used my trusty matte medium to glue them down, then applied it over the surface of the card to seal it.

If you don't have any hand painted papers, you can use images from old magazines, calendar illustrations and any number of other "found" papers. Packaging materials often have very bold graphics and interesting typography that work well also. This postcard was one I made using black and white typography taken from magazine ads:

I didn't use a punch because at the time I didn't have one. I simply used a craft knife to cut the paper pieces into rectangular shapes. Then I arranged them on a piece of watercolor paper and glued them into place.

And here's a third postcard with a playful look. To make it, I punched out one inch squares from a  magazine ad featuring bright colors and simple designs:

It may not be "high art," but making your own postcards is a whole lot of fun. You'll have the satisfaction of knowing the correspondence you're sending is one of a kind, and as such, it's sure to delight the recipient. And if you use materials that were destined to be discarded, you can pat yourself on the back for re-purposing them into mail art that's attractive and useful!

Text and images ©2015 Lynn Edwards