Crafty Lion Collage - How to Make Your Own

I completed this colorful mixed media collage yesterday and am pretty pleased with how it turned out. It helps that it's my 5th version, which is a tendency I have. Making variations on a theme until I can't stand it.

This is a great rainy day activity for anybody and is a great project to do with kids. Would you like to try to make one? It's all a matter of materials and steps. If you want to have a go read on...

MATERIALS & TOOLS

• Colorful Paper - not too thick so that the paper can absorb the adhesive really well. The colors I used are taupe (I cut this one 12x12" and worked on that surface), mustard, grass green, lime green, burgundy, red violet, red and white. You don't have to follow this exactly. NOTE: Keep the paper thin. No to cardboard and thick paper; Yes to magazine and newspaper.
• Paint - white and brown
• Adhesive - I use Blickrylic Polymer Gloss Medium but good old Modge Podge will work fine, too. You can get the latter at any craft store. You can choose glossy or matte. They're both great.
• Tools - craft tape (scotch will not work), scissors, one wide and one narrow paint brush

STEPS

Step 1

• Decide the size of the artwork. I need 10x10" for my frame. So, I'm making the artwork 12x12" so that I can easily cut it down. I just need to remember not to put any important images on the edges.
• Tape it down well on all 4 sides.
• The adhesive will go through the paper. If you do not have a safe work space to use put extra paper beneath the artwork but make sure it's all taped down.
• You'll see here that I have all of my materials prepared. On the right I have all of my pieces cut out and on my left I have my adhesive and a paint brush ready to go. I prefer to prepare my cut-outs in advanceso that I can just get into it while I'm collaging.

Step 2

Using your adhesive (Blickrylic or Modge Podge) paint down the entire surface of the artwork. This will adhere all of the  background paper together.

Step 3

• The paper will buckle while you paint. And it will show a white residue from the adhesive for a short time. That will disappear.
• Once the paper is dry it will flatten out.
• If you do not tape the entire paper down the buckling will not go away and could get worse.
• Let this sit for an hour or two. Or a day or two. There's no rush.

Step 4

• When the background is dry start placing and adhering your items to the background.
• REMEMBER collage is additive and permanent. Whatever needs to be behind something (such as a lion behind grass) goes down first.
• SUGGESTION: Place your pieces down first without gluing so that you know what order they need.

Step 5

• This is the really fun part. Pasting down the pretty paper shapes.
• Make sure to give a good coating of the adhesive on TOP of the shapes.

Step 6

• SUGGESTION: Go one piece at a time as much as you can.
• Once the you glue down a piece you can't go back. But you can go on top. So, if you make a mistake try to figure out what you can add to COVER your mistake (which can often be a stroke of genius and make the art even better)

Step 7

After you complete the gluing let the piece dry for about an hour. Then go back and paint in the little details.

Finished!

Yay! It's done - bright, cheery and colorful. Exactly what I wanted.

NOTE ABOUT KEEPING THE COLORS: If you want to protect the colors of the paper you can add a coat of UV varnish. This can be bought in a spray or a varnish. The spray is pretty stinky so I don't use it. I prefer to use the Satin UV Varnish by WIndsor & Newton. Regardless of what you use make sure to do 2 coats.

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS PROJECT! MORE TO COME...

NEXT
Want a great way to frame your beastie using your leftovers? This post will show you how to decoupage a plain picture frame to make your whimsical artwork even more so!
http://craftyincobb.blogspot.com/2016/02/how-to-decoupage-picture-frame.html

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MORE SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION. If you like my collages but don't have time to make one you can either come
to the Art Market on the Marietta square all spring, summer and fall and buy an original. Or buy a print on Zazzle.com.

Sunny Red Owl PRINT by CraftyGraphics
Find more Owl Posters at Zazzle