1. Laying foundation.

You need to find something to create your collage upon. Poster board, which comes in a variety of sizes and colors, is a good place to start. Large poster board measures 22 inches by 28 inches and is available at any office supply store. White is probably best choice since you can add color, as you choose, to background. You can purchase 8.5 inch by 11 inch packages of colored paper and place them in various areas on white board to enjoy a multicolored background. This is especially nice when it highlights or brings out color in a picture that you place on top of it. You can also paint background with a design or solid color, or even use wall paper or other decorative scrap book papers to create background that you desire.

2. Materials, materials and more materials.

You need some basic materials on hand in order to get started, including poster board, scissors, colored pens and pencils, and some glue sticks. A collage is your personal canvas, yours to decorate in any way that you please. Gather magazines and other materials from which you can cut out pictures, words and phrases. Add money or coinage, or scent of your favorite perfume or cologne (these scents will fade with time). Add colors and designs penned with colored markers or pencils, or even crayons. Add bits of decorative paper, colored string or other ornamentation. Include special photographs. You might even want to add pressed flowers, a small bag of beach sand or other small items which are important to creating your masterpiece. Use whatever materials you enjoy that will bring your vision to life. Make this multi-sensory experience all about you and your vision.

3. Its all about…you.

Spend some time thinking about what you want to put on your collage. You might have some preliminary ideas about colors and layout. After you have cut out pictures, you can mock up your collage and try laying out things in different formats. Think about these questions as you work on your collage: What do I want to attract for myself or for others? Why am I creating this collage? What special meaning does it have for me?

4. Take your time.

An Overview of Home Cured Modeling Clays by: Eileen Bergen http://www.theartfulcrafter.com

To my mind, modeling clay is one of most fun media to “play” with. From faux beads to small figurines to plaques to Christmas ornaments to adornments for collages or scrapbook pages: every crafter can find an application for clay. Home cured clays which air dry or cure in oven at low temperature are safe, easy and one of most affordable crafts around.

With a few basic shapes (ball, cane, pear, teardrop) you can create almost anything. You can make clay molds; and then use molds to recreate a design over and over. You can stamp impressions into clay; color it; texturize it; carve it. You can make it look like almost any hard substance from stone to marble to wood to bone.

I made an faux coral and jade bead necklace and earring set with Sculpey III modeling clay, using an antique Chinese “Prosperity” coin. The result, pictured on my site, looks quite authenic.

The choice of modeling clays and clay recipes is mind-boggling. It helps to understand differences in order to decide which is suitable for your project.

I’ll narrow field to general use modeling clays and exclude exotic types like rose petal clay, cinnamon applesauce clay and coffee clay! That leaves three general categories: polymer; cornstarch base; and bread base.

Polymer Modeling Clays The leading polymer clays are Sculpey and Fimo. Pieces are cured in your home oven on low heat in just 15 minutes. Polymer clays have very long shelf life and are stored simply by wrapping in plastic and keeping in a cool, dark place. I’ve never had any harden in storage but if you do, there are diluents to make clay workable again.

The choices of colors and finishes (such as stone, glitter, fluorescent and even glow in dark) are wonderful.