I cannot draw a decent stick figure. Yet more than once I have earned my living as a collage artist. Collage as an art form offers the non-drawing artist a way to creatively and easily express yourself, an idea or a theme. 

The process of collaging is fun and therapuetic. It can represent something as deep as putting together the pieces of your life, offer an exploration of beauty or simply act as an outlet, a way to visually express a day in the life of you.

Collaging can be as simple or as complex as you choose it to be.  I have collaged an entire music room floor using photos, assorted magazine clippings, newspaper articles and album inserts.  The theme was a single performer: Prince.  The floor was in my apartment (with my landlord's permission). 

When I moved the landlord kept the collage laying  a purple and beige flower print area rug over it, allowing for just an edge of Prince to peekout as a border. It was a selling point!

Collage can also be small, very small.  One of my ebay items on auction is hand made scale 1" to 1' dollhouse accessories that put a unique touch on your diarama or dollhouse. I create miniature collage art and original paintings.

The tools for collaging can be as little as scissors, papers, newspapers, magazines, cardboard, posterboard, a shoebox or two, ruler, glues, sealant and remnants of "stuff".  You can add more elegant tools as you go, including xacto knife, spray adhesive and fixative, and specialty design cutting edges.

This book is not about the specifics of how to collage. There is plenty of information on the web and in books about the how to. 

This book is a creative walk through the many types of collaging, collage ideas for fun and profit, and the unlikliest sources for collage materials (and most everything can be found on ebay!) So let's get started with some ideas about what to collage.

Here is a list of items I have personally collaged in just the past few years.  I note if it was for made for personal use, shown as art, a gift, or made to sell. As you read the list you may find something so interesting you might find yourself compelled to get up and start collaging right now.

End tables / side tables ~  perfect to collage to any theme for children's room, teen's room, game room, even living room.  I have made them as gifts and sale using varied themes as Italian Renaissance Artists, penguins, Japanese gardens, cartoon characters and simply words using printed materials only.  I have sold everyone I have presented for sale. There's always need for another small table and with personality the tables sell themselves.

Wall Art ~ When I first started selling my collage art I stayed away from wall art.  It seemed that every collage I had ever seen, no matter how interesting or how much it captured my imagination, I just could not see it hanging up anywhere in my home. 

Then I met an artist who used original photographs along with old window frames and pieces of clothes, toys, fabrics and with these items created a one of a kind picture frame / work of art tailored to the buyers house colors, design and personal likes. 

This gave me the idea to make a few theme collage wall pieces to show allowing folks to either purchase the premade art or to order a specific themed piece where they are a part of the process.  Together we choose the theme, size, basic color palette and set the tone for the piece. 

I have been pleasantly successful selling these pieces by showing them once a year at the local art and crafts fair on the boardwalk.  I sell all my premade pieces each year and take enough orders to keep me busy for months.  The more I show and become known the more referrals come in as well.

Party Activity ~  Until my son turned 9 his birthday parties were at home with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches cookie cuttered into dinosaurs, stars and circles. We played pin the tail on the donkey and had little red plastic baskets  filled with M&M's at each child's table setting.

The entertainment was audiotape birthday songs along with a silhouette collage activity.  Each child would have their silhouette drawn as they came into the party. For an activity, boxes of precut pictures, stickers, crayons, yarn and other knick knacks are available and the kids collage their silhouette. 

As the party continues each of the collages are sprayed with sealant, rolled up in wax paper and ribboned, ready to go home as a party favor.

The detailed instructions with examples of this project and other party craft projects are another item I list on ebay. 

Collage as therapy ~  I am a metaphysical counsellor using art as a tool for expression, release, inspiration and healing.  Collaging as a way to express your feelings about a time, an event, a memory is healing and nurturing. 

From a simple collage of movie tickets, gum wrappers, ribbons and tufts of hair to a more elaborate statement such as an altered book, the process of collaging engages your emotions, your mind and your body transporting you to through time, allowing you to re-live or re-invent your past, present and your future.

Group Collaging ~ This is a wonderful team building exercise and I often use this when working with families, especially when young children are included. 

You can group collage on a single project at once or set times when each person works on it, or assign parts of the project by theme to a person or persons. You can also assign physical parts to someone such as mom does background, dad does all things black or red, John does all the animals. 

If you think of a collage as a quilt, you can each create your own mini collage and then either connect them into one large piece or frame each of them and hang them in different ways so that each day the collage can look different and fresh.

Educational Collage ~  This is a big seller for fundraising and it's fun as well.  Educational collages using numbers and equations for math, quotes and themes for history and language arts, theatre and film for performing arts.. you get the idea. 

I have donated many of my educational collages to schools and local community centers. Our local elementary school sponsored a project with me  creating collage and cartoon magnets which were sold at the school and the local arts fair. The funds raised were donated to Habitat for Humanity a non-profit organization that builds homes for in need families.

Heart Collage ~ Yes, you collage within a shape of a heart, but the real heart is putting in special items that touch the heart of all who see the collage.

Finding the perfect picture, the right color paper, the actual piece of string from your childhood red top ~ these are the things collage hearts are made of.

Altar Collage ~ This is the collage you are most likely to find on my ebay site these days.  It is one of my favorite collage projects.

Altars or sacred spaces are becoming more prevalent in homes and offices.  Eeking out a space for your personal connection to the source, a place where you can see what is uplifting to you, something you delight in, is very nurturing.

To collage for sacred spaces I often begin by cutting the backboard of the piece into a shape, often a cirle or a row of three connecting circles. This gives a feeling of continuity, of connectedness before I even begin to apply the pieces. 

What you collage, what you say or represent on the collage, is up to you or your client.  I specialize in deities, prayer collages, wall of prayers, miracles and backdrops.  A backdrop collage is one made of scenery that can be placed as a backdrop to items kept on the altar such as statues, incense burners, singing bowls, etc.

Most of my sacred / altar collages are specialy orders.  I am careful to check what is not acceptable as well as what is desired. 

Since finding ebay collaging has become an even greater adventure. Everything you need to collage from the tools to the extras is for auction or sale on ebay. 

Here you go, just check it out.  Search the tools: glues, paper, colored paper, scrapbook materials, yarn, buttons, felt, material, scissors, hole punches, poster board, canvas, frames, matting, postcards, greeting cards, sewing cards, playing cards, old photos, calendars, newspapers, magazines, picture books, how to collage information, picture hangars, magnet backs, altered books, doilies (great for collaging), folding paper, wrapping paper, wax paper, stamps, ink, art supplies, rollers, origami papers, copy free art, stencils, erasers, and more.

So grab a shoe box, get your basic supplies together, glue and scissors, and start your first project. It could be the shoebox.