mixed media collages

Happy Wednesday crafty people! This week I am here to talk about a super easy craft that I am so excited about: some mixed media collages! Collages are not really my kind of craft typically, but I decided to try some out and I am really proud with how they came out. I wanted the collages to be framed so that they could be the type of art that someone would put on their desk or on a shelf. I bought a pack of 12 4 by 6 black frames on Amazon and they ended up being just over $2 each. I have provided the Amazon link below to the frames that I bought; if you make any purchases through this link, I will receive some of the sale. You could also probably get frames this size at your local dollar store if you were willing to put in the effort!

Giftgarden 4x6 Picture Frame Black Photo Frames for Wall or Tabletop, Set of 12

I really got the idea for the collages when my mom gave me some old National Geographic magazines that I had from when I was younger. Those magazines have such gorgeous glossy photos in them and I decided to cut out some images of things like wildlife and food. Then I thought it would look nice to have a contrast with these bright colorful pictures and thought that a good base for the collages would be book pages. I have a spare Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and an old French-English Dictionary that I have to use for crafting.

I know that some people won't notice and I am probably crazy for paying such attention to detail, but I made sure to pick book pages that went with the theme of each collage so that the words in the background of each frame held some significance. I will give you some examples of this as I show the details of a few specific collages that I made.

To start off each collage, I picked the page I wanted to use and then cut it down to size. I also glued the page to the stock photo insert that came with the frame to give it more support. For my first collage I picked the dictionary page that had the word "swim."

Then I attached one of the images that I had cut from the magazine, which was some fish, and using some letter stickers added the phrase "just keep swimming." And its that simple! I added the image and glass to the frame and then wanted to add some dimension to the front of the collage. Using both Gorilla Glue and Super Glue, I attached some gems to the front of the glass itself to simulate bubbles. I have a huge jug of gems because I'm crazy. Here it is!

For another collage I used a page from the Harry Potter book which described several types of candy. I paired this with an image of candy from National Geographic and the word "sweet" in letter stickers. Similar to the collage above, I added some gems to the glass itself. 

Collages are a great craft because there is no hard and fast rule to what you can or can't put into them. Use whatever paper or pictures you want and go crazy! Here are a few others that I made:

I have 4 frames left, so will be finishing up the last few collages this week. Let me know what you think in the comments below!

 - Rebecca