Easy 5-step tutorial for a cute collage

Two months ago my best friend died and after the first shock and pain became a little more bearable I started to browse through my old photos to find photos of her. In the process I found tons of lovely photos that weren't »beautiful« enough to be put in albums, but still had so much memories locked in them. And that gave me the idea to make collages and use those photos as a focal point and that way save them in a more creative way.

The page that I called Mother's Love was inspired by photos of my mom and me as a baby. They are old and black and white, but still evoke wonderful memories and a beautiful relationship my mom and I still have. I had to scan the photos, since they were all wrinkled and when I printed them they are not very clear, but this doesn't bother me. I really prefer them that way.

I've chosen my color palette with very light and delicate colors: silver, iridescent, pink, orange and white and unfortunatelly those colors doesn't like being photographed and even less being scanned, so forgive me for bad quality of photos.

For my background I used:

PEBEO STUDIO ACRYLICS – BINDEX DYINA – iridescent

CPM – ACRYL EFFECTPASTE – silver metalic

While my background was drying I gathered what I intented to use in the piece:

• Washi tape

• Ribbons

• Paper cuts

• Paper napkin

• Plastic wrapping for flowers

When my background was dry I glued on a paper napkin and a paper cut circle.

For the next step I used Edding white permanent marker and Edding textile marker in pink and orange color. I drew circles and in that case I like how both textile markers look kind of transparent and give this delicate look to the page.

Now I glued everything else on a page. I used simple horizontal and vertical lines for my ribbons and washi tapes. I used the part with paper napkin as a base for a photo and I covered a part of a photo with a paper cut to make it more cohesive with the page.

Finally I added plastic wrap that my husband brought me flowers in and cut a part of it, to fit to the page. It's transparent with white flowers, circles and butterflies and I glued it on bottom part of the page. I made some circles with silver Edding marker and added a text above the photo.