This collage was inspired by a book called True Beauty, by Mahaney and Whitacre. I wanted an easy way to put up a bunch of quotes and verse with out looking cluttered, and of course creating a piece of art was the answer. A collage is a great way to show some of your interests and inspirations. Here's just a few tips on creating your own quote-collage.
Tip 1: Find your phrases.
Choose words that mean a lot so your phrases can be short. Just a few powerful words is better than a whole paragraph, and the point of a collage is lots of pieces put together. If your phrases are lengthy there won't be room for lots of different ones.
Tip 2: Choose material.
For more variety, each of the quotes should be on unique pieces of paper or material. Use special colors and patterns of paper that aren't too distracting. The focus is still the words, so make sure your patterns aren't too bold. Try faint floral patterns, paint strokes, or washed out patterns.
Tip 3: Create shapes.
Another way to make each part unique is to use fun shapes. Don't just put every phrase or quote on a rectangle! Circles, flowers, hearts, crosses, butterflies, animal shapes like horse heads or puppy paws, food shapes like cupcakes and ice-cream cones, foot prints, books, baby toys, speech bubbles....anything you can think of! Match the shapes with the theme of the collage or do random.
Tip 4: The words.
Now that you've got a bunch of cool shapes and patterns, time to write! Markers, gel pens, paint pens....neon, metallic, rainbow, pastel....bold, italic, cursive, calligraphy, underlined, funky, tiny, tall....make the type stand out in your own way! Especially important words can stand out with big or fancy type. You can also leave room for boarders, fancy corners or doodles around the quotes.
Tip 5: Put it all together.
When you attach your quotes to the base, it might be a bit of a jigsaw puzzle to lay them all out together. Most likely, there will still be some blank space in between them that needs to be filled in. Fill this space in with cool stickers and doodles such as: fake gems, puffy/3D stickers, glitter, shapes and images cut from catalogs, letter stickers, ribbon, buttons, etc.
Frame your masterpiece and hang it up for all to see!
I hope these tips help. Keep in mind that these are just some ideas to get your imagination started. This project is free for you to do whatever you want with it!