Lately, collage has been my reduce, reuse, and craft hobby. I have been collecting images and pretty papers from all sorts of sources. I have cut up many old magazines, catalogs, and books, purchased scrapbooking items and wrapping papers at thrift stores, and added to the chaos that is what Uncle S calls "the crap room" and I call "the craft room."
I have been noticing how many boxes seem to be in our recycling bin lately, so decided to apply collage technique to a few of them. Boxes that electronics come in are particularly deluxe, and I have been hoarding them, unsure how I would use them (see "crap room" above).
I have found that I prefer rubber cement for setting the paper in place. Most people seem to use white glue or glue sticks, but I have a problem with lighter weight paper wrinkling when I do that. Having both a normal-sized scissors and a finer detail one (I use manicure scissors) can help when you want to cut out detailed images.
After successfully converting the electronics box into a pretty animal print box (I only covered the lid; the sides of the box are plain), I decided to try transforming this generic facial tissue box.
I started by digging through my clippings to find some nice colors that would blend with the original color of the box. My favorites on this box came from an old issue of Real Simple Magazine. The graphics in that magazine are always gorgeous.
I also played with covering parts of the box in tissue paper. I hoped it would add texture and give a soft-focus feel to the bright yellow of the box.
Since this blog isn't about pretending that our lives--or craft projects--are perfect, here's a close-up of the wrinkles in the tissue paper from using too much glue. You can also see how bad my scissor technique was that day, with white margins around the watermelon radish photos.
But the practical point of this particular project was to distinguish this tissue box from others, because I turned it into a dispenser for plastic bags. From a distance, a white bag looks a lot like a kleenex. I didn't want to disappoint any would-be noseblower in my house when they grabbed the box and got a grocery sack!
Another box collage project came at a moment of panic. I had no wrapping paper at work, but had purchased going-away gifts for a colleague who was leaving our organization. I could have run to the closest store and bought a roll of retirement-themed wrapping paper, but I decided to do something more personal. Bonnie, the retiree, just happens to be a photographer, and she had taken many pictures over the years for our social media. Those photos were my inspiration.
The project was simple. I wrapped a small Amazon box in newspaper, the same way you wrap with giftwrap. Then I printed on regular office paper some of my favorites of her photos--one of every staff member in the department, some of the students we work with, and a particularly fetching shot of her newly-acquired cat. I cut the photos to appropriate sizes and glued them onto the box. This was the result:
The thing I liked best about that project was how personal it was. It commemorated her work with us, and wished her well for her future. No roll of expensive wrapping paper can do that as well.
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