Collage Making
Rip stuff up and glue it down. Call it art. It is.
creativecrafty$ low1 hourdifficulty 1/5
Collage is creativity with training wheels off and scissors on. You cut images from old magazines, junk mail, or printed photos and arrange them into something new. There's no drawing skill required — just a willingness to glue things where they don't belong.
How to start
- 1Gather old magazines, junk mail, newspapers, or printed images you don't need.
- 2Grab scissors, a glue stick, and any piece of cardstock or thick paper.
- 3Cut out 20-30 images, words, or textures that catch your eye — don't overthink it.
- 4Arrange them on your paper without gluing. Move things around until something clicks.
- 5Glue everything down. Stand back. You just made art.
What you'll need
- Glue stickEssential~$3
- ScissorsEssential~$5
- Old magazines or printed imagesEssentialFree
- Cardstock or thick paperEssential~$5
- Mod Podge for sealing finished piecesNice to have~$8
Where to learn more
Plot twists
Ways to spice this up when the basics get boring.
- Make a collage using only text — no images allowed.
- Use exclusively junk mail. Turn ads into protest art.
- Set a 10-minute timer and see what happens under pressure.
- Make a self-portrait without using any photos of people.
- Collage on a found object: a shoe, a book cover, a cereal box.
ADHD notes
Tearing paper is genuinely soothing. No wrong answers, instant visual results, and you can stop and restart whenever the mood hits.
Fun fact
Picasso and Braque invented collage as fine art in 1912 by gluing newspaper scraps onto paintings. Your junk mail has a pedigree.
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