For as long as I’ve been doing collage art, photos have been a source of inspiration. For me, photos make such a positive statement about our lives and the things that are important to us. And, like many, I have tons of photos that sit in boxes. And, while I can scrapbook some of the photos, sometimes I am inspired to bring my stamping and collage art together with the photos and to tell a story with my art.
The two photo boxes here provided me with ways to express friendship and happiness with photos of people who mean a lot to me: My niece Eliana and my nephew, Jared. With a few things I had around the house, including some stamping supplies and some papers, I was able to create boxes that supported my
“Friends” takes a modern photo and tells a story of friendships present and past. By ageing the paper and maintaining a neutral palette, the story is clearly told in the photo. Small metallic accents, paper flowers, vintage buttons and ribbon combine to create a nostalgic mood that pays homage to friendships.
To celebrate a day at the beach and childhood imagination, “Jared” was created with a photo of my nephew that his mother took. I used PhotoShop to remove the color and crop the photo to the area I wanted to highlight. The grays, browns, and blues in this photo box recreate the serenity in Jared’s face. The sand and cocoa twigs mirror the photo bringing the image further into view.
You can create your own photo boxes. Simply stop at your local cigar shop and purchase a box, or make one yourself. Find a photo and build a story around it using collage techniques.
For further information on using your photos in you collage work, check out the following books:
Designing with Photos by Allison Tyler Jones and Donna Smlyie Autumn Leaves
Collage Discovery Workshop by Claudine Helmuth
Scrapbooking on the Wall by Suzy West for Canvas Concepts™ Design Originals
