Archives: Courses

Welcome to Collage Doodles!

I’ve attached a list of supplies that I will be using – don’t go out and buy anything special! Some of my favorite supplies are here https://www.amazon.com/shop/mycollagelab if you absolutely MUST!  DOWNLOAD THE SUPPLY LIST HERE.

Videos and downloadable workbook are at the bottom of this page.

Also, you are invited to join our private Classroom Facebook Group – it’s a great place to meet fellow creatives and share your work or ask questions! Click HERE and answer the questions to join the group.

Remember, you have lifetime access to this workshop!

As always, let me know if you have any trouble accessing the content. Email is the best way to get in touch. Thank you so much for being here! We are going to have so much fun.

DOWNLOAD THE COLLAGE DOODLES WORKBOOK HERE.

VIDEO PART 1:

VIDEO PART 2:

REPLAY OF BONUS ZOOM: (I’ll be adding some additional pages to the workbook, including some quilt block templates, in the next few days.)

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR JOINING ME! Remember that you have lifetime access to this workshop, so plan to revisit these exercises from time to time!

formerly called Summer Sparks

Welcome to Working in Series!

Please feel free to share your work each week in our private Facebook Classroom Group – you can join HERE.

Here is a list of supplies that you will need to complete the classes. Feel free to improvise or use materials that you have. The list is suggestions, and includes links for items that I personally use and like. DOWNLOAD THE SUPPLY LIST HERE.

New lesson will be released each week. Take your time – you have lifetime access to revisit the lessons at any time.

SPRING BREAK – BIG AND BOLD is a two-week crash course in collage. Enjoy 10 pre-recorded lessons – five collage lessons and five lessons where we create our own collage materials.  Work at your own pace.

Enjoy lifetime access to these two video presentations, plus useful downloads full of resources and links.

Revisit anytime, like having a reference book on your shelf.

HISTORY OF COLLAGE will be released on World Collage Day, May 13, 2023.

SURVEY OF CONTEMPORARY COLLAGE will be released on May 20, 2023.

We will create 2 unique styles of Encaustic Hearts in this hybrid workshop. The projects are easily adaptable once you learn these techniques, and you can use them again and again with different shapes, sizes, colors, and papers!

• Prerequisite: A basic encaustic set-up – revisit “E” is for Encaustic in the Collage Alphabet, or get instant access HERE.
• You will have lifetime access to pre-recorded lesson and Zoom replay and downloadable materials.
• Supply list and first project will be posted by January 30, 2023.
• Zoom session will take place Tuesday, February 7, 2023 at 1:00 pm Central time

PART 1 WILL BE PRE-RECORDED, SO YOU CAN WORK AT YOUR OWN PACE. 

PART 2 WILL TAKE PLACE LIVE ON ZOOM, WITH REPLAY AVAILABLE WITHIN 24 HOURS. 

Are you ready for Februllage? Did you start a 100 day project? Are you working on 365 somethings? In this Collage-Lab Crash Course, we are going to share tips and ideas for making it through a daily art challenge successfully. We will plan, prepare, and set out on a path to success!

We got together on Zoom and shared tips, tricks, and techniques that will help you prepare for Februllage or any creative challenge. I’ve attached the official Februllage 2023 Prompt Calendar.

HERE’S THE ZOOM REPLAY:

Here’s a copy of the slideshow to DOWNLOAD.

Here is the List Version (and alphabetical list) of this year’s Februllage prompts to DOWNLOAD.

OTHER CHALLENGES:

ICAD – Index Card a Day Challenge – June & July each year

Paris Collage Collective – weekly challenge

365 Somethings

Mixed Media March Minis – coming in March at Collage-Lab

Treasure #Trovember – create a mixed media collage in 30 days, one step at a time – November on Collage-Lab

Thank you so much for registering for the Collage Vision Board Gathering!

Here’s the replay of our Zoom session:

NOTES & RESOURCES:

Your Vision Board

It doesn’t have to be beautiful, it just needs to be functional.

You can sketch out a rough draft, or you can create intuitively.

Where to start?

Picture your “best life” – what would it look like if ALL your dreams were to come true?

Be flexible – things change. Even priorities change. Go easy on yourself, especially when outside forces get in the way.

There are a few different styles to create your vision board. You can mix and match and improvise. Make it your own. Use your own style.

1 – basic vision board with words, images, colors, patterns

2 – all words, inspirational phrases, etc

3 – grid

4 – quadrants – if you like to work seasonally, or quarterly

5 – start with word of the year, embellish

Can also break down into MONTHLY FOCUS Board – use Cheap Dollar Store Calendar.

Vision boards can:

• Motivate
• Inspire
• Keep you on track
• Help you prioritize

Possible areas to include:

• Health
• Career
• Relationships
• Creativity
• Financial

Size/durability/usability

• Laminate and keep handy on wall or desktop
• Crop sections and color copy
• Reduce size and color copy for portable reminder
• Frame it

Remember that your vision board doesn’t have to be pretty – just functional. Make it something that you want to look at! No one else has to see it!

If you are having trouble getting started, try to picture your “best life” – what would it look like if ALL your dreams were to come true?

Remember to be flexible – things change. Even priorities change. Go easy on yourself, especially when outside forces get in the way.

Once you’ve created a vision board, don’t just stick it in a drawer. Find a way to keep it handy.

You could get it laminated at an office supply store.

You could crop different sections of it and print color copies.

You would reduce the side and make a small color copy for a portable reminder.

You could frame it and hang somewhere that you will see it.

Additional Resources:

Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon

Find Your Artistic Voice by Lisa Congdon

Your Inner Critic is a Big Jerk by Danielle Krysa

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

DAILY CHALLENGES AND OTHER CREATIVE HABITS – work best when they are simple, achievable, and you have a way to stay accountable.

• Februllage – every February, series of collage prompts, sponsored by Edinburgh Collage Collective
• #365somethings – see hashtag for ideas
• ICAD – Daisy Yellow Index Card A Day Challenge – June and July each year
• Treasure #Trovember – sponsored by Collage-Lab, a series of daily prompts that result in one completed mixed media collage at the end of 30 days – each November
• The 100 Day Project

BOOKSHELF RECOMMENDATIONS:

• Most Creative Year Ever Planner & Organizer
• Creative Sprint by Noah & Mica Scalin
• 365: Daily Creativity Journal by Noah Scalin
• Imagine Out Loud by Jane Davenport
• Create Your Life Book by Tamara LaPorte
• Quirky Prompts – books

BOOKS TO INSPIRE:

Here are a few suggestions from a previous Collage-Lab Book Club meeting:

Alphabetica: An A-Z Creativity Guide for Collage and Book Artists by Lynne Perrella

An A-Z of Visual Ideas by John Ingledew

Collage Brain by Lynn Gall

Collage Techniques by Gerald Brommer

Collage: Contemporary Artists Hunt and Gather, Cut and Paste, Mash Up and Transform by Danielle Krysa

Drawing in Black & White by Deborah Velasquez

If You Can Cut, You Can Collage by Hollie Chastain

If You Can Doodle, You Can Paint by Diane Culhane

Launching the Imagination by Mary Stewart

Once Upon a Piece of Paper by Andrea D’Aquino

Print with Collage and Stitch by Val Holmes

Project Collage by Bev Speight

Rex Ray by Griff Williams

Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon

Tack Down Tuesdays by Laura Lein-Svencner

The Collage Ideas Book by Alannah Moore

The Collage Workbook by Randel Plowman

The Collages of Jonathan Talbot by Deborah K Snider

The Reluctant Artist  by Karen Kinney

True Colors: A Palette of Collaborative Art Journals by Kathryn Bold

Urgent 2^nd Class by Nick Bantock

What to Give Up for Lent That’s Not Chocolate by Brenda Bogart

PREP:

Now is the time to start preparing yourself for the Zoom. Start reflecting on what you learned about yourself in 2022 and start thinking about how you envision 2023. Think about goals, dreams, wishes, desires, and how you can make 2023 your best year ever. (I’ve included a worksheet to help you organize your thoughts.)

Start collecting magazine images and text for the vision board projects.

Here’s what I look for (you can just pull entire sheets from a magazine, or cut out images and text). I look for:

• WORDS
• PHRASES
• IMAGES THAT INSPIRE
• COLORS AND PATTERNS THAT YOU ARE DRAWN TO
• ANYTHING WITH SPECIAL MEANING THAT YOU WANT TO INCLUDE

Download the suggested supply list and the worksheet. You will also be able to watch the replay here.

Here’s to a creative start to 2023 – I can’t wait to meet with you all on National Vision Board Day!

Thank you so much for registering for the Color and Composition Master Class!

This class will be part pre-recorded lessons and part Zoom Meetings. The Zoom recordings will be available to re-watch, but interacting with other students (almost like an in-person class) will be valuable. (It is understandable if you can only attend part of each session – you are welcome to come and go as needed.)

We will meet for six sessions on Zoom, starting Thursday, May 18th. Each session will be around 2 hours.  (All times listed are Central Time – CDT – Chicago time).

Thursdays – May 18, 25, June 1, 8, 15, and 29– starting at 1:00 pm CDT (There will be no class on Thursday, June 22 – I’m going to be teaching Summer Camp that week.)

Here’s a handy time zone converter: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

I’ll send the Zoom Link out the day before, and send a reminder about 2 hours before we start.

This course is designed to work with the style and materials of collage that you are most comfortable with – for supplies, I recommend a sketchbook, to work through exercises, and whatever substrate in whatever size you are comfortable with (watercolor paper, cradled panel, or canvas) – I’ll be working on watercolor paper (9”x12” and 8”x8” mainly and in a 5.5”x8.5” mixed media sketchbook) – you will also want an assortment of collage papers (sorted by color is handy), some paints/inks, some markmaking tools – whatever you normally use or want to experiment with – don’t go out and buy anything special – your favorite scissors and favorite adhesive (plus a glue stick for quick exercises) – assignments can even be created in digital collage, if you wish, but you will probably want to have some papers, scissors, and glue to do some live exercises during the Zooms. A color wheel would also be handy!

If you haven’t already, log-in at collage-lab.com, click on Access Your Courses: Video lessons, Zoom links, and other information will appear here.

Feel free to join the new Collage-Lab Classroom Facebook Group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/collagelabclassroom and share what you are learning!

Please let me know if you have any technical problems with the website or the course. (I’m a one-woman operation and do a bunch of this stuff manually!)

Best way to reach me always is email my**********@gm***.com

I’m really looking forward to this class – I can’t wait to meet with you all! Let me know if you have any questions!

Welcome to Added Dimension!

Schedule and supply list are posted below.

You will have access to replays and all provided resources for 12 months following the last Zoom session.

Please EMAIL me if you have any questions!

Here’s this week’s replay:

Here’s my favorite mark-making book, if you need some inspiration!

Here’s this week’s replay:

Here’s this week’s replay:

Regarding décollage: Jen shared Instagram artist @butternutcollage – I’d also suggest looking on Insta for the hashtag #decollage – lots of great work there. If you are in Collage Alphabet, “D” is for Décollage gives you several techniques to create this look.

Here’s the Zoom replay:

Thanks to everyone who joined me today for week 1 of Layers. I hope you had fun experimenting with color.