Creating an inspirational collage

1.22.13- 

It was Project {Creative} Central around here yesterday. 

  So fabulous! Really, I look forward to this day all year long, It's one of my FaVORiTE things.  It takes place one day in January & is a great way to ring in the new year, free your mind &  let your creative spirit soar!  

{Can you tell I just love it?} 

-Embrace the Day- love the quote on that magazine page!-

I have been doing this creative activity for YeaRS.  Thanks to my hubby giving me the idea of making an inspirational collage each year.  I enjoy looking back on the past ones I've made.  It's kind of like my year in picture form. I can see what my goals  & aspirations were that specific year.

  

Well... you know what they say the more the MerriEr! 

For the past 2 years I've been sharing this day with my 3 girls, sisters, nieces & nephew.  It's a great way to spend an afternoon together.  You learn so much about each other through this activity.  It was so cute to see the kids rip out pages of magazines to give to each other, because they know they would like a word or picture, to use in their specific collage.  It was fun to see what interests everyone has & see what goals they are working towards in the new year. 

I love the whole FRee SPiRiT feel of doing this.  
Just let yourself go!!  

{sometimes that's a hard thing}

First things first... start with piles of your old magazines & plenty of scissors & glue sticks. 

-Everyone brings some magazines with them to contribute to the pile. Thank goodness my nephew came with some magazines that he likes!-

-My nephew, Davis, excited & ready to get to work!- 

  Take a bunch of old magazines, look through them & rip out anything that speaks to you... whether it's a colorful picture, a great saying,  creative typography whatever & set them aside in a pile. {You'll look at them again a bit later} If something specific speaks to your heart just go with it & see where it takes you.   

-Miss Mace & I ready to start thumbing through some magazines & seeing what speaks to us this year.  I was really drawn to colors & pictures this year.  So inspiring!- 

-So fun to watch this 3 cousins visit & chat through out the whole day.  Loved seeing their creativity shine! - 

-Lots of sports pictures for this kid! He was also nice to look for basketball & gymnastics pictures to give to his cousins-

Looking through magazines & seeing unique typography & colorful images makes me swoon!  This is a picture of a page that inspired Miss Mace to use in her collage this year. 
{She loves cake decorating & baking} 

-Even little ones can get excited to do this activity.  My cute niece, Bella, working so hard on her collage-

-Everyone having a fabulous time! -

Remember what I said about letting go & embracing the free spirit of this activity.  Well that goes for clean up too.  Just leave all the scraps & ripped up pages to clean up at the end.  Don't crumble your creativity by stopping to clean up.  
{we start with a couple of small garbage cans by the table but once there full just make piles & clean up later}
Sometimes this is hard for me to let this go but it's easy to clean up all together at the end. 

-What a beautiful mess!- 

 Of coarse you have to have food & snacks to keep everyone happy.  I ate way to many of these cake batter munchies my sister brought- so good & bad at the same time. 

-Em's lunch, I thought she was pretty clever that she used her utensil compartment as her treat compartment instead.  Haha!- 

 Miss Mace taking a swig of my new favorite soda, Honey Lemonade, so good!  Can't wait to serve these in the Summertime on a nice hot day.  

{Love me some pop bottles & when I have a thought for an event in the works... EEeee!} 

 After lunch, back to work finishing up the collages.  This is a fun project {that will take most of the day} don't put a time limit on your creativity.  Go with the flow & see what happens, but I would plan on at least 3-4 hours if not more.  

  

 Once you have a pile of pages in front of you to work with it's time to start going through the pages & start cutting. Saving only the things from the page that you would like to use in your collage.    

-My pile of goodies. Can you see my word for 2013?- 

 Don't worry if you look at something a second time & don't love it or if it won't fit on your page or work with your collage.  I still end up throwing away a few things from my saved pile that I wanted to use but then when I laid out everything it just didn't work. Be open to change & see what your creative eye will take you. You might be surprised! 

Once everything is cut out start playing around with the layout of your collage taking the pictures, words & shapes you have & placing them here & there. I attach all my cut outs onto a piece of card stock cut to the size of a binder I use everyday.  That way it will fit right into it & I can see it everyday. Do whatever works for you it might just be putting it all on a piece of paper to hang up somewhere, on a journal page or in a scrapbook. 

-Playing around with all the cut outs I have for my collage.  Sometimes it takes a while to get it laid out just like you would like.- 

 Here are some pictures of the finished art work & it really is art!  I love watching every ones faces lite up as they show off their finished collages.  Each one is unique & really says alot about each person, what they love & inspires them. 

- A couple of D's collages. He had 2 others, front & back, I'm glad he loves doing this!-  

-Cute Bella Beans & her pretty pink collage. - 

-Audji's for 2013.  She came up to me & said, "I think this is my favorite one I've ever done." Her words for this year are Sparkle & Shine. Love this girl!- 

-Telling each other about their finished work- 

-Miss Em's all precise & perfect! She spent alot of time cutting out little details- 

-Miss Mace is like me, no way to fit all the goodness onto 1 page so why not make 2. One to go in the front of a couple of binders.  Loved the words she choose to use on hers- 

-Even this tiny tot got into the fun, thanks to some help from her big sister.  She loves, cows, pancakes & Minnie Mouse.
So cute Layla-

The whole gang {minus photographer, Becca} showing off their collages for 2013.  Let the year begin! Hope these pages inspire us throughout the whole year. 

Can't really describe the feeling this project brings into my life each & every year.  I guess I'm a visual person & I'm inspired by beautiful, colorful things.  I love getting to spend quality time with my family as we do this each year & learning something new about each one of them every time. 

-Last look at Miss Mace's pages.  Loved her layout! Describes her pretty well in pictures. One talented & incredible kid who is growing up way to fast for her Mom- 

 Hope this gave you something pretty to look at & think about doing. It's the perfect activity to do on a winter day when all you want to do is stay inside & do something fun. 

{M}