How-to: Make a Personalized Wall Art Collage

My original inspiration for this project was an article I read in a magazine. It highlighted the fact that when you put modge podge (or a little glue mixed in water) over tissue paper, the paper becomes translucent and you can read whatever is underneath.


For Gus, I created the canvas above in one short afternoon with easy items that most people have on hand. Interested in creating a similar project? Here's how to achieve the awesome...

To start, you may want to do what I did which was quiz your gift recipient with a mysterious survey about themselves. I asked Gus questions like "Five favorite movies, five favorite places, five favorite quotes, etc.)" Then, I took his answers and used them to create different passages for the collage in a Word document on my computer (using various fonts and sizes of text).


For example, in the photo above - you may spot lyrics from U2's "Yahweh" as well as several different locations like Hawaii and Brussels.  


Once you have this complete or have chosen other text you'd like to use - proceed below!


What you'll need:

• A canvas of your desired size
• Your chosen text (paragraphs, phrases) printed on normal white computer paper and cut out
  
• Tissue paper in colors of your choice (lighter colors work the best)
• Scissors
• Glue and water (or Modge Podge)
  
• Cup
• Foam brush

Instructions:

• Gather your pieces of paper with text on them. Arrange as you'd like them to appear on your collage on top of your canvas.
  
• Working from the top down, use a mixture of water plus a teaspoon of glue in a cup/modge podge and a foam brush to affix the pieces how you've arranged them. Use your fingers to press out any bubbles that might form between the paper and the canvas at this time. Make sure to put a coat of the glue/modge podge over top of the text to seal it.
  
• Once you've gotten all your text on the canvas, let it dry.
• In the meantime, start tearing up your colored tissue paper however you'd desire.
• When ready and when the text is dry, use the same glue/modge podge and brush technique to affix the tissue paper directly on top of your collage. When you brush across the top of the tissue paper, the wetness should make it become translucent and you should see your text appear beneath it.
• Allow at least 2 hours to dry then present to your lucky recipient!