Collaged Inchies Tutorial

I love doing anything collage. Anything! (Just ask DH about the collaged phone in his office! lol) SO when I needed to make some inchies for trades, I thought I would go ahead and make a tutorial on what I use and how 'I' do collage in a small scale. I am most sure there are tons of different ways to make Inchies, but this is my way, and the supplies 'I' use. ArtsyMama is having an Artful Blogger party all day, so I thought
I would be artsy and share this info. ** What some of my Inchies for your very own? Keep reading... ** Here goes (please excuse the pics, as they were taken at night):




1 - First, I pull on my hair and yell 'I have no idea what to do!' Then I just grab papers and try to get past my self-imposed artsy block (as usual). Scraps are great for this project, even the ends of painting projects. I used my Personal Trimmer to cut these up, but if you have a 1"x1" square punch, that would work great (and I would be jealous, because I don't have one yet.)



2 - I like to also grab extra scraps to use for contrast on the squares. Just for added interest. Sometimes I'll use a vellum, mulberry paper, handmade papers or tissue papers too. Scraps of watercolor projects are fun to use too.








3 - I have a 'thing' for images, in fact my friends can pick my ATCs out of a crowd because I almost ALWAY use a person on them. So my next requirement would be images. I have used the Mini Chix from ArtchixStudio, stamps are great for small detailed images, Starbucks stickers work well too. Anything with a small image you can cut out. Or, if you like stamps, pull out some that have smaller images, heads, etc...













4 - Okay, the 2nd thing I have a passion for are WORDS. I love for anything I make to have words, sayings, quotes, letters or even names on it. I just love the written word. It's probably why I'm a spelling and grammar fanatic. My favorite products for little words are the 7Gypsies Stickers with all the rows and rows of small words and sayings. I also like their RubOns 'Rubbings'. I think the white sheet of words I'm showing there might be K&Co? They just give any project that last little 'oompf'.


5 -Finally, my new love. Pens. Gel pens, puffy pens, glitter pens. You name it, I wanna use it. On these Inchies, I stuck with using the Sakura Glaze and Souffle pens. I'm also stuck in dot-land. I love making dots around the edges of all my projects. On some things I just draw a line around, and the glaze pens are so shiny!




Now, It's just a matter of layering. Use your extra papers to enhance your backgrounds, put a strip across the middle or the bottom. Get creative. I even stamped on the background as well with a postage stamp set. Then, pick an image that might match the colors, or even contrasting colors give an interesting effect. Or stamp an image. Sometimes it looks cool to color in the image with marker or paint. Next, pick a rubon or sticker word that embodies the Inchie. This is the time to have a bit of fun. Finally add your final details with pens, star stamps, jewels, etc...

I find that once I have all my supplies laid out and ready, these Inchies go very quickly. In fact I had to force myself to stop last night just so I could get some sleep. lol You can also add things like glitter, jewels, ribbon/fiber, paint, embellishment, little bits of fabric, sequins, game pieces and more.


** Want some of my Inchies?! Sign up to receive my Email Updates (in the upper right box, it says FeedBlitz). Confirm it when they send an email to you. I will draw a name at the end of the week and someone will win 10 Inchies! **

Have fun making some, and if you use this tutorial, let me know. I wanna see what you make!