Gelli Arts® Collage Birds by Birgit Koopsen

Hi! Welcome to the Gelli Arts® blog, it’s Birgit here today.

One of the most asked questions I get is “what can you do with those your prints?”. The answer is that the possibilities are endless but today I’m going to focus on one thing, using your prints as collage material.

We’re going to create collage birds!

To create these little birds you have to collect papers from your gel printed paper stash and, if you have them, your scraps from previous projects. Just pick some papers that look lovely together, are contrasting in color and have nice textures.

Then find some pictures of birds. You can use magazine images but you can also find birds pictures online and print them. I just did a quick Google search for singing birds. Birds with a lot of colors are the best as you will have lots of elements to create a colorful bird.

The photos don’t have to be colored but a colored image for reference does make it easier.

Use carbon paper to trace the outlines of all the elements, starting with the complete bird as a base so you can build upon that.

Make sure you lay the paper right side down with the carbon paper on top so you don’t see the tracing lines on the right side of the paper.

Basically you’re creating a little puzzle and it is up to you how many and which elements you want to use.

When your bird is ready you can add some elements using black and white pens.

To create a background for my birds I made some botanical prints. Used a wad of tissue paper to create an organic texture in the background.

I prefer to glue the birds down with a matte medium. This way I know for sure even the smallest elements, like the feet, are glued down.

 To finish the collage I used a watercolor pencil and a wet brush to add some shadows around the birds. This makes them stand out more from the background and creates more depth.

Finally I adhered them to some bigger pieces of watercolor paper to create a frame.

I hope you enjoyed this project and we would love to see what you create, so please share and don’t forget to tag @gelliarts and use #gelliarts so we can find your posts!

Happy printing and have a lovely day! Make it colorful 🌈

Birgit

Materials:

5”x7” Gelli Arts® gel printing plate

Brayer

Carbon paper

Bird images

Acrylic paint

Your stash of gel printed papers

White card for the background prints

White watercolor paper for the mat

Other:

Black and white permanent pen

Some twigs 

Glue stick

Matte Medium

Pencil

Scissors

Watercolor pencil

Brush

Tissue paper

General copier paper

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