Arts Publications

An apple a day … fruit-bearing collage creates a textured history

Expression, Sept-Oct, 2005 by Carol Heppner

Faded photographs, fragments of family history and textured paint--all these items help you to produce special collages that celebrate your family history. Painting apples and pears onto the canvas board background is as simple as "staying between the lines" in a coloring book. Since painting is not the focal point of the collage, paint fast to color in the shapes and don't fuss over the individual fruits. The textured paint makes this project easy to paint and provides the perfect backdrop to showcase your photographs.

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The finished product will have everyone thinking you spent hours on it. Of course, we can keep it our little secret!

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INSTRUCTIONS

Canvas Background 1. Use the foam brush to apply a thin coat of Cashmere paint over the three canvas boards. Let dry completely. 2. Place the three canvas boards next to each other. Using the low-tack masking tape, secure scrap paper to the lower third of each canvas board to protect the Cashmere paint. 3. Trace an apple, pear and leaf onto tracing paper. Cut out the shapes and use them as a template to transfer the shapes onto the top 2/3 of the painted canvas boards. Draw some of the fruit so they overlap the three canvas boards. Treat the canvas boards as one contiguous unit. 4. Use a paintbrush to apply the Country Red paint to the apples, the Golden Pear paint to the pears and the Eucalyptus paint to the leaves. Allow the paint to dry. 5. Using small stokes in random directions, paint the remainder of the canvas boards with the Cashmere paint. Let dry completely. Remove the low-tack masking tape.

Assembling Collage 1. Photocopy the family photographs so they are roughly the same size. Trim excess paper from the photocopies. Use a thin coat of Aleene's Memory Glue to secure the photocopies to the watercolor paper. Trim any excess watercolor paper from the photocopies. Let dry. 2. Use a thin coat of Aleene's Memory glue to attach the photocopy onto tan card stock. Trim the tan card stock so it is slightly larger than the photocopy. Attach the tan card stock to the black card stock. Trim the black card stock so that it is slightly larger than the tan card stock. 3. Place the layered image onto the scrapbook paper. Trim the scrapbook paper to the desired width. Use Aleene's Memory Glue to secure the scrapbook paper onto black card stock. Trim the black card stock to the desired width. Attach the black card stock to the painted canvas board using Pop Dots. 4. Glue the word beads to the black domino using Aleene's Platinum Bond Glass and Bead Glue. Use the same glue to attach the domino to the painted canvas board. Let dry. 5. Use Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Glue to attach the painted canvas to the corrugated card stock. 6. Remove the glass from an 8" X 10" photograph frame. Insert the corrugated card stock and reattach the back of the photograph frame.