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Semi-newb crafter here. I have a few years worth of old calendars I ordered with photos of our animals and family on heavy card-stock paper. My plan is to use an X-Acto knife, cut the photos out, and create a collage.

What type of paper or canvas should I plan to use? I know I'll need to cut all the pictures first to figure out the size. Should this be framed? I found a post about materials for supporting a collage and glue, re: painting. I'm not sure I'll need to paint, but I am open to being wrong here because I have no clue how to do this properly.

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I have participated in 3 collage workshops so far and everyone began with the words - the best thing about making a collage is, that you are completely free in your creation process.

I personally like to use cardboard or thicker paper as the base to glue on the cuttings. But I also used a canvas to glue on beer labels and clothing labels. Or a normal colored paper when I tried the "tear" technique.

I would consider if you would like to hang up your collage and how heavy, wavy, etc. the paper or other material is you glue on when choosing the base. Depending on that you might wanna use a canvas, cardboard, thicker paper, or normal paper.

You can use craft glue as a finish on top of your collage but that's optional. A lot of artists recommending using spray glue. This makes the glue less visible and avoids bumps or bubbles.

It's really up to you, what you feel comfortable with using :)

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  • Yep, cutting the pieces out first would definitely help you gauge the layout better and how many pictures you can actually fit in. You could also perhaps split it up into multiple smaller collages that look good together as a series.
  • You probably do not need a top glue coat if you want to frame this collage eventually since the glass/ plastic on top will act as a protectant.
  • You can use blue tack to put the pictures together to check the layout/ decide which ones need to be cropped first before glueing them on.
  • Also measure the wall area where you want to put this up, you want to go with a good size, to strike the right balance between gaudy and miniscule.

Here is an example I found on the website of Mixtiles picture of a staircase with 17 small picture frames at the back, credits: mixtiles

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