Glue.

Glue is a hot topic for paper crafters, collagers and mail artists. I'm a glue nerd myself, but I don't think I've ever talked in depth about it here. Seeing as I'm hosting a public collage postcard swap on Swap-bot, now seems like a good time to get into it.

I've been a loyal Elmer's CraftBond Glue Stick user for years now. It's my main glue for collages - postcards, envelopes, ATCs, artbooks, etc. I tried UHU once in the early days and didn't care for it, so it's been Elmer's all the way since. I like it for a few reasons, not just because it has good sticking power, but it has a nice consistency (goes on smooth and doesn't crumble), it's not messy and it's readily available at different stores.

I know a lot of people complain about glue sticks - they say the glue doesn't stick well. To be honest, I don't believe their problems are because of the glue, but because of application. I've received mail art myself with papers flapping off in the breeze and you can clearly see that the paper has no evidence of ever being glued. When you use glue sticks, you need to REALLY get in there and rub it everywhere, multiple times. 

My glue palette is a big office supply catalog sat in a short repurposed cardboard box so I can easily grab it and move it around when I need to.

Gluing on this provides a bit of cushion so the glue stick meets the paper more evenly without having to press so hard. When a page gets glued up too much, I rip it off and move on to the next one. The old card is my scraper/smoother.

Some more tips for collage mail art:

• If you're using any kind of glossy materials, it's good to use sandpaper to scuff up the sides that are going to be glued. This'll give the paper some tooth to grip with. I get sanding blocks from the Dollar Tree - they're a lot easier to handle than sandpaper (sandpaper paper cuts are awful).
• Use papers of similar thickness/weight. This helps create a uniform surface that won't snag in machinery. You can thin out thick papers by carefully peeling off layers. I do this with postcards when I rather use the images in art (or when I goof up filling out a cool postcard and still want to use the image).
• Though if you do want to mix in thicker papers, just use a heavier glue. I use Aleene's Tacky Glue when I need to apply papers that are thicker compared to others in a collage - or for small/fiddly bits.
• With every piece you glue down, burnish the heck out of it! I'll put the lid back on the glue stick and use the top of it to squash the papers down thoroughly or use a plastic card to smooth papers out.
• Before you mail something out, run your hand over it and check at the edges for any papers that aren't glued all the way and touch up with more glue where needed. If you can pull it up, postal machinery can pull it up (and wreck the shit out of it). 

This is the "lay of the land" of the collage postcard I made while thinking about this post. For the most part it's a smooth layer of multiple papers. The punches are from drywall tape which has a heavy-duty glue already applied to it so I'm not all that worried about them. The thin black strips in the middle make up a quote and were applied with Aleene's.

I don't usually seal my collage postcards - at least not usually with a heavy sealer.

If it's a mixed media collage that has a lot of paint layers, then I'll seal with Mod Podge.

If I just add some pencil doodles or stencil a few dots with paint, I'll spot-seal with some sort of spray varnish. Otherwise collage postcards (and envelopes) go out as-is.

That's my glue post - as it pertains to mail art at least.
Hope it's useful in some way.

Zine it.

My habit of making things lately has been to start with whatever supply is floating at the top of the piles of stuff on my worktable - or whatever's dug out from under the piles after cleaning up. Yesterday, the random supplies "discovered" were palette papers from recent paint sessions in an art journal I'm working on. Those palette papers got turned into zines.

I've made zines a few times in the past few years and I'm getting more comfortable making them. I always make them based on my artwork and each one has required at least some digital processing. The last one was created all digital, using images of ATCs I'd made. This time I tried something new and made hard-copy zines using the palette papers.

The plan was to make the one sheet, 8-page mini zine. Usually this calls for an 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper, but the palette papers were 9" x 12" so the zines are slightly bigger. The papers themselves were not fully covered in paint - usually I use palette papers until they are completely covered. I decided to keep it minimal across the board by only adding a few collage images, rubber stamps and some clipped words from a booklet to the pages.

The words were from a short self-help booklet on leadership that I got from a free book box.

I clipped the good action words/phrases that popped out at me.

Then it was just a matter of fiddling around with images and random word combinations until I had 3 finished zines.

Ta-da!

I like them. They're definitely different from the ones I've made in the past.

[They're different from pretty much everything I make, actually.]

From "below the surface"...

I kind of did whatever with the words. Eh.

I tried to make them make sense, but I wasn't too fussed about it.

From "where you want to be"...

This palette paper had the most paint coverage of the 3.

It was giving me a feminine sort of vibe so I ran with it.

From "a picture in our minds"...

 This one was the first one I finished and my favorite. It gave me the great idea to make zines the next Mail Pals swap.

This method vs. digital has its pros/cons, but I'd probably make zines like this again.

Until next time...

stay cool.

Master masterboard post.

I make masterboards a lot and everytime I mention them somewhere I get questions about them. So here's all my masterboard "expertise" in one post.

WTF is a masterboard anyway? ha! Very simply put, it's a creation made to be cut down into smaller creations. For example, you can make one 9"x12" masterboard and cut it into four 4.5"x6" postcards. Or make an 8.5"x11 masterboard that will yield 10 ATCs. I even do quickie 5"x7" masterboards to get 4 ATC backgrounds. It's an easy way to make a lot of backgrounds at once - or just make a lot of postcards. I tend to build imagery/words right into the collage/mixed media masterboards I make, so when I cut them up they're ready to go - just address and send.

I once made 12 postcards by making 3 masterboards at one time (I call them batches, like they're cookies)...

That's a lotta frickin' postcards!

The bigger the substrate you use, the more (or larger) postcards you get.

The last postcard masterboard I made on an 11"x14" piece of bristol.

It gave me 8 postcards of various sizes.

I've also created masterboards around large central images to make "4-from-1" postcards that would then be sent out to different parts of the country/world.

I sent the 4 separate pieces of this masterboard to 4 different ladies in California.

I think it's neat that each one has a piece of the whole.

That's true with every masterboard postcard, but usually they become their own postcard once cut away. With a large shared image they become puzzle-like...it's more of mystery of how the postcard started. Does that make sense?

But, like I mentioned above, you don't need to go big. You can make a small 5"x7" masterboard that will give you 4 ATC backgrounds.

I just added the words and cut out manga characters to these backgrounds.

Making postcards or ATCs aren't the only things masterboards are good for. I've made masterboards for mixed media embellishments like these hand-cut hearts...

I used a 12"x12" sheet of cardstock to make the cutting easier.

A lot of these were used as tuck-ins for pocket letters (back when I was making pocket letters).

Masterboards can be carried out in any artistic medium. Paint, ink, pencil, collage, crayon, markers, ALL THE THINGS! You just go to town on a substrate and then chop it up! Live dangerously. I made my first masterboard in 2012 and have since lost all trepidation when it comes to chopping my creations up. A masterboard almost always looks a complete mess as you're working on it, but when it's been cut, it has a cool random charm about it. You'll end up cutting a face in half or lobbing off parts of words or turning once distinct shapes into weird, unidentifiable remnants.

Besides the mass output, masterboards are a satisfying way to use a lot of scraps at once. It's also a productive way to test new supplies. Spray ink all over, mix weird paints, try new stencils, experiment. When you're done, cut it up and send it out into the world as mail art.

The question I get asked most is how I make my collage masterboards. I've done little overviews before (here & here) and have shared WIP shots on Instagram, and other than saying, "just glue shit down," I don't know how else to elaborate on the process. I have a knack for mindless activities that involve repetitive action. 😝

Keep on creating.

Tag, you're it.

Today I was searching for an example of one project, but found an example of another project and made it. That's what happens when you've got a clean worktable and are waiting on laundry to finish. What was the project? A shipping tag art journal - or glue book, whatever. [Sidenote: are you as tired as I am of "properly" identifying the projects you make?]

I used 4 manila shipping tags because I wanted to make a collaged accordion fold book and just happened to grab 4 tags from the drawer. They're size 5 shipping tags. I taped them together with masking tape, leaving a tiny space between each for ease of folding. For collage materials, I decided this was the perfect project for the recycled mail art scraps I've collected; colorful parts of envelopes, packaging, notecard parts, cancelled stamps, collage pieces. 

No rhyme or reason, just pick something, glue it, stick it down.

Papers were overlapped across tags to reinforce the connection.

After the front side was complete, I attached a closure.

Accordion fold books need help staying closed.

I stapled a generous length of baker's twine to the front that will wrap around a few times and tie nicely. Then I did the same style of collage to the back as I did the front.

When it was done, I chose some likely strings and things for the holes. Because they're there, so why not.

Ta-da!

Collage art book thing.

Toodles.

It's a bird. It's a plane. It's a cube.

I really enjoy displaying as much of the art I get in trades as I possibly can. Especially in my craft room, but it spreads all over the house, too. When I came across this project a few years ago I was immediately attracted to it because, unlike ATCs and postcards, it didn't require anything extra to display.

I'm talking about these "collage cubies" -- a project created and outlined by Chris Dunmire. I held a swap for them back when I first came across the tutorial and had hoped to make it a regular collectible thing like ATCs, but it didn't pan out. I'm very good at self-starting projects and completing them, but returning to it and making the project a regular thing in my repertoire is something I do not have a knack for. I just steamroll on to the next project. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Annnnnyway, I'm returning to this project now and hosting a swap for it again. This time any medium goes for the cubie, not just collage, so I've dubbed them "creative cubies". Follow the link above for the full tutorial and templates; read on to see how I whipped up my sample this morning.

The first time I made a cubie, I printed the template directly on cardstock and collaged each panel. This time I wanted to do it a little differently and a little more quickly. You don't always have to spend hours on a project for it to be fulfilling and artistic.

I printed the template on regular printer paper and then glued that to a sheet of paint palette paper I recently liberated from my palette pad. Using palette paper gives me the look and feel of paint without having to go through the process of painting.

I glued the papers back to back, this way I didn't have to spend time cutting out the template, tracing around it and cutting it out again. Smooth move, Ex-Lax.

I cut it out once and scored it using the lines on the template.

Then I loosely assembled the cube just to see what I was working with.

I finally figured out what I was going to add to it...

I stamped some background textures: dots, text, paisley.

Then added some Fornasetti girl faces and finished with a quote.

Ta-da!

I think it took me 30 minutes? IDK, I don't time myself.

I like it and it's already found a home on my shelf.

Later, Vader.