Everyone has their down days, and some of us have things we do to lift our moods, get our positivity back and motivate ourselves to push onwards towards our goals.
Some turn to comedy, knowing that science has proven laughter’s an excellent medicine; others are able to lift their spirit with the simplest of smiles.
Photo collages of memorable events in our lives are one of those uplifting tools we could all likely do with a bit more of in our lives. The pieces you need to put your own motivational and smile-inspiring collage is probably stored on your phone.
Take a moment and open the gallery app on your phone and reflect on the memories they invoke. For some, there’ll be holiday snaps; others will have photos from a friend’s wedding, maybe a collection of Halloween photos. For anyone into walking or outdoor activities, sometimes you’ll find a snap that’s been taken that looked utterly amazing, like a glowing red sky at night, yet it’s locked inside technology.
Transform Your Most Inspirational Snaps into Photo Collages
Photo collages don’t need to be something that fits into the confines of a photo frame. There are collage frames you can buy if that’s what you want, but you can also make beautiful art with just a little time and creativity.
Some of us remember years back when we’d take photos on a 35mm camera, then take the spool to be developed into a print store. You’d pick up a pack of photos, usually at least 25 at a time, yet you only need one or two. Today, you can print individual photos of just the ones you intend you use.
That’s where to start, but before you do, think about how and where you want to display your collage.
Some ideas include on the whitespace of a staircase, a small area above a study desk or work desk, above your headboard, or perhaps even on your door if it’s unframed.
Collages can also be used in a sort of scrapbooking way to create your own unique art. For example, you could have a collection of prints of you, your friends, family, pets and extended family. When you have your prints, there may be parts of them you don’t need or want so you could take scissors and trim them, so you only have the parts you want to see all the time. Trimming prints is much easier (and more fun!) than cropping digital images.
With print cutouts, all you’d need is a sheet of acid-free backing board and some craft glue or acid-free tape to stick your prints into a shape arrangement.
Some ideas of shapes that can be created with photo cutouts include:
- Heart shapes
- Diamond shapes
- Triangles
- Circles
Or a variety of different smaller sized shapes to cover the sheet of acid-free backing material you’re using.
With your collection arranged, you can either hang that on your wall or door freestyle or give your collage a professional finish by framing your collection.
A heart-shaped photo on a rectangular piece of acid-free card could be framed into an A4 photo frame to hang above your headboard, your desk or on the wall outside your bedroom door so it’s the first thing you see when you walk out of your bedroom door each morning.
Take the time to put your feel-good photos from your phone into print, then arrange them into a collection of prints and you’ll have yourself a beautiful smile generator every time you look at your creation.
A photo collage in print is far more emotionally impacting than individual pictures viewed as pixels on a screen.
At The Picture Gallery, we offer a fantastic selection of photo collage templates for every occasion to have printed and framed. There is more information here: https://www.picturegalleryuk.com/photo-collages-framed