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Magazine collage art
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4.88 from 8 votes

Magazine Collage

Learn how to make a collage with Mod Podge on canvas! This magazine collage art is easy enough for anyone to make, and it can be personalized.
Prep Time1 hour
Active Time5 hours
Dry Time1 hour
Total Time7 hours
Yield: 1 canvas
Cost: $5

Equipment

Materials

Instructions

  • Place the canvas on your work surface and draw your design. To create the tree, place a bowl or other round object in the center of the canvas and trace with a pencil.
    Drawing the top of the tree on canvas with a bowl and pencil
  • Draw additional details, like a trunk and branches. Keep the details rather large so that it is easy to cut the magazine pieces to fit the area.
    Drawing the trunk of the tree as well as the branches
  • Once the design is prepared, decide on a color palette. Go through the magazines and choose the pages that reflect your color palette – in this case, blues, browns, and greens.
    Stacks of magazines and magazine pages
  • Cut squares and rectangles from ½” to 1” width using the scissors. Start piles of the different colors. You don’t need to cut a ton because you won’t know quite how many you’ll need, so just do enough to get started.
    Small pieces of cut magazine pages
  • Choose an area on the canvas to start. Begin decoupaging the magazine pieces to the canvas using a three step method. Apply Mod Podge to the canvas, place down the piece and smooth, then wipe away the excess Mod Podge with the brush.
    Gluing the sky pieces around the tree shape
  • Work your way around the main design, adding pieces of magazine in various shades of blue. Space them out and overlap in various ways so the pieces don’t look like shingles.
    Decoupaging down magazine pieces around the tree
  • Once you are finished outlining the main shape, let dry for a few minutes.
    Tree collage with magazine pieces around the main shape
  • Continue adding paper pieces in the sky area on the canvas with decoupage medium. Space the pieces out randomly.
    Finish adding the sky around the tree
  • Finish the sky by adding more pieces until you have filled in the entire white sky area of the canvas. Let dry. Then apply a coat of Mod Podge over the top of the sky area. Let dry.
    Finish the sky and seal with a layer of Mod Podge
  • Grab the green magazine squares and begin decoupaging the top of the tree. Place Mod Podge down, place down the squares, and work your way around the circle.
  • Note where the tree branches are or take a picture with your phone. Cover up the green area (the top of the tree) with magazine pieces. Let dry completely.
    Filling in the top of the tree
  • Use the brown pieces to fill the tree trunk area in. Apply Mod Podge, put down the piece and smooth, then wipe away the excess.
    Filling in the trunk with magazine squares
  • Choose the places on your collage canvas to start your branches, and apply brown squares or rectangles at these points.
    Applying the brown magazine squares using Mod Podge
  • Choose some pieces for the branches, and trim them down on the sides with scissors so that they progressively get smaller as you apply them to the collage.
    Cutting magazine squares to fit as branch shapes
  • Continue adding the branches until they are the desired length. Wipe away excess Mod Podge with the brush and let dry.
    Adding the branches to the tree
  • When all the areas of the magazine collage are filled in, apply a layer of Mod Podge over the entire top of the canvas and let dry.
    Wet layer of Mod Podge over the magazine collage art
  • Turn the canvas over and trim the edges of the pages off with a craft knife. Your canvas is ready to hang!
    Trim the back of the canvas with a craft knife

Video

Notes

Time is just an estimate and varies greatly depending on a variety of factors. like the size of pieces you cut as well your design! Estimate about one Lifetime movie worth of cutting.