why making collage is good for you
thoughts
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thoughts 〰️
I got this Sleeping Beauty book at the Disney store a few years ago because I’m a sucker for pretty notebooks.
The year 2023/24 was when I first moved to London, I had a part time job at the time, meaning lots of free time on my hand. I initially thought I’d stay there momentarily, so I wanted to remember as much of it as possible. I had turn the last page of each month of my planner as a junk journal (which I won’t share cause it really is either junk or too personal to be online). I ended up stopping near May 2024 because life got in the way, I had less time. Besides I then knew I would stay so the urgency wasn’t there as much.
The thing is, I’ve realised recently that life felt better when I was doing this. It felt more fulfilling, like I had done things and had a junk page to remember it by. (Of course it could also be the fact I had more time for my hobbies). But that wasn’t the only thing, in the beautiful Sleeping Beauty storybook I’ve shown above, I was also doing collages. Except these ones were a more abstract form of self-expression, whereas the planner was like an archive of my life.
I’ve realised recently that I missed this. I missed sitting on the floor cutting out everything I felt was pretty or spoke to me. I’ve missed arranging it per colour, deciding what I’ll do on each page and what the main theme would be. I missed letting my brain insert random quotes and thoughts to fill in the empty space.
Don’t get me wrong I have documented my life online, and I have been creating things online. But as handy as a screen is, and as much as I love all my creative apps, I think there will always be something about creating with your hands. Furthermore, in the era we are living in, we are one server failure away from losing all the memories that are stored in the cloud. At least by archiving your life in a notebook, the only person you can blame is yourself if it gets lost.
I do think collages can do wonders for creativity, and be a great tool for documenting your life. If not for current you, think of the you in a few years who will open the pages and be hit by the memories.
So as I am announcing that I am getting back into collages [roaring applause], for my own sanity [applause abruptly stops], you also get to see the very first few collages I ever made in that book (in chronological order) [applause resumes]
I hesitated separating these two or leave them as a double page. But I feel like the pink turning into red is a good transition from girlhood into womanhood
I started experimenting a bit more with textures and drawing onto the pictures themselves
Tried making some of them on one page only, but I ended up not liking it that much
I did really like this one though, not necessarily my favourite but I liked the ethereal vibes clashing with the brokenness of mortality
Back on the girlhood and more on expressing myself
Psyche exploration
Full on turning it into a diary of thoughts and aspirations
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