Hanging with Kristina

Hello! And welcome back for another blog post… which means, it’s time for another little adventure! Thank you to those of you who have been right there with me from the very start of this. For those of you who are just joining, WELCOME! Glad you could join us.

Now, today’s topic is Arts and Crafts. More specifically, a collage. Back when I was in school, I always enjoyed doing art projects. Now, I know schoolwork isn’t always fun to do, but when it came to music or crafts, I always enjoyed it. Those were always fun for me, and they still are to this day. Doing an arts and crafts project for school felt like playtime for me. It gave me an opportunity to be creative and use my imagination, to a certain extent.

One of my favorite projects to do in school was to make a memory board, or a hobby board, or something along those lines. You can call it whatever you would like. Basically, you take a poster paper/board, cut things out of a newspaper or magazine (sometimes you could use your own, printed, personal photos) and make a little collage out of them on your poster board. I haven’t done one of those in a long time, and now that I’m talking about it, it would be fun to make one again. Being able to take the pictures I cut out, and shuffle them around the board, to see the different ways it would turn out was a game in and of itself.

Most of the time I would take the pictures, that I wanted to put in the corners, and I would turn them slightly, so that they were at an angle. The pictures in the top two corners, the bottom of the photo would be turned so it was facing the center of the poster board. Pictures in the bottom corners would have the top of the photo, turned facing the center of the board. Other photos would be overlapped, either under or over the photos in the corners.

Often times when I wanted to give my poster board some extra color, other than the markers I would use for coloring, I would take colored construction paper and use it as a background for some of the pictures. I would mainly do that for whichever pictures were the biggest. Not only would it give the poster some color, but it would also help the pictures stand out a little.

Now, I know we have all been through some tough times over the last couple of years, and we all deal with things differently. So, how about we try doing something? Let’s have a little fun and take a mini break from reality, shall we? EVERYONE is welcome to try this little project, whether you have children or not. Get a poster board/paper, I get mine from my local arts and crafts store, find some old newspapers or magazines around the house, or print some out, and we’ll make our own memory boards. If you don’t want to use the big poster board, you can use regular printer paper if you want. I’ll let you decide. It will be your project after all.

Find things in the newspapers or magazines that remind you of your favorite things… the good times, the happy times. It could be a favorite memory. If you have a photo from that memory, put it on your board. The way I’m picturing my board, in my head, it has a lot of stuff from my childhood. Pictures from my favorite tv shows, favorite toy, tennis lessons… just to name a few. You can even cut out letters to recreate something from your memory. Not everyone is crafty, and that’s okay. If you feel more comfortable picturing it, go ahead…. close your eyes and picture how your poster would look.

I can already tell, that when I make mine, it will be COVERED in photos. It will have a wide range of things: favorite sport/sports teams, music, movies, tv, first time I caught a fish. These are just some examples of what I will be putting on my board. Whenever you feel like you need to take a break and take some time for yourself, feel free to work on your board. Your memory board can be just for you, or you are welcome to share it. There is no rush. If you would like to share your collage, you are more than welcome to. You can share it on the Facebook page that is the same name as the blog, “Hanging with Kristina”. I’d love to see what you have made, if you are willing to share. If you don’t want to share, and keep it just for yourself, that’s totally fine. I completely understand and support your decision. If you want to share your poster with me, but you don’t have Facebook, you can email me… Hangingwithkristina@gmail.com

I hope you all enjoy making your posters. I look forward to making mine. It’ll be nice to escape reality for a bit and take a trip down memory lane. Whenever there will be a bad/rough day, I hope your collage will help bring joy to you whenever you look at it. Happy crafting everyone! I look forward to seeing what you’ve done, if you want to share. Until next time… take care.