making a collaged atc

The route map consists of six basic stages, I will describe how I go about creating an ATC.

1. Find or create your background.

This could be an printed image such as a photograph, a coloured card or piece of wall paper, an off-cut of fabric, a painted image, a collage itself or anything else which you find interesting. It can be as simple or as complex as you want, the techniques you use will often make this choice for you.

Read more about creating backgrounds for your cards.

2. Find the main image. This will be something that "goes" with the background or just looks good. Creates a catchy colour scheme or otherwise something that complements it in some way. This is where your creativity must kick in, and goes a long way to determining a personal style.

Now... step one and two are completely interchangeable. So if an image inspires you to create an atc look for a background that complements it. If the background image (or a technique) grabs your fancy, select the main image to match the background. It is a case which comes first - the chicken or the egg. But one way or another you will have a pair i.e. a background and an image which form the basis of your art work. Look at any ATC and see if you can see these two elements.

3. Select details to further enhance the work. Again, your creativity will guide you in selecting these elements. Choose from paper based images, stamped images, ribbons or threads or even small 3-D embellishments; the range is only limited by your creative imagination.

4. (Optional) Select text / sentiment to display on the face of the card. This could be handwritten on to the face of the ATC or printed from a word processor or simlar. The font / amount of decoration is open to you. If you are fond of art doodles then this is another possibility.

5. The crunch. Now you have all the above graphic elements in place it is time to finalise the design of the card. How is this done? Play with them. Lay out the background and move the other elements around until you achieve a pleasing appearance. At this stage you may want to consider if the ATC needs something else, more detail images for example. Are there any empty spaces? Or indeed are there too many elements making the design look too busy? Play around with the design until you are satisfied. Perhaps at this stage, you should go and have a cup of coffee, or busy yourself with something else for a short while, before coming back to the ATC and looking the card over with a fresh eye. At some stage you will decide to finalise the design.

6. When you are satisfied with the composition, and only then - get out the glue.

There are tutorials around on the web, which will help with some of the decisions that you have to make. The next module ( coming to a lens near you soon) will start to address some of these decisions and provided a link to some of the answers.