Scissors, paper... rock!

Since becoming a parent, I have become reacquainted with the simple magic of simple tools for crafting – paper, scissors, crayons, pencil, glue.

I love watching my children paint or draw – the way they wield a paintbrush or crayon is pure expression… and carries none of the self-consciousness that I cannot seem to shake off myself. As a child, I would draw all the time, but now, as an adult, the best I can manage is to either draw to instruction (at my children’s request) or to copy a picture, i.e. as a skill exercise rather than as a creative process.

Cutting loose

The restrictive self-consciousness – the death of any creativity – eases however when it is scissors that I pair with the paper, rather than paint or pencil.

Henri Matisse is said to have started doing his cut out pieces, so beautifully alive, when arthritis gripped his hands, making it no longer possible for him to paint. Using scissors freed him to carry on creating and expressing himself in shape and colour.

In the same way, using scissors frees me from that paralyzing grip of self-consciousness, and the question of ‘what do I create?’

Paper crafts

I started first with making paper snowflakes, a remembered activity from my childhood, showing my daughter how randomly placed cuts could magically turn into a whirl of intricate pattern.

It was an opportunity for her to try cutting, but it was also just that little bit too difficult for her at that age (two? perhaps three?), so she mostly watched and contributed the occasional cut.

Then I experimented with collage – or, more simply put, cutting and pasting. She would point out the pictures from magazine pages that she wanted, I would cut them out for her, and then she would go nuts placing them on the page and glueing them on with a little help from me.

It was so much fun!

Since then, we have also tried origami – introduced to her by our Couchsurfing hosts on a holiday to Japan – and making pop-up cards. I have the sweetest video of one of her friends opening and closing, opening and closing, a simple pop-up card we made for him, marvelling at the simple mechanism of the dinosaur jaw in the card. Later that year, my daughter and son both helped to design a birthday card for their dad and helped me by folding some simple paper springs from one part of the card.

In the end, though, I think it was the collage making that has stood out as my favourite paper craft activity.

Democratic self-expression

What I love about collage making is that it is such an accessible way of creating, it does not require expensive equipment, nor does it require any level of skill (beyond being able to cut!)

You do not need hours of practice, or years of experience, learning how to work with paints and mix colours. You do not need expensive cameras, or software you then have to learn to use – although you can, by all means, combine collage and photography, in so many ways, at various stages of the photography process, just as you can combine it with drawing or painting, or even writing. It is the ultimate inclusive artform.

You do not need to know what you are doing or to even have an idea of what you want at the end of it.

You just need a pair of scissors, and something to cut up – newspapers and magazines salvaged from the bin will do. And some glue – although if you have no glue, but have a phone, you could just arrange your collage, and then snap a picture, and there you have it, a glue-free collage.

And best of all – for a mum with young kids – is that it’s ‘interruptable’, not too messy, and the clean-up is easy.

Cut and paste magic

And with collage, the possibilities are endless. Truly.

If you are starting with a clear idea of what you want, making a vision board using collage is not just a great tool for planning the interior design of your home, or a new wardrobe or ‘look’ for yourself, it can also be a powerful tool to change your life.

You can collage a vision board to manifest your dreams, your goals for the year, the job that you want, the person you want to become. You can collage to quite literally create your happiness.

A small word of warning – I’ve heard a story of someone who placed two different pictures of houses on their vision board, as you might do when collaging, and they ended up stuck with two houses when they only wanted the one house! So do take some care with your vision boards, and make sure you are clear with your intention when you create them.

You could also start with no vision at all, and cut and paste, and see what comes out. As you would when doodling, or in a free write. And of course, words can be part of the collage, creating a special kind of poetry, the words working their magic together with the images, and with the spaces between.

A metaphor for life

Collage in some ways is a perfect metaphor for life. In creating a collage, you are taking what life gives you, and creating meaning and perhaps even something beautiful with it. Fashioning something with your hands, from something that might be otherwise be discarded.

An act of co-creation with the universe, rather than wrestling on your own for complete control of the process.

And what could be more beautiful than that? Dancing with life, playing with what life throws at you?