Lately, I got seriously into digital collage. It satisfies my craving for whimsical art without being as complex and long-term as an altered book. And it is surprisingly satisfying.

Bird collage made with Oxford Impressions’ Bird’s Nest stamp

I paint and scan most of my paper stock, or make it in Photoshop by adding a texture to block-coloured backgrounds.

The bird collage started life as a block of pale blue layered with a wall texture in Photoshop

Many of the base images are stamped by hand, scanned in and resized. Others I get from public domain or stock photography sites such as Stock Exchange. A few, from my own limited and rather awful photo archive. Then I Photoshop the whole thing together, chopping, cutting, blowing up, colouring, altering and generally manipulating. It is rather like a making a mix-it-all-up fruit salad really, and sometimes the end result is even decent to look at.

It finally found its way on a scrapbooking layout as well as the header of this site

Never one to waste anything, I am also printing some of the best collages on inkjet watercolour or fine art paper, and using them for scrapbooking or mixed media projects.