Smile, Crocodile! #4
As an avid collector of everything and anything remotely cool I come across, I began scrapbooking about a year ago. This partially began as a way for me to cope with hoarding stickers, business cards, and more from fellow artists, and has evolved into a hobby that has (like most things I start on a whim) taken over my life somewhat.
Let me make one thing painfully clear though, I am not a collage artist. I will never be a collage artist. Yes, while technically scrapbooking is a form of collage art, I refuse to admit that is what I’m doing. Now that that’s been established, on to the main event!
For about 5(?) years I’ve been hoarding a massive collection of stickers, tapes, cute notes from shop orders, and other cool stuff! Initially, I was using this book solely as a journal (this didn’t last long). I began using the washi tapes and stickers to decorate around where I wrote, and quickly realized it was much more cathartic for me to just organize pre existing objects into compositions that appealed to me.
Along the way, I decided to make the book more… interactive. You might be thinking, “aren’t all books interactive?” and you’d be right. But not right enough for what I wanted to do. It began with business cards, postcards, and actual cards as flaps that you could lift to reveal *secrets* beneath (more art/ stickers), but has evolved into much more… kind of.
I started pasting entire zines into the book. Crazy, I know. I’m really curious about making things like pull outs and pop-ups though, I’m just not sure where to start! For now, I really like working with found objects and things I seek out online from artists I like. It’s been a really interesting project that I’m nowhere near done with exploring . (I’ve done like 50 pages of this stuff)
I think it’s been fun to make compositions without worrying about physically drawing anything - especially since it’s just a personal exercise/ practice that I’m extremely proud of and has taught me a lot. 10/10 would recommend - especially if you’re looking for a way to be a little creative without putting pen to paper.
That’s all for now though, thanks for reading!
-Jayme