On Helping Others Make Space for Creativity

plus tips for hosting a collage party

Dear Reader,

As I looked around at the eight other women at the table, I let out a little sigh of relief. “It worked,” I thought to myself.

At one corner of the table was a friend who is quick to tell me she isn’t creative and has stated explicitly that she’s afraid of collage. When I looked over she was putting the finishing touches on her miniature collage, complete with the beautiful handwriting that she so easily dismisses as “not art”.

At another corner was my oldest daughter, my co-host, who had already inspired the group with samples of her own collage work. She was cutting out a Scream-inspired collage without drawing any of the elements first.

To my left was my dear young mom friend who had made a jail break after weeks of sickness and a willful one-year-old. She was sitting among friends with scissors and cat stickers in her hand.

As my eyes continued around the table I looked at the range of women from sixteen-years-old to fifty-years-old, each with a unique piece of art they’d made and their bellies full of a tasty fall dinner. I could feel my heart inflating..

We started our time with these 3x3 collages. Our hope was that small = less intimidating.

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Creating Space for Others to Encounter Beauty and Make Stuff

I started these Art Hang nights a few months back to help women make space for their creative side; especially those who normally won’t (or can’t) give themselves permission to carve out that space for themselves. I’ve come to see this as a continuous thread running through my life, this desire to help others locate (or relocate) the delight in making something with their hands.

Over the past twenty-five years I’ve gone about this in a variety of ways. I’ve led Bible studies centered around creativity. I’ve organized gatherings similar to the Art Hang nights with the help of two friends. We brought in florists, painters, chocolate makers and more every month to help women “slow down and experience God’s beauty through different types of artistic expression.” When those started taking off we added similar events for teen girls. My job of teaching theater to middle school and high schoolers is another avenue to come alongside people and support them as they courageously step out of their comfort zone.

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“If you build it, they will come (hopefully)!”

The first Art Hang night was back in August. The turnout for that one and the next few were pretty small, one or two of my adult daughters plus one or two friends. For the record, I love a small group and I also love sharing creative time with my daughters so it was okay that the gatherings were small.

I’m typically a rather anxious host who hates awkward silences but the small attendance didn’t deter me. I kept thinking: there are women out here who need this space, who would choose the time over other options and I just have to find them.

The set up for these evenings has been pretty simple: some type of starter activity that we can all do together and then everyone works on whatever project they brought along such as embroidery, calligraphy, or sketching.

A few of the group projects we've done: mod-podged seashells, zentangles, and paper stars.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect collage to be the activity that brought a larger group together. My oldest daughter and I both love collage but I struggled to get a vision for how to organize it for a group. Then I came across this post by Carolyn Yoo and something clicked. Suddenly I had a framework that made it feel doable.

In the end it was my daughter who contributed some of the collage items that turned out to be most popular and she came up with the starter activity to get everyone warmed up and comfortable. As I said, it was her collage work that most inspired the women, which is the reason I wanted to host the collage night before she moves out of town after the new year. (Insert crying emoji face.)

A few of the collages that were made that night.

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A Few Tips on Hosting a Collage Party

The invite my daughter made for the event.

Start with What You Have
I’ve accumulated collage materials dating all the way back to my days of babies and scrapbooking so my problem was not whether I’d have enough, it was what to actually put out so it wouldn’t overwhelm anyone. In the end it was probably a quarter of what I’d collected. If you don’t have anything stored up, you could go to the thrift store to pick up old magazines and books and/or grab a pad of scrapbooking paper from Walmart or Target.

Invite Others to Add to the Collection
Thankfully my daughter had a completely different collection that rounded out our supplies nicely. You could also invite everyone to bring an item for the collage table.

Have Themed Photos Printed
My daughter went on Pinterest and pulled together fun fall images that included Winnie the Pooh, Gilmore Girls, Over the Garden Wall, pumpkins, and more. She had them printed at a local store.

Organize the Supplies for Easier Browsing/Choosing
We tried to contain the supplies in boxes and baskets and group them by type/color.

Items We Put Out:
Stickers*
Textured Papers ¹ (Organized by Color)*
Letter Stamps*
Magazines*
White Gel Pens*
Old Books
Glue Sticks
Scissors²
Washi Tape
Date Stamp*
Old drawings/words

*I asked everyone afterward what their favorite items were.

Have a List of Prompts:³
See photo below.

Plan a Warm-Up Project
We gave everyone a 3x3 piece of black paper and told them to get three different items from the supply table and make a collage. That way they had a chance to peruse the options but also get the relatively quick satisfaction of completing something.

A buffet of art supplies as well as examples to inspire.

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May you find space for beauty and art this week!

Aimee

1. Some of my papers came from Gelli Plate prints that I had been collecting over the years.

2. We asked people to bring their own glue stick and scissors but had extras on hand if they forgot.

3. Almost all of these prompts were borrowed from the post by Carolyn Yoo linked in the post.