CO HOSTING INSPIRATION AVENUE THIS WEEK

'OUTFITS FOR ALL OCCASIONS' - INSPIRATION AVENUE CHALLENGE

IF YOU'D LIKE TO CREATE YOUR OWN COLLAGE LIKE THIS ,
THERE'S A FREE TEMPLATE BELOW FOR YOU TO COPY
AND DETAILS OF HOW I ASSEMBLED THE COLLAGE

This week is a special 'first' for me.  I am so happy to be acting as Co-Host on one of my favourite challenges, Inspiration Avenue - I hope you will pop over to see the theme I set for this week -  'Outfits For All Occasions'.  You can also see all the examples I created to provide a little inspiration.

The gorgeous lady above, who has carefully chosen her outfit for her summer holiday, is MILLIE, and I love her.  She looks a lot of fun.

People often ask me where my idea for a drawing or collage comes from, so I'll show you how Millie started:

This is what I call my rough sketchbook, which is always ready by my seat on the sofa. The figure of Millie emerged from a rough scribble, and was strengthened with stronger pencil lines.  Ideas like the hat, sun, bird and beach ball were sketched in but not used in the finished collage.

Millie looks a bit fed up here, but she put on a smile when she knew she was going to be included in a blog post.

TUTORIAL and FREE TEMPLATE FOR YOU TO COPY

Materials required:

Coloured A4 card (not too thick), blue for the background and your choice of 'skintone' for the body.
Tissue paper in 3 colours to represent the sea - or any paper of your choice.
Scissors and/or sharp craft knife.
Tracing Paper, Pencil, Glue of your choice.

Here's the outline shape for tracing.  I wasn't sure how long I would want the legs to be, but decided to end them at the point shown in the tracing, even though I didn't draw the lines across.

COPY THE TEMPLATE IN ONE OF THE FOLLOWING WAYS:

(1)  Right click on the image.

 (2)  My Macbook has a trackpad and no mouse.  I Googled to find how to copy the template, and it can be done this way:    Hold down ctrl and left click on the image .  (ctrl key is next to alt key at bottom left of keyboard.)  A menu comes up, select Save Image as .......  Use the name shown or key in a new name, and Save to desktop.  Your image should appear on the desktop for  you to use.

(3) Take a screenshot.  (Refer to your computer manual for instructions).

(4)  If you can't use either of those methods, take a photograph with your mobile phone or camera and print from there.

Print to suit the size of A4 card.  Trace the image with tracing paper, and write the words RIGHT SIDE at the top of the page.

NOTE:  I suggest that you transfer the tracing of the image to the REVERSE side of the card if you wish to follow my directions below.  To do this, decide which is the reverse/wrong side of the card.  Place your tracing so that the image and the words 'Right Side' that you wrote are facing the card.  Complete the transfer of the drawing on to the card.

I wanted to be sure that I cut out only the BODY shape, and because I forget easily I drew over the pencil lines with a black pen, drawing only the actual shape that I wanted to cut, as shown above.  Note the two enclosed spaces between body and arms that will later be cut out with a craft knife.

Then I used a red pen to draw round the shapes needed for the hair and two-piece swimsuit, ready for tracing separately later.  This will leave the 'right side' completely clean of marks when the body shape is cut out.

Here's the cut out body shape and the collage pieces for hair and swimsuit.  When I made Millie I photocopied some fabric with a small pattern for her swimsuit, and I did the same with a spotted fabric for this version.

Find a flower or bow that you like for her hair, and a scrap of coloured or gold card to cut strips for her bracelets.

MILLIE'S TWIN SISTER - IZZY

Glue the collage hair, swimsuit, flower and bracelets to the body shape.  Add facial details of your choice, and lines where the hands touch the legs to define the legs.

Glue the body shape to the blue card, leaving space for the 'sea', and add torn strips of tissue paper in three or four layers to represent the waves.  I used tissue-paper hats that I saved from Christmas crackers which were just the right colours.

My completed collage shows Izzy who is enjoying her summer holiday at the seaside with Millie.  When I was young, people here in Lancashire would have called them 'A bonny pair of lasses', a lovely description.  I love them both.

Linking with Manon's Paper Saturdays - hop over and see everyone's entries.