You can learn a lot about a culture from its art! When I visited Haiti, I learned that the Haitian people are both resilient and resourceful. Their resourcefulness is very evident in their art.
One example of Haitian resourcefulness is the nature collage cards they make and sell. They gather local organic materials which they use to create simple scenes of everyday life.
Make your own nature collage card
Nature collage cards are simple and fun to make and they can be adapted for any occasion. You can also find my easy directions for making your own envelopes here. Or add a simple frame for a thoughtful gift!
You will need:
- leaves, pressed in a book until flat and dry
- scissors
- YES! Paste
- stiff brush or popsicle stick for applying paste
- 5” x 8” index card, unlined
- black ball point pen
- 7” x 7” paper for making an envelope to fit your card
Directions:
- At least a week before you do this project, gather some leaves and press them in a phone book or under a stack of heavy books.
- When your leaves are flat and dry, cut them with scissors (just like you would cut paper) into whatever shapes you need to create a scene from everyday life or from your imagination.
- Use YES! Paste to glue these shapes onto a folded 5” x 8” card. (YES! Paste will hold much better over time than a glue stick or even white glue will, especially when gluing anything that is thicker than paper and not perfectly flat.)
- Add details with a black ballpoint pen.
I adore these cards. I sent them home as Christmas Cards the year I lived in Haiti and haven't thought about them for a long time. Thanks for the happy memory of better times and all your good work.
barb
These are gorgeous. I think I've seen these cards for sale at Ten Thousand Villages. Would regular white glue work as well, or is there something about Yes! paste that just works better?
“YES Paste” is my glue of choice for any kind of collage project. White glue might be okay, but because there’s so much liquid in it, it will tend to buckle the paper. You would also need to lay something heavy on top of your card while it dries to hold the pieces in place. Plus, the white glue won’t be flexible, so pieces could pop off later on. Try some YES Paste if you can… I think you will love it!!
Thanks! I will defintiely get some- very excited as I've never used it before. (wow- only an artist would be excited about trying out a new brand of glue!) I love finding recommendations for new products that work well.
Cute j'aime bien :)