Packing Tape Collage

"Stay"

Clear packing tape, newspaper

and magazine clips, acrylic paint, dymo tape.

"Still Life with Rain"

Clear packing tape, newspaper and magazine

clips, metallic marker, pattern tape.

I just made these two small collages--and it was such great fun!  The collage layers were created with layer upon layer of packing tape with transferred images from newspapers and magazines.  I started with images of swimmers from the Sunday paper because I loved the blue of the water and the swimmers extended arms and fingers.  All you can now see is one of the swimmers faces to the right side of "Still life with Rain". 


This is such a quick and fun process--just rub down the clear packing tape on images and textures you want, then run warm water on the back and rub off the paper.  The ink will adhere to the tape and, with the newspaper images the tape will stay sticky enough to just stick it to your support surface.


The second easy technique I used was simply using the clear packing tape to tape down torn pieces of newspaper and other clips.  Kind of great to work without liquid adhesives.  I do not recommend cats on the worktable, however, as the packing tape is eager to include any flying hair in the artwork.


The "Stay" collage was the second one, and, as you can see, it is looser and more playful.  It was such fun to just lay hands on scraps of text and color and use them for either transfers or for patches of color and texture taped on with the packing tape. I just love how shiny the finished product is and how the layers of tape themselves create interest and depth.  I was working playing card/artist card size but can't wait to try this out larger--maybe with larger sticky-back sheets.