I’m at a phase in my art career where I’m still trying to find my voice so I like to experiment and try a variety of assemblage art projects. Awhile back, one of my son’s friends (who likes lizards) had a birthday. I had some plastic toy lizards in my collection of assemblage items, so I thought perhaps I could make a card with them. Since I’d already used plastic animals in several other projects, I had a bit of experience and this one came together pretty easily.
I thought I’d share the steps I took to make it. If you are a new artist, this assemblage art project is a fun, easy and inexpensive way to get started. It would also be a good art project for older children.
Here are the materials I used.
8½ by 5½ inches, piece of white cardstock folded in half
piece of black paper about 4 by 5¼ inches
white cardstock
sentiment printed out on white cardstock (the font I used is called Bearpaw, downloaded from Fontsquirrel.com)
grass (I got mine from the yard)
two small plastic toy lizards
acrylic paints, light and dark green (I also used black and red to touch up the lizards)
tacky glue
permanent glue stick
scissors
a small detail paint brush, and chip brush
coarse sandpaper
Instructions:
Tear out a piece of cardstock to fit the front of your card, smaller than the black paper. Put a light layer of tacky glue on it, and using your scissors, snip some grass (about 1/8 inch long) on it. Put it under a stack of magazines to dry, checking it periodically to make sure it doesn’t stick. After it’s dry, paint the grass by lightly “pouncing” and blending the green acrylic paints with a chip brush. After this is dry, tear it into two parts, as seen in the image.
Adhere the black paper to the center front of the card using the glue stick, then attach the grass cardstock using a light layer of the tacky glue. Let it dry under the magazines. Then sand the underside of the lizards to help the glue adhere and attach the lizards and the sentiment to the front of your card.
Here is another assemblage art project- I decorated a mint tin using a plastic toy alligator, a bit of screening material, some corrugated cardboard, 3 black brads, some gold acrylic paint and black spray paint. I made it to hold a gift card or cash and gave it to my father-in-law on his birthday. He’s an assemblage artist and his favorite colors seem to be gold and black.