Four weeks from today school starts in Austin. That leaves us with 28 days for a new end-of-summer creative challenge. My idea for this week is to create a collage over the coarse of 4 weeks. (On this Pinterest board you will find a few ideas for mixed media collages: https://www.pinterest.com/dirtyeasel/different-kind-of-art/)

Every day for the next 28 days, you will add something to your collage. Spreading a project out over such a long period of time can be really fun. In a way it is almost like writing in a journal. Often, the days of summer blend in together, but in your collage you will contribute little reminders of your summer from each day. You will have a different awareness toward the little things that usually don’t catch your attention.

Here’s how this works…

Day 1: Your can create your collage on a big canvas, an ambersand board, on a big piece of wood, inside a shoebox, or using anything else. Maybe there’s something in your house that you’ve been meaning to sell that you can use. Find something that triggers your excitement. This is your challenge for day 1.

Day 2: Set a tone for your collage. If you use a canvas, paint the background. If you use a shoebox, maybe you glue wallpaper inside. Use your imagination.

Day 3-27: Every day, find one thing to add to your collage. Be on the look out for little objects like buttons, feathers, wires, etc. Add something from a magazine or a ticket to an event. Or write, draw, paint onto your collage. Find something interesting to you and use it.

Day 28: Find the final punctuation mark to finish your work. Or find something that will be the key for your next creative challenge. Maybe you learned that it is easy and fun to devote one moment of your day to creativity. Maybe you are ready to let creativity become a permanent habit. And maybe then your last puzzle piece for this project will be the seed of a new beginning.