by Juli Schatz

Created on: June 15, 2008

This is a gift that you have to think about and start collecting for ahead of time. My ex-father-in-law was a great Georgia Bulldog football fan, so for three years year for his birthday and Christmas gifts (his birthdsy was Christmas Eve!) I gave him photo/headline collages of the previous Bulldog football season, which ended right around the holidays.

I got the idea early one September. I started saving anything and everything from the newspapers, and watched the newsstands for stories of the Bulldogs in the national magazines such as Sports Illustrated and College Football Weekly. By early December, the end of the season I had quite a pile of clippings and images.

It does take some thought and time to put the collage together. I made large collages using first, 20"x30" poster board - red, of course, for the few spaces that would show in-between the clippings. I later switched to 3/16"-inch foam core board for sturdiness. Foam core then (in the early '80s) didn't come in colors, at least not where I could find it, so I spray-painted the white foam core before assembling the collage. If you have to go the spray paint route, be sure to let it dry overnight before starting to paste down your clippings.

The next step is to lay out the collage. It will take a lot of patient moving and rearranging to get it right. You probably won't be able to use all the clippings you've collected, so start with the more interesting/creative/compelling/eye-catching headlines and images, also focusing on those from crucial games. To save space, don't include the entire story; either just the headline, or maybe the headline with the first sentence or two if it's telling of the excitement of the game.

If you have one, put a fairly large headline at the top, or right in the middle, that will stand out from the rest. Use one that isn't specific about a particular player or game (unless it was game that won a championship or Bowl berth), but more descriptive of the positive aspects(s) of the team or season. As you build the rest of the design, balance color images with black and white, long headlines with short. Dont be afraid to "bleed" a part of a headline or image off the edge of your "canvas."

Once you've created an arrangement you're satisfied with, start pasting down the pieces. The spray adhesive that allows you to pick up and move the pieces after you've layed them down wasn't available when I was doing this, but I recommend its use now - you'll change your mind more than once when you start to finalize your design!

When finished, let it dry for a day or two, then spray the entire surface with at least two coats of a LIGHT shellac. Since newspaper will make up many elements of the collage, a too-heavy shellac will over-saturate the newsprint and cause wording on the back of the clipping or picture to bleed through. Let each coat of shellac dry a day between applications (or however long recommended by the manufacturer).

There are less primitive, digital methods today of creating smaller versions of the above, provided you can download images and headlines from online newspapers and other publications. There's something about the actual newspaper clipping, though, that I think lends a more personal and vivid characteristic to the gift.

Whatever technique you use to create the collage, it will be appreciated for years to come. I know my ex-father-in-law still has the three I created for him - 25 years after I presented them to him.

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