by Nathalie Linge

Created on: November 30, 2008

Mosaics are very cool and fun. They also make great gifts for parents and grandparents. In addition, they make unique cards. They can, however, be quite challenging at times because they are very time consuming. From my own experience with creating mosaics, I have come up with some tips on make then quicker. These tips could make them take half as long at sometimes!

For this technique you need 2 sheets of paper. First you choose a design and sketch it on one piece of paper. Then pick the color of papers you want and cut them up the size you want. Lay them out on the piece of paper with the design but do not glue them. If may seem like it will take way longer if you do this, but it actually saves a lot of time in the long run. Now take the other sheet of paper, cover it with glue and very, very carefully set it on the piece of paper with the little squares. Now press hard on the piece of paper on top and place books, magazines, or anything else heavy on the top of the paper. This way you know most of the paper will stay onto the glue paper. If some of the paper doesn't stay, just hand glue it. This technique should only be used if you have a very steady hand.

If you are making a mosaic on something other than paper but your using paper pieces, that technique might work. For example, if you are making something with the same color in an isolated area, you could take a strip of paper almost as long as what you are putting it on and glue it down. Then take an Xacto knife and simply cut where you want the lines to be then move the paper a little bit over so it doesn't look like you just cut the lines after gluing the paper on the object.

Some fun ideas of mosaics are a Christmas tree or snowflakes for Christmas. For Easter, you could make a mosaic of an Easter egg or the Easter bunny. For the Fourth of July, you could make the American flag or fire works. And let's not forget Halloween, where ghosts, goblins, jack-o-lanterns, witches and more make great motifs! There are endless ideas of what to do. Mosaics usually have borders around the actual artwork and they make them look nicer.

Some uses for mosaics are artwork to be hung on the wall, lunch boxes, cards, scrapbooking pages and details. You could even put a mosaic on the top of some wrapping paper to make a gift extra special. Mosaics are fun and time consuming, but these tips will help you finish them much quicker and more easier.

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