Mixed Media Collage Art for beginners

I've gotten it into my crazy head that I want to try mixed media collage. It's a free form art style that uses every medium known to humankind to create collage style art. You can use any medium, wet or dry like water colour, acrylic paint, ink, stencil pastes, embossing powders or pastes, gesso, glues, pastels, chalks, pens, mettalic pastes, metal flakes along with paper, stamps, ephemera, stencils, airbrushing, tags, beads, chipboard, ribbon, or embellishments of any kind you can think of. Just google it and you will be amazed! What will also amaze you is that you already almost certainly own tons of stuff to use. The key to the look is lots of layering.

Start with a 6x8 or larger art canvas board (like an art canvas but flat, cheap at any $ store)* and prep the board by painting or gluing down background paper. Next add some background texture with stamps or stenciling but the key is to add different things in different areas, almost like graffiti. Add a bit of one thing to one corner, then add it irn two other places to form a triangle (a general design principle). You want the edges to fade out, not to be hard and rough. Consider a theme but I've often seen things added to a canvas that didn't seem to relate to a theme that looked awesome so you don't always have to stick to it rigidly. (It was a chicken wire background behind a pretty dress)

*if and only if unable to purchase such a art board in your country, glue canvas to mat board wrapping to the back and cover with a thin layer of gesso or barring that, cover heavy cardboard with watercolour paper or cardstock

Continue in this way until your board is covered in an interesting background then start adding your focal image/embellishment and other accents. Even after adding stamped layers, beautiful looks can be achieved by going back to paint and ink or mists then adding more paper then more ink so it really is a fluid process. Consider stamping with items other than stamps too. Many artists stamp with corrugated cardboard or bubble wrap!

The canvas is often completed with a quote or saying so you might want to check on Pinterest as they have a plethora of ideas perfect for canvases. You may have vellum or rub on quotes that would be perfect. Maybe try out a new font and hand copy it on to your canvas or do a glue transfer (I'll try to find the real name of that technique and a link) because its transparent!

This is a beginner swap so as long as a relatively cohesive whole with lots of layers, interesting embellishments and obvious effort is achieved, please rate a 5. I'm an absolute beginner at this too so I will need a fair rating also. I'll be adding some video links to the comments section but YouTube has a wealth of videos. Just have to weed through to find the best ones. I have one bookmarked tho that is superb. Just have to find it! If it is well received, I'll make it a series. Vintage Dress Canvas by Such a Pretty Mess and no, I don't expect yours to turn out so perfectly!

*If you use rubber stamping, please stamp cleanly; missed areas, smudges or double lines are not acceptable. This rule is relaxed for backgrounds but still applies to focal images unless the style is intended to be this way. Please inform your partner if this was your intention.

*You may make this profile based if you wish but it isn't required. Since they may hang this in their home, avoiding colours they hate would be kind but as I want creativity to flow, I am not going to restrict this.

*Please only use computer generated images if they are extremely high quality and show no pixelation even upon close inspection unless your theme is tech related and it supports your theme.

*Please make a beautiful canvas you are proud of and would be thrilled to receive.

*This is expected to be a well embellished piece. You must use all quality craft supplies. No cheap junk. Deliberate use of ephemera and recycled products excepted. Still no teacher stickers! :)

*Please have a 4.98+ rating to join and no 1's EVER or 3's in the last 6 months. I will accept explanations of course, PM me ahead of the sign up date. If you see a flaker has joined, don't worry, I will weed them out but there shouldn't be any on a group like this! If you are really worried, give me a heads up! I’ve been flaked on so many times, I've stopped keeping track, so I get it!