Collagraph Prints

Collagraph printing is the printing process in which you glue materials to a hard surface to create a tile, then you ink the textured tile and print the image onto paper. The texture tile is covered with different colored inks to print different tones. Almost anything can be used to make the textures on the tile, including leaves, fabrics, tapes, etc. In this activity, we will be using cardboard and foil to create the texture tile and markers as our ink for printing on paper.

You will need:

• Corrugated cardboard
• Empty cereal or cracker box
• Scissors
• Aluminum foil
• Hot glue or regular glue
• Sponge
• Washable markers
• Paper
• Pencil

After gathering your supplies, begin by cutting a square of corrugated cardboard. In this sample the square is 4.5” by 4.5” but any size will work as long as it fits on the paper. This square will act as the tile for the print. Everything will be glued on top of this piece of cardboard.

Brainstorm a design you would like to print. Think of natural items like leaves, flowers, trees, vegetables, or animals. Start with something simple that you can cut out. Once you have thought of what you want to print, draw out the pieces on the empty cereal or cracker box. You can free hand them or can trace the cardboard square and draw within it.

Cut all your pieces out of the cereal box cardboard. (Hint: If you have a lot of pieces to cut, you can number them and take a picture to remember where they go.)

Glue all the pi