I love working on collages that have a bit of a twist. The mother of the bride is an event planner and helped coordinate the details of the special day. A gift for her parents, the bride chose to focus on all the specifics that they had assisted with, such as the decorations, place settings and invitations. They added the perfect balance and interest to the family and wedding day photos. This collage worked very well with the large size she chose, 22 x 28, and quickly became one of my favorite wedding collages.

I think this is a fabulous example of the possibilities of a collage and the creativity of my customers!
Celebrating their father’s 82 years, the 3 siblings each wrote a letter telling of their favorite memories of their father and coordinated a picture or two to be placed next to the letter.
Spanning the years up to present day, this collage used 64 images and measured 24 x 30.

This is my first custom collage and still one of my favorites. In 2003, my client’s dad’s 50th birthday coincided with the 75th anniversary of their family owned service garage. He was the 3rd generation to run the garage. She supplied me with old photos, newspaper articles and ads. She also asked me to come out to take current photos of the garage. I chose not to do any color correcting of the newspaper to eliminate the yellowing from age. I thought it was the perfect way to show the passage of time.

This collage will always be one of my favorites. Done for a friend’s grandparents, he literally gave me a box of photos and their wedding album and told me to use whatever I wanted. He was able to get everything and still keep the collage a secret by telling everyone that he was taking it all to be scanned to preserve it. I was completely amazed and overwhelmed by all of the photos and it was very difficult choosing what to include. They had pictures of the 30, 40 and 50th anniversary. The program, invite, and napkin from the wedding. Pictures of them as children, while dating and while raising their family. And to top it all off, a letter from the bride’s parents to the couple congratulating them on their wedding day. I think the best part of the collage was that I was able to juxtapose the focal picture with a current picture of them.

I matted and framed the collage just in time for the party. My friend told me that his grandfather was suffering from memory loss and had good days and bad days. Unfortunately, he didn’t recognize himself in the collage, but enjoyed it just the same. I got a very nice phone call from his grandmother thanking me for the collage and for using it on my postcards announcing my art fair schedule. She told me she gets compliments from everyone who sees the collage. To this day I still use this collage on the back of my business cards to show the custom facet of my business. I think it truly shows how amazing your history can be if you take the time to preserve the memories.

I love how colorful this collage turned out; so perfect for a Caribbean cruise! I was contacted by Cherida to do a collage of her cruise with her daughter and her friend and friend’s daughter. She provided me with pictures that were taken by the ship’s photographer as well as pictures that they had taken themselves. The detailing on the ship’s photographs provided interesting color and details to the collage in addition to documenting the stops they made. This is a fantastic way to display pictures of a memorable trip that might otherwise end up stored away in a photo album.

Nothing is more fun than working on a collage that has a great compilation of unique photos and other items. I know that picking photos for a collage can be an overwhelming task, but it’s always a pleasure to work on collages that can easily be put together to show a passage of time. This collage was made for a friend’s mother’s birthday. Included were photos of her growing up, photos with her husband and current family photos. Her mom goes by the nickname “Candy” so she asked for that to be added somewhere in the collage. I added it in a script font towards the center of the collage so it would be easy to see but not overwhelming.

What do you get seniors when they graduate? This is a fantastic example of how you can show off all the efforts and members of a high school team and give them something they can hold on to for a lifetime. Created for a military school in Georgia, this 16 x 20 collage was created using photos of a team of 16 and each girl is represented at least once.

I had never done a Christmas card collage before this one, and I think this is a fantastic idea. Rather than sending out a Christmas letter that tells everyone what they had done that year, this family sends out a handmade card that uses a photo from one of the big moments of the year. For 2009, this couple had celebrated their 25th anniversary and wanted to show off their 25 years together in the form of a collage, but wanted it to be a small collage that they could share on a card. Jan had chosen about 15 pictures that she wanted to include and upon meeting we narrowed it down to 10. After a round of proofing, we narrowed it down further to the 9 that you see above. The collage is just a little bit bigger than a 4 x 6 and was printed and adhered to a 5 x 7 card. The collage is a mini timeline of their life together, starting at their wedding, showing off a few of their vacations and their family. She asked for me to include the words “25 seasons” instead of the standard “25 years”. I think this is a great way to show off a large passing of time in a small and meaningful way.

Awesome photography is one of the key parts of having a custom collage turn out well. Part of that is having diverse photos. I loved how they included photos of signage at the wedding, the cake and the custom M&M’s that they gave out as favors. Toss in the invitation and the program for the wedding, and you have a collage that really captures all the best parts of the day.

Created as a going away gift for a manager at Medtronic, this collage includes team pictures and photos of projects and equipment that had been an integral part of the manager’s time with Medtronic.