How to Make a Digital Collage Sheet

If you like to make collage, assemblage, artist trading cards, or digital art, then you may be interested in learning how to create your own digital collage sheets. Digital collage sheets have become very popular among artists, and are often sold online or traded online. A digital collage sheet is a collection of images that you put together on one page in order to print over and over again. Then, the images can be cut out and used in your artwork or for your artist trading cards. Collage sheets are also very nice to use in jewelry making - specifically in making scrabble tile pendants, collage pendants, or glass and acrylic pendants.

How to Make a Digital Collage Sheet: Copyright
It is important to consider copyright when you are making digital collage sheets. Here is a brief overview. In general, copyright lasts 75-100 years after a person has died. Until that period passes, the creator of something still retains the copyright.

Digital Collage Sheets: Images You Can Use:
All photos taken by you and photos that are in the public domain. Make sure commercial use is ok for public domain photos if you want to sell your digital collage sheet. Old photos passed down in your family are ok.

Digital Collage Sheets: Questionable Images
My understanding of copyright is that the courts have yet to weigh in on the use of scanned digital images of original works of art. For example, if an art institution put a scanned image of a copyright free painting online, can you use that image? Please add comments if you know.

Digital Collage Sheets: Images Not Allowed
You are violating copyright laws by using other people's photos and works of art. Even if you use them and alter them, you are violating copyright. While collage and assemblage are art forms that use found objects and images, creating digital collage sheets that contain other people's work is a clear copyright violation, so do not try to sell these unless you want legal trouble.

How to Make a Digital Collage Sheet
Scan any of your photos that you want to use in your digital collage sheet. One way to assemble the images is to copy and paste them into a Microsoft Word document. This will still allow you to resize the images on the page. You can shrink them to a smaller size to fit more images on a page. If you want to lock the images into place, you can convert that document into a pdf file. Then you can print the pages whenever you want. Make sure you check the properties of your printer and print at the finest quality.

Another method for creating digital collage sheets is to use a photoshop program. Most of these allow you to arrange multiple images on one page using a digital photo album feature. You can enter your images, and then your photos for your collage sheet will be aligned in a grid formation. This can be easier to cut out. This format also looks more professional if you are interested in selling your digital collage sheets.

Whether you are interested in making digital collage sheets for your own art projects and artist trading cards, or whether you want to sell them, this article should help you get started. Remember to follow the copyright rules, and you will have an endless supply of images to use.