Getting Started in SoulCollage® for Writers and Other Creatives

The old-fashioned cut-and-paste way as well as digital card making

I keep having more to say about SoulCollage®.

You may have read earlier posts about how it’s added depth and dimension to my life in general and as a writer in particular.

Let me inspire you to make a card or ten so you can experience this revelatory process for yourself. And/or for the characters in your novel, or the versions of yourself amassing in a memoir.

In this post, I’ll cover some how-tos of actual card making.

But for any newbies:

SoulCollage® is the brainchild of visionary art and Jungian psychotherapist, Seena B. Frost. She also has a Master of Divinity from Yale. The process of making collages to reveal and heal evolved out of her art therapy practice, infused with inspiration from Jean Houston.

It’s called SoulCollage® because our souls resonate with visual images. You might say it’s their love language. When we’re drawn to a particular image–photograph, natural vista, or work of art, our soul’s saying pay attention here.

This is particularly true when the image is not one we’d normally notice. Consider that an underscore or exclamation point.

Is this a dream board?

In a typical vision or dream board process, we have an idea of what we want to bring into or create for our lives. So we browse for images to represent those things.

For example a picture of an artist’s studio we hope to have one day. An attractive man or woman the likes of which we’d like to attract into our lives, may it please be soon! We may cut out images of coins and currency to bless us with abundance.

These are wonderful and very effective. But they’re not SoulCollage®. However, SoulCollage® may surprise you by revealing something you’ll want to put on your vision board.

Finding Images

You get to decide if you want the tactility of cutting or tearing images and gluing them to a matt board or card stock.

You may prefer going digital using free commons images. More on that later. We’ll start with the old-fashioned cutting and pasting with scissors and glue.

Magazines are great sources. Your choice on which ones. I subscribe to Oprah’s O Magazine and National Geographic. But thanks to Marie Kondo, people constantly give away magazines or sell them cheap.

Check out giveaway piles, Free Library boxes, thrift stores, as well as friends and family who would love you to take them off their hands.

In addition to magazines, SoulCollagers use catalogs, greeting cards, and free or purchased online stock images.

Remember photos and artwork are copyrighted. The integrity of SoulCollage® stipulates personal use only. Images are not to be sold or monetized.

If you give a card as a gift, please make sure the recipient understands this as well. If not, you or they will be in violation of copyright law as well as the practices of SoulCollage®.

Supply Specifics

SoulCollage®ers typically use 5 X 8” matt boards. They’re sturdy and don’t crease or wrinkle, and aren’t too unwieldy for deck-making. Yes, the intention is to make your own personal deck, which can be used for a variety of readings about your life and/or your creative projects.

You can order packs of pre-cut boards at SoulCollage.com. Or you can get matt boards at an art supply store and cut them yourself. Card stock and/or watercolor paper will also work. For the deck aspect, each card needs to be the same size.

Glue or adhesive is up to you. I use rubber cement, but over time have to re-glue. Archival quality glue sticks are just fine. Putting adhesive on both the image and the board helps them stick better.

A brayer roller smooths down images, preventing buckling. Roll from the center out to remove air bubbles before they get trapped.

Take your time.

This is an intuitive process. Once you have a pile of images, play with them in various combinations. This is, after all, collage.

But if an image wants to stand alone, let it.

Find interesting backgrounds for your images. The interplay between the images on the card creates its message. Enjoy clashes and contrasts as well as harmonies. Like music, some of the most expressive chords are dissonant minor keys.

My soul is a color queen. Harmonizing or contrasting colors gets me putting things together than otherwise would never cross paths. Like Mother Mary and a pair of ruby slippers, shown below.

Notice what symbols speak to you.

Eggs are one of mine. And owls. In the human realm, I’m drawn to clowns and dancers. Follow your impulses on this. If you have more than enough images, store them flat for future sessions

You will find your own way to keep cut or torn images flat and safe between sessions.

Cut your images out mindfully. The act of cutting feels soothing and meditative, so enjoy it. I like to tear images as well as cut. I love having those ragged white borders around my images. Canva.com has several collage elements with this effect. Here’s a digital card I just made to show off that torn card effect.

Before gluing, mix and match. Try images in a variety of combinations and /or against a variety of backgrounds. Notice how an image looks and feels different against various backgrounds or colors.

Keep playing till it feels right. Scotch makes a restickable glue stick that works like sticky notes. Since I work on a slant board to protect my neck, this tacky stuff helps a lot.

We don’t put words on SoulCollage® cards.

Yes, there are exceptions, but let them be exceptions.

Why? Seena explains that once we see a word, our left brain wakes up and starts working logically and analytically. A word imposes an interpretation on a card that has other possible meanings. During readings, we want access to all of them.

Without words, our right brain is free to fly and float, make connections, and associate. Our soul and/or subconscious depths come into play. This is how we get layers of meaning well beyond the surface or superficial.

For example, my eggs. They can imply springtime, Easter, rebirth, or new life. But going deeper, I could be hatching a new scheme or plot, egging a reluctant character to take a risk or leap into the unknown.

An egg in a harsh environment speaks to fragility or vulnerability. A broken egg may signify cracking open a walled-off part of myself. Or starting to peck away at my reluctance to move forward. Each time I read a card, new meanings arise. Such is the beauty of SoulCollage®!

Protect Your Cards

Store your SoulCollag@ cards in a waterproof container. You can order 5 ⅛ X 8” clear plastic clap seal bag envelopes for them at www.clearbags.com. You may want to scan your cards to save them digitally as well. God forbid they should get damaged or stolen but it’s happened more than once. Preserve and protect your cards.

Digital Card Making

I’ve fallen in love with making soul cards on Canva.com.

All their images are licensed for free use. I do try to credit the photographers when I post a card online. Unsplash.com is another great source. I work in the same 5 X 8” dimensions. Mainly horizontally, since that works best for posting. But for your cards, vertical is fine, too.

Canva lets you upload images from other places. And they have backgrounds you can play with. I challenge myself to get away from working literally. If I need a sheep for Jesus the Lamb church I’ll do so. But I want to play in the randomness I’m used to with a stack of magazines.

I have to work a bit harder for that. Putting art or collage in the search bar brings up a rich variety of elements to play with. Some with the torn paper look I crave.

See the above example of my cowgirl card. Finding the face peaking out and the rough red wooden background were lucky accidents that give this card its mystique. There’s a whole story hidden in its depths, I just know it. More will be revealed when I ‘read’ it.

Speaking of reading our cards, that will be the subject of a future post. Both for ourselves and our creative projects–books, characters, plots, poetry, etc. So stay tuned!

Here are additional resources for SoulCollage® and writing.

Marilyn Flower’s the author of Creative Blogging: Ninja Writers Guide to Character Development and Bucket Listers, Get Your Brave On. Clowning and improvisation strengthen her resolve during these crazy times. Follow her Sacred Foolishness and Stay in touch!