A how-to guide to making your own collages, brimful of fascinating hints and tips from a master of the genre.

Over the course of a 40-year career, Jeannie Baker has perfected the art of collage in the creation of picture-book classics such as Where the Forest Meets the Sea and Window, a Boston Globe-Horn Honour Book. Her stunning pieces, devised by assembling all sorts of different textures, are known all around the globe. Whether it's dried flowers or tiny shells, spaghetti or postage stamps, she uses the world around her to make work that is astonishingly beautiful and deeply creative. And she focuses on a range of important issues including the environment, land degradation, family, society and sustainability. In Playing with Collage, she shares her secrets at last – and encourages her readers to get creative. Within each of this book's four main sections, Jeannie presents an abstract collage of her own and offers suggestions and starting points for beginners. There are no right or wrong answers in this treasure of a book, it's all about trusting your instincts ... and playing!