This month’s collage kit, vibrant and textured, is an ode to suffering. Pain is not just inevitable and uncomfortable but also potentially one of the most productive emotions out there if we can use it to our advantage. You’ll find lots to cut and paste here, including a beautiful quote from Call Me By Your Name: “We rip out so much of ourselves to be cured of things faster than we should that we go bankrupt by the age of thirty and have less to offer each time we start with someone new. But to feel nothing so as not to feel anything–what a waste!” Also, from The Hours, the idea that that “we cannot find peace by avoiding life.” And then the amazing Lauryn Hill, from my favorite song ever written, “Everything is everything / What is meant to be, will be / After winter must coming spring / Change, it comes eventually.” If you feel like it, you can let these ideas inspire the artwork you create. Happy collaging!

Download the first page of inspiring images here:

Find the second page of motifs here:

Make your collage pop with these background designs, found here:

And finally, download these background images here:

Later in May, we’ll publish a gallery of the collages readers made with Alia’s kit. If you’d like to submit your collage, please send it to [email protected] along with your first name, last initial, age, and location by 6 PM EST on Friday, May 18. In your email, please use the subject line “May Collage.” Please save the image file at 300 dpi, if possible. Enjoy! ♦