Thursday 19 January 2012

Collage

(Goblin is 27 months)

Today Goblin and I made something really pretty which is quite amazing considering how full of snot we both are. We did also watch 4 hours of TV - so this kinda balances out my guilt.
Goblin really likes playing with the craft scissors Hublet bought for me. I saved a flower seed catalogue that came through the door the other day, and I ripped out some of the pages for Goblin to cut up. I discovered he's good at making the first cut but finds it quite difficult to move into the page with the scissors, so I cut strips so he could do single snips along them.
He did a pretty good job, and I finished it off round the edges making sure every last bit of canvas was covered. Then I left it to dry.  When we had quite a lot of pieces of flowery paper I got one of my bargain basement canvases and some PVA glue. Goblin set to work glueing the paper onto the canvas.
Meanwhile I searched google images for a good silhouette of a tree. You can draw one free hand but I am lazy so I usually go for the path of least resistance.  I think this collage idea would also work really well with a silhouette of a butterfly or fairy, and if you have more patience than me you could do something finer. 
 I printed out my silhouette and stuck it onto a piece of plastic (I used an old laminate printable). Then I cut the silhouette out (so the plastic was also cut). Then I used a gluestick to glue the plastic onto the magazine. Glue sticks are pretty useless glue so I was confident it would peel off afterwards without ripping the collage. However if you are a crafter and happen to have some spray mount to hand, that would probably be a better bet.
I then painted over the whole thing with white acrylic paint (I put a tiny bit of blue in the paint as well). I did try a layer of poster paint but it wasn't thick enough to go over the magazine so I would have had to do loads of layers. If your child is a bit older than Goblin (or your silhouette less detailed) you could probably let them do the painting bit themselves, but Goblin is a bit 'eager' and I was worried he'd dislodge the silhouette.
Once I'd painted the whole canvas (including the sides where some of the magazine had wrapped round) I peeled off the silhouette. Then I used a few cotton buds (Q tips) to remove some of the paint that had seeped under the thinner branches.
And hey presto, a really lovely painting. Its still a bit shiny in the photo because it hasn't dried yet - I was too excited to wait. Not bad for a 2 year old huh!
Now I wish I could claim I came up with this idea up on my own, but I didn't. I found a beautiful picture on Pinterest and traced it back to a guest post on the blog Tatertots and Jello.

I'm linking this to
Fun Stuff Fridays


12 comments:

  1. Cute idea! My toddler loves to use glue so this is up her alley!
    Come by for a visit sometime!
    Catherine
    http://tbc-tobecontinued.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Whether it was your idea or not, I think you've done a great job, it looks so striking! And it'll make a great keepsake too. I'm sharing this on my FB page. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Btw, I'm a new follower! If you'd like to, please head over to my blog Happy Little Munchkins, at happylittlemunchkins.blogspot.com
      Looking forward to reading more of your posts!

      Delete
  3. Wow! What a VERY beautiful collage. I love it!

    Simply perfect.

    Thanks for sharing on Kids Get Crafty!

    Maggy

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love the way your project turned out, what a great use for catalog clippings, and what a fun gluing project for little ones!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Your artwork is wonderful. Master D and I are going to try this out for sure!! And I hope you are feeling better x

    ReplyDelete
  6. Cool, it looks great. I need to try this with my little ones!

    www.notimefortea.com

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow, neat idea. Very cool project for younger children!
    Lori @ Cachey Mama’s Classroom

    ReplyDelete
  8. That looks really nice! It would be good for older kids too, I think.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Great Idea! I think i'll try Contact paper and see how that works. Do you have any experience with that?

    I used to be a stay at home mom now I'm a preschool teacher! I'd love to open my own school based on creative expression!

    ReplyDelete

I have decided to turn off comments on the blog as I am being inundated with spam. I do this with sadness as I love genuine comments from readers. If you would like to leave a comment please email me at TamingtheGoblin@gmail.com or visit the TamingtheGoblin FaceBook page (you can access it through the FB icon in the top right corner of the blog homepage).
Thank you for taking the time to read the blog.

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...