Art Works! is a series of blog posts created by the staff at www.EscapadeDirect.com that offer children of all ages and abilities the opportunity for hands-on art activities that allow them to explore, discover, and express their individual creativity.

We encourage parents to join in on the activities, too, and create their own Art Works!

Art Works! Activity #13: Thankful Collage

Create a collage that is uniquely your own! Include pictures of all the things you are most thankful for! This project is a fun way for kids to express themselves, and a great way to recycle, too.

Did you know that the word “collage” is a French word that means “glue”? Create a work of modern art with this fun project.

What You Need:

• Old Magazines


• Scissors


• Chipboard or Art Board
  
• Glue Stick

What You Do:

• Give your kids those old magazines that are laying around the house and have them look for pictures of things they are most thankful for.


• Use a scissors to carefully cut out each picture. Adults, please help young children with this step.


• When all the pictures are cut out, lay them out on an art board and rearrange as necessary, until you are happy with the placement.


• When you are ready to create your collage, use a glue stick to apply glue to each picture and place the picture onto the art board.


• Continue overlapping and gluing pictures until your collage is done.


• Make sure to sign and date the back of your collage. Hang your artwork on a bulletin board or put it in a picture frame.

Variations:

• A collage is a fun project for kids of all ages. For a variation on this project, create a collage using pictures of various items, all within the same color range. For example, find pictures you like that are all shades of blue. When all the pictures are glued to your art board, you will have a unique color collage. Choose your favorite color, and get started!


• There are many different styles that can be used to create a collage – some projects completely fill an art board, leaving no white surface showing; while other projects make use of the white elements of the art board. It’s up to you how much or how little of the art board you want to cover.


• Cut out interesting words or letters from the magazines and glue them onto your collage to form words, sayings, or poems. You could glue letters that spell “I’m thankful for…” on your collage.


• If you don’t want to keep old magazines laying around in your craft pile, spend an evening with your kids cutting out all the interesting pictures, letters, and words from a magazine, then recycle the discarded magazine. Keep these cutouts in an envelope or Craft Box for future use. When you are ready to use the pictures, just sort through them and choose the ones you like. (Note to adults: this is actually a very relaxing end-of-day project!)


• Don’t have old magazines to use? Create your own drawings! Use small squares of paper to draw the things you are most thankful for. Color your drawings with markers or colored pencils. When the drawings are done, cut them out and glue them to an art board to begin your collage.


• Recycle mail-order catalogs and “junk” mail for this project! The sample shown here was created mostly from mail-order catalogs. Be creative!


• TIP: We recommend using glossy paper print ads, as they work best for this project. Newspaper pictures and flyers don’t work quite as well, since the paper is so thin, the glue tends to soak through the paper more.

You Might Also Like:

All Purpose Art Board Set with Hangers – This set of heavy-duty art boards contains easy-to-use hangers.

Photo-Opoly – Make your own Monopoly-style game with this fun kit!

Share Your Art Works! Activities!
If you have an Art Works! project that you would like to share, email us a digital picture (or scan) of your project , and we will post it in our Kids Gallery. If you would like, include the artists first name, age, and your state. It’s fun for kids to see how other children interpreted the project!

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As always, encourage your children to come up with their own new ideas for art – and make sure to check back next week for another Art Works! activity in this series!

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