Collage

I have to admit when I read that this unplug project was making a collage I was thinking about skipping this one. I never enjoyed doing collages. I have to say now after 2 weeks of off and on cutting, adding glue, and layering several textures (giving collages a fair try) I have changed my opinion on collages. They are fun! I think my children had more fun that I did.

How we got going with this was I was sorting out some of our school supplies before Christmas and I came across a tiny laminating machine. I have never even used it. I got it as some kind of free give away 5 years ago. I already had a larger one before I got the free tiny one so I never tried it out. When I found it I thought it was broke and I almost tossed it out. I put a tiny strip of paper in and it came out with a thin plastic on the front that slid right off!!! I was thinking this is a piece of junk. I then remembered AmySue saying that you can make stickers with them. I picked up the paper scrap I had just tried to laminate and I noticed a strange looking sheet on the back side. When I picked off the back sheet sure enough it was sticky. I no longer thought this was a broken piece of junk. Right then it became my favorite toy in the house! I got all excited and started dancing around singing Yay! I have a sticker maker! I have a sticker maker! I can make some stickers! I was so excited. I ran to the computer to look for things to print to make some stickers for the children. That is when I got the thought of printing pictures of them. I thought they could make some little personal gifts for family to put with Christmas gifts. I didn't want to waste my sticker roll because I know I will not get another roll for a long time so I decided to print out some tiny heads of my children for them to use for silly crafting. I was going to show them how to make stick people and add heads on top. Travis and I together came up with making snowmen with the heads. That is how our collage project got its start.

First we took some blue paper. I used white card stock and printed a blue print on it from a clip art site. I wrote down what site but I lost my paper because we made them almost 2 weeks ago. Below you can see Demi putting the paper snowman on the blue paper (we used 1/2 sheets).

We then stuck on the sticker heads and added some snow (finger painted). We finished it off with some glitter.

Demi and I made the one below together.

I made this one. I added fabric scraps to make hats and scarves.
The one below Demi did. She is only 2 years old so that is why her brother's and baby sister's heads are not on straight. Notice she put her own on straight and centered. LOL! I did draw on scarves and arms. I helped her with the glitter glue because the bottle is almost empty by this time and it was hard to squeeze out.
This is the one Travis made. He used a full sheet of paper and made lots of snowmen.
We tried doing a more traditional collage project yesterday. We used magazine clippings.

Travis decided to make a body part flip book. I thought that was very creative. It was better than my cut off the heads of people and put them in windows of a paper house idea. lol!
Below is a picture of a man's head, a baby's tummy, and a child's legs. I took the picture side ways and forgot to rotate it. The head does go at the top of the book.


He got even more creative part way into his flip book. He put a ladies head on a flower for the head.
By the end he got VERY creative. He realized that magazines have more heads than body parts. He ended up making his own body parts to finish the book. This one is an baby head (with wings) with a flower tummy, and a flower and I think 2 hot peppers for pants (I had a seed magazine in the pile ). Demi made a picture book. Travis and I cut out the things she wanted. She then added glue with a glue stick on the backs and stuck them how she wanted. I had to keep an eye on her because she got confused several times what side to glue. Magazines have pictures on both sides and that confused her. If she was younger I would have added the glue and then let her stick the way she wanted.


We did a large if your happy and you know it clap your hands collage. We put it on wallpaper. I have a collection of old wallpaper books and we used a sheet from it to put our collage on and another page of it to cut out as a frame for our words. The wallpaper and the magazines together make it fun to touch. I never thought I would be saying that but the texture is fun and interesting.

Travis started one similar to this one. He was making up what looked like a advertisement for something but he got tired with it and quit.

Do you want to do a collage with our children but short on time because of New Years? I found a collage cheat (but a great resource) the National Gallery of Art has a collage machine 1 and collage machine 2 if you do them online I guess you are not unplugged because you are using a computer but it is a way of doing a fun collage AND you don't have the mess of paper slivers and glue. I found lots of other art things I want to go back and check out on this site. I think this site is wonderful to add into our art appreciation class. Below is a print out of the collage I made on the collage machine 1 page. I printed it and then took a picture of it because I am too tired to look for another way to share it. I just found this site tonight so I haven't shown the children it yet. I will let Travis and Demi both make one tomorrow.

We made some tree ornaments with our sticker heads and foam snowflakes.... I can't find a picture of them so I might have to take a new one. I will try to share that in the next few days.

OH! Remember that beautiful pink sweater that was made for Zee? It was made by Kcaarin and she does have a blog. I got part of her blog to load on my slow dial up computer (enough to see her son's head in a picture) lol. I haven't had a chance to see what she has been up to lately but I plan to go read in the next few days. I just need to hit the refresh button a few times to get it all to load for me (joys of dial up). Things have been so busy with the holidays I haven't had much free computer time but I should be able to do this sometime next week. Anyway, she knits some beautiful things and sometimes shows them on her blog. She is a homeschooling mom to 4 VERY cute children.

I have a few more collage things started (trying to use all of our sticker heads up). I will try to remember to take pictures of them all and share with you all this week. I will try to share everything about our Christmas so our family who doesn't live near us can see. I have been uploading holiday pictures for a week and I hope to have that done in the next few days. I have several videos I want to upload still and I will keep trying to do that (might be next Christmas before I get that finished). Videos with dial up is a very S L O W moving thing. I need hours to get up a 20 second clip and 1/2 the time the computer will lock up and not upload. I will keep trying to get them up to share. I also want to upload pictures of our yarn crafts. I was so moved with the unplug yarn project we have gone yarn crazy. We are spinning yarn on the wheel, spinning on a drop spindle, grooming bunny (spinning angora from our bunny into yarn), making pompoms, making yarn flowers, we are braiding, knotting,playing cats cradle, weaving, knitting, crocheting, finger knitting, and more. I LOVE yarn! I am so happy to see my children also enjoy working with yarn. I want to teach Travis to knit with needles but he is putting up a fight. I will let you all know how that goes. I have a secret plan to make knitting seem more manly to him. I think it might convince him into trying it. I will let you know how it goes.

It is after 12 pm so it is now my birthday. We do celebrate New Years Eve and Day (with my little children) so I might not get to share much with you until later in the week. I am very tired and I don't have time to read this over. I hope you can all figure out what all I am trying to say.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!