Tag Archives: collage

December 31, 2013 · 10:35 am

Matchbox Stories

P1190774

A darling little ice storm hit Toronto on December 22nd, leaving about 300,000 homes without electricity for the holiday season. We chose to stay in our very cold house for two and a half days until the power came back on, and were definitely among the lucky ones, since as of this morning, there are a few hundred people still cold and in the dark. To mark this most unusual holiday season, here’s a project born in a matchbox, a true essential during a power outage.

Matchboox, which inspired this project, is a collection of small books folded accordion style, and neatly housed inside a matchbox. It’s a series created by editor Richard Meier, involving more than 70 artists, making some very cool art in a box.

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November 1, 2012 · 10:17 am

Recycling Candy Wrappers and Gum

Hope your Halloween night was fantastic! I’m guessing by now your little ones have eagerly examined their candy stash, taken inventory, and are slowly eating their way through it. Here are a couple of ideas from the past to help you make use of your Halloween garbage:

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October 24, 2012 · 10:15 am

Erosion Bundle Halloween Crafts

Back in August, I made an erosion bundle which spent close to two months braving the elements outside in my garden. Not sure what an erosion bundle is? Have a look at this post to get a clearer picture.

When I finally went out to collect it, my biggest fear was finding it filled with potato bugs and worms, sucking back those juicy orange slices I included. Turns out it was bug free, and had morphed from a colourful collection of random things, to something you might find in a landfill site. The oranges had decomposed, plenty of stains were now on the fabric and paper, but some things simply hadn’t changed at all. More perishables and more time would have created better results, but there was still plenty to work with for making a Halloween sign and a collage.

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January 16, 2012 · 11:16 am

Torn Paper Collage

Torn paper collages are made using small pieces of paper which are glued onto a surface to create an image. In this case we’ll be making portraits using old magazines, which will provide the colourful palette you’ll need. You can also go black and white by using newspapers. The image children select for inspiration will help with some basic direction in colours, composition and proportions, but they shouldn’t expect to duplicate it. It’s simply to provide a starting point, which they can then take in any direction.

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December 1, 2010 · 12:31 pm

Holiday Cards

With so many gorgeous greeting cards to choose from today, it may take something really special like Japanese paper to motivate you to make your own. Everything about these papers is inspiring, like their texture, patterns, colours and visible fibres. And if children can use a glue stick, they’re old enough to make these wonderful collages.

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November 17, 2010 · 12:44 pm

Candy Wrapper Collage: For Dentists Everywhere

Trick-or-treaters beware. There are dentists out there proposing that you spend several hours in the cold collecting candy, and willingly trade it in for a paltry amount of cash. Your candy will then be sent off to support troops overseas. The purpose? According to Dr. Berdahl, it’s “a great way to prevent cavities and support the troops.” This is mean, mean, mean on all fronts. Unless I’m missing something, is off-loading candy onto troops a good idea for their teeth?  And isn’t pigging out on candy a childhood right of passage? Let’s just learn to brush our teeth properly, shall we, and get on with the fun.

The thought of giving colourful candy wrappers a second life really appeals to children. It gives them a wonderful and permanent way of proudly displaying what they collected and indulged in on Halloween, a time when my dentist actually gives out candy. Bless his soul.

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November 11, 2010 · 4:23 pm

Texture Collage

Texture is the feel or appearance of a surface or a substance. It may be the soft fur on your cat, the rough feel of a carpet, or the slimy liver you’re having for dinner. Everything has a texture, and just about anything can be used to create it. This project is all about stretching children’s imaginations by allowing them to explore different textures, using a variety of materials.

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November 1, 2010 · 2:12 pm

The Morning After

The morning after Halloween is much anticipated by the squirrels in this hood, but the pumpkins are terrorized. Just a reminder to hang on to all those candy wrappers your kids will be generating. They can be used to make a Candy Wrapper Collage coming up this month.

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August 1, 2010 · 12:05 pm

Travel Collages

I’m back from quite the adventure. Turkey is truly a visual feast, filled with warm, friendly people and breathtaking views. We’ve poured over our photographs and souvenirs (no mugs), and come to the conclusion that trip collages are a wonderful way for children to remember  special moments such as these.

Embarking on your journey with your collage in mind is the best plan. Have children collect things along the way which they can easily bring back. This can include boarding passes, ticket stubs from entrances to museums or historical sites, receipts from purchases, labels from products used, maps, newspapers and so on. Once home, you can even print up some of your favourite photos to include in your work.

Looking at my daughter’s collage above, you can get a sense of her experience in Turkey. It was extremely hot so she chose to include a weather report from a newspaper; maps showing places we stayed and streets we favoured; ticket stubs recording our visits to memorable sites and museums; colouful images of mosques, graffiti and  the Grand Bazaar  combined with cloudless skies and endless sea. And of course there is the ubiquitous blue amulet which is believed to protect against the evil eye, sold in every possible form imaginable. She has chosen to spare us images of the topless granny on the beach, or photos of the thousands of feral cats that roam the streets in the intense heat. Did I mention it was hot?

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May 16, 2010 · 10:32 am

The Unexpected Picasso

Baigneuse et Profil by Pablo Picasso, 1930. Photo:http://picasso-paris.videomuseum.fr

When you consider Picasso’s body of work, three dimensional pieces in sand don’t usually come to mind. So this turned out to be a surprising discovery I made when visiting the Musée National Picasso in Paris a few years ago. Click on the link and select ‘oeuvre en 3 dimensions’ to have a look at the other seven works in this series, and for inspiration to make your own version. Here’s a quote from Picasso which nicely explains why we shouldn’t be surprised by his explorations:

“When you come to think of it, I am probably a painter without style. ‘Style’ is often something that ties the artist down and makes him look at things in one particular way, the same technique, the same formulas, year after year, sometimes for a whole lifetime. You recognize him immediately, for he is always in the same suit, or a suit of the same cut. There are, of course, great painters who have a certain style. However, I always thrash about rather wildly. I am a bit of a tramp. You can see me at this moment, but I have already changed, I am already somewhere else. I can never be tied down, and that is why I have no style,” Picasso wrote. (http://www.abcgallery.com/P/picasso/picassobio.html)

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