I bet you have some old magazines, comic books and catalogs lying around, just about to head to the recycling bin. Have you ever handed them over to your kids to see what kind of alternative reality worlds they can create with them?
Magazine Collage Art
Roll out a long piece of paper – the bigger the better. The reverse side of some wall paper, lining paper or old gift wrapping are good. Then hand your kids a stack of old magazines, catalogs and comics, along with some scissors and something to stick with. My girls love sticky tape but glue sticks work well too. Then let them snip, stick and create.
They can browse through the images and see what catches their eye and what they’d like to include in their collage.
- Furniture store catalogs are great for designing a dream house.
- Seed and nursery catalogs make good fairy gardens.
- Comics let your children include their favorite characters and super heros in the picture.
- Car sales pages and photographs from newspapers are good to make cityscapes.
Mix Media and Add Imagination
Provide some pens, pencils and crayons so your kids can draw extra details in the collage. They can add trees, meadows and a sunshine to a garden picture. Accessorize their house picture with carpets, vases of flowers and drapes. Draw people and street signs to go in their city scape.
This kind of mixed media art gives you lots to talk about as your children draw. Who would live in a place like this? What would they have for breakfast? Where would they go to work? You can use the collage as a springboard for lots of imagining.
When you’ve finished the magazine collage can be used in play too. You could lay out a cityscape on the floor and bring out your toy cars to drive around it. A house or fairy garden makes a great backdrop for a puppet theatre.
We love creating art and toys from things we’d otherwise throw away. What other materials do you fish out of the recycle bin to create with?
If you want more ideas for art with recycled materials:
About Cathy
I love the way your mixed the media!