Art for Kids: Eric Carle Collages

Kids all over the world love artist and author Eric Carle, famous for books like the children’s classic The Very Hungry Caterpillar. For our fourth Art Masterpieces class, I decided it would be fun to look at and imitate Carle’s style. Here’s what we did…

To create his well-known illustrations, Carle first paints colorful papers, then cuts them into shapes and creates collage style images. Since we only had an hour, we didn’t have time to do both steps, so we used scrapbook papers instead that were already patterned and colorful to create our own collage style art.

Materials:

– white ceramic tiles {these were 50 cents a piece at Home Depot}
– assorted scrapbook papers
– scissors
– Mod Podge
– sponge brushes
– sequins and other embellishments

I gave the kids full creative freedom for this project. Several chose to model theirs after the example I created, which was a teal and grey butterfly. They cut wing and body shapes from their favorite papers, attached them to the tiles with Mod Podge, then added embellishments like sequins and lace.

Other students chose to create more abstract designs instead. Some added more detail using permanent markers.

The process was the same, though, no matter what the design; cut the papers, attach them to the tile using Mod Podge, then add a coat of Mod Podge over top when the design is complete.

It was really fun seeing the variety of their projects as they let their own imaginations and creativity go wild. The best part was that the project cost well under $1 per child. The tiles were just 50 cents a piece and I already had papers and sequins in my craft stash {imagine that}. This would make a fun summer project to entertain the littles when school’s out too. Do you know a kiddo who would enjoy this collage style project?