Tag: art activity idea

Today my friend and I did a workshop at our local school with two lots of thirty 5-6 year olds. We came up with an idea of making collage self-portraits, using coloured card, paper and wool. The children were very sweet and enthusiastic, but only about a third of them in each class rose their hand when they were asked if they remember what they look like! 😄

Firstly, here is the idea step by step. The steps are explained in the captions under each photo.

(We used resources offered by the school, but if you would like more colourful results, unwanted wallpaper would make a great backdrop for the portraits and scraps of gift wrap, flower wrapping paper, tissue paper or magazine pictures can be used for the clothes..)

1. Fold A4 coloured card in half and cut out an oval window on one of the halves. I used Tonic shape-mate cutter.

1 – the result

2. Out of a cream card cut ovals for the faces. The spaces between the ovals make perfect neck shapes.

3. Stick another coloured A5 piece of paper onto the solid half of your card.

4. Trace the oval from the window so that you can see the field where to stick your portrait. Stick the neck, then the head, and the clothes.

5. Close the window and stick it on. Attach hair, cut/made from wool and decorate with embellishments.

3-5. For a boy’s portrait. Oh, yes, don’t forget the ears.

6. Ta-da! Ready. Hats, ties, long hair etc can stick out of the frame to give it a 3-dimensional feel.

The picture in the middle is from a slightly different story, but very similar in making.

And here is a little gallery of the work produced by the children. Many of them truly looked like their authors!