Make it: Artsy Collage with your Child

Sisters Are Different Flowers from the Same Garden
By Gracie and Marisa Hopkins

I'm a huge fan of kid/parent collaborations when it comes to art. Gracie, my four year old daughter, loves them, too. I got the idea for this one a few days ago, when the fighting between Gracie and her sister became too much for me to handle. I needed Gracie to sit down and take some time to herself (before I lost my mind) and I figured that focusing her attention on a project where she gets to show her sisterly love would be just the distraction.

Your project doesn't have to be geared toward siblings. You can choose any theme at all. Believe me, any project where you collaborate with your child will be perfect!

To begin:

Gather Materials:

• Scrapbook paper and white card stock
• 1 sheet of paper that measures 8 x 10, for the background - mine is light blue.
  
• Adhesive of choice (I'm a fan of the double stick tape)
• Scissors
• Embellishments (I used letter stickers for each of their names)
• Black gel pen and pencil
  
• Grass image (I did a Google image search for 'Grass' and printed my favorite)
• Quote of choice - just do an internet search for quotes. There are bajillions to choose from, usually from scrapbooking sites.
• Black Sharpie marker
• Colored crayons or colored pencils

Give a piece of white card stock to your child and ask him/her to draw a picture of something with the Sharpie... I told mine to draw two pictures: One of her, and one of her sister. After drawing the outlines, let your child color their picture in with the crayons or colored pencils.

*NOTE: Because I wanted some control over Gracie's picture, without encroaching on her creativity, I cut the card stock down to the size I wanted the pictures, and instructed Gracie to draw the head at the top and the feet at the bottom. Make sure you give your child clear and simple directions, so they can have some guidelines... but then sit back and let them create on their own. This is their project, too!

Cut out shapes from the scrapbook paper. I free-hand cut the flowers, not worrying about their imperfections. Imperfections are a-okay, in my books. They give your work a more whimsical, handmade look.

Use the black gel pen to doodle in your shapes. Decorate with your embellishments.

Type your quote and size it as you want for your picture. I used the 'Curlz' font for mine, making the word 'sisters' a size 72 and the rest of the text a size 36.

Print, and transfer to your collage (lightly with pencil) by holding it behind your paper and tracing up against a window or light table.

Write over your penciled words with the black gel pen. Then, attach all of your collage items to your picture with the tape. Add some more doodles with your gel pen where you think they are necessary.

Voila! Now stick your masterpiece in a frame and show off your collaboration to all the world.

Enjoy!
xoxo,