Contact Collage

We know 26 children that are born between September and December (including Rainbow) and only 5 over the other 8 months. Currently a lot of our craft is around making cards and most of our play is around birthday parties for the dolls. And very soon a lot of my craft is going to be about planning a party for Rainbow.

This is one card we did on the weekend. (The invitation and cakes (yes there were 3 cakes) were a giraffe and a zebra. So here's Rainbow's zebra. It's so Rainbow that the spots are placed as an orderly border. Check out her stars in the mouse house.)

This collage was made onto a sheet of contact (clear adhesive plastic used to cover books). Then once complete another piece of contact was placed over the top holding all of the bits in place and attaching it on to the card.

VARIATIONS

1. This method looks equally effective with randomly placed bits. This makes it a really good first collage for children without wielding glue.
2. You can also cut out a shape from the card (such as a birthday cake, animal or a Christmas tree) and attach the contact before they start collaging.
3. These look great pinned on windows.
4. You can get a stained glass look using lots of cellophane in the collage.
5. Like most crafts it can be improved (in the eyes of a two year old) with lots and lots of glitter.

Here's Rainbow's collage materials.

The little box contains paper scraps - some cute from wrapping paper, others scrapbooking scraps.

The bigger box contains all sorts of little odds and ends - straws, fabric, bubblewrap, bottletops...

There is a much bigger box under Rainbow's bed that holds a collection of empty boxes and cartons and rolls.

The round containers hold dyed macaroni, scraps of cellophane, scraps of Easter egg wrappers, dyed matchsticks and buttons

The open draw is also meant to hold masking tape and sticky tape. Rainbow also uses clag and PVA glue but these are stored out of her reach, along with the paint.

These craft materials have recently moved onto her toy shelf so she can help herself. Though this will probably change once you know who is mobile. I would love to solve this problem by getting Rainbow a desk (out of Moonshine's reach for now) but we really haven't got the space for anymore furniture.