Friday 13 July 2012

The Very Hungry Caterpillar collage pictures using tissue paper

In June, author Eric Carle celebrated his birthday and so I thought I would try and find out a bit more about Eric Carle, the author of The Very Hungry Caterpillar among many other books. You can learn a little more about Eric Carle here. While I was looking for some more information about him, I discovered his own fab website, where he shares the way that he creates his distinctive collages. I thought it would be fun to have a go at making our own Very Hungry Caterpillar pictures.

How to make a Very Hungry Caterpillar collage craft with children

It's really very simple. Just take some large squares of tissue paper (I never buy it, so the stuff that I have around is more than likely stashed packaging material from something). Then paint with slightly watered down poster paint. You can paint one colour at a time and build up the colours as they dry, or I put blobs of different colours together on a palette (we use a margarine tub lid) and let the colours mix as they are painted. I used two shades of green, yellow, and a small amount of blue.

How to make a Very Hungry Caterpillar collage craft with children

I also made a small square of red for the head, with a tiny bit of blue paint mixed in. Use bold brush strokes, and it doesn't matter if the tissue paper rucks up a little bit.

How to make a Very Hungry Caterpillar collage craft with children

When all the painted tissue paper is dry you can begin your collage. We made two in slightly different ways. For my larger collage, I cut out all the shapes that I needed to form the caterpillar freehand and stuck them down on a large piece of white card.

How to make a Very Hungry Caterpillar collage craft with children

For Harry's collage I drew him the outline of a caterpillar, then we cut up the tissue paper into little squares and glued them down inside the outline.

How to make a Very Hungry Caterpillar collage craft with children

When they were dry we cut them out and re-mounted them onto thin cardboard. Then we added finishing touches with a felt pen and coloured pencils - outlining in yellow and adding feet and feelers, then using pencils to make the hairs on the back. They were a bit bumpy, so I covered them with clear sticky backed plastic, and we made a simple frame for the smaller one. Making these pictures was so easy, and I'm really pleased with the final results!

How to make a Very Hungry Caterpillar collage craft with children

6 comments:

  1. They are wonderful and just like the real thing. You can frame them and have your very own Eric Carle original on the wall :)

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    1. Thank you! I have put one up in each child's room, I'm really proud of them!

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  2. This was my favourite book as a child, I love how children are still reading and loving it now! Loving the arts and crafts :)

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    1. Thank you! It is a fantastic book, I loved it as a child too and it was the first book I bought when I found out I was pregnant!

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  3. That look so good - in fact it's uncannily like the original!
    His website really is super isn't it?

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    1. Thank you, I was really pleased with how well they turned out, and it was so easy! It is a fantastic website, he really interacts with his fans.

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