Day Two Craft Week – Seaside Collage by Zoe at Playing by the Book
Seaside and summer go hand in hand, but even if you can’t make it to the beach over the holidays, you can still bring the sand and waves to your kids with an Eric Carle inspired supersized collage that makes the most of summery sunshine!What you’ll need:
# A multicoloured pack of tissue paper
# A plant sprayer
# Washable glue
# A sponge
# A window! – this is going to be your canvas.
1. Get the kids to tear up lots of tissue paper; blues and greens in long strips to create sea waves, yellows, oranges and reds in patches to create the beach and large blocks of white and blue for the sky.
2. Fill your plant sprayer with an extremely weak washable glue and water mixture (about 1 part glue to 20 parts water) and let the kids spray the window!
3. Show your kids how to stick their tissue paper onto the glass to create a gloriously large scale beach scene.
As you go along encourage your kids to use the sprayer and sponge to moisten and dab all the pieces of tissue paper, taking care to fill in the gaps and make sure everything sticks smoothly to the glass.
By adding multiple layers of tissue paper and letting it crumple a little on the glass you and your kids will add a lot of interesting texture to the image – something that will show up really well when the sun shines through the window.
This project is simple enough for even the youngest of kids to take part in – even a baby can enjoy tearing up tissue paper.
Its grand scale certainly has the wow factor and makes is a great project for multiple kids of different ages and heights to work on at the same time!
It makes the most of summery sunshine and so is a perfect summer holiday activity 
If you’re worried about using a window or patio door to create this sun catcher craft there are several options
# Just use water rather than a weak glue mixture. Your final picture won’t last as long if the weather is very warm and you use multiple layers of tissue paper, but the kids will still really enjoy the whole process.
# Instead of using a window, use the plastic/glass from a cheap clip frame. When you’ve stuck your collage on the glass you can lean it up against a window to see the sun stream through it.
# Feel the fear and do it anyway! Our collage came off fine with a little bit of elbow grease. In fact the kids loved the job of cleaning the window (just put some towels on the floor as you may need to give the tissue paper a bit of soak to get it to peel off and water will inevitably drip down).
Playing by the book, where I regularly blog, is all about brilliant kids’ books and the play they inspire in me and my kids, so here are some books to enjoy by the light of your supersized suncatcher seaside:
# Mister Seahorse by Eric Carle
# Traction Man and the Beach Odyssey by Mini Grey
# Magic Beach by Alison Lester
# Maisy at the Beach by Lucy Cousins
Happy reading and happy collage making!
Zoe writes about fabulous children’s books and the play they inspire her and her family to get up to at Playing by the book. Reviews, author interviews and book giveaways feature alongside activities, crafts and artistic projects inspired by what Zoe and her kids read together.
Are you trying to make me feel guilty – because it’s working! I adore this – promise to send pictures when I actually get around to doing it!
Definitely don’t want anyone to feel guilty – mums feel enough of that all the time. But would always love to see what people are inspired to do after one of my posts!
This is so terrific! Thanks for sharing it.
I LOVE this!! I might do this tomorrow (although I did shudder slightly at the thought of cleaning it off!). My children will think this is absolutely brilliant. Thanks for the idea.
p.s How do you know if your glue is washable? Will it say? Off to have a look!
Yes, the glue should say it’s washable on it
Have fun!
Wow that is very impressive, can my nerves take the mess though
I think my daughter might think she has died and gone to heaven if we do this activity! Buying washable glue is on my to do list for tomorrow! Thanks for sharing
What a gorgeous collage Zoe! It really transformes your window and looks beautiful!
Wow indeed – it really does make a fantastic display!
Well, my kids aren’t that young any more but I’m still going to try getting them to do this, if only so I can do it really. Love it.
I think it would be a really cool thing to do with a class or group of kids at school – it would make such an impressive display in a classroom or classroom doorway, and lots of kids could get involved.
What a brilliant idea, but am I brave enough?