Collage Workshop for Kids: Painted Newspaper Row of Colorful Houses

A few years ago, I learned that there is an Eric Carle museum in Amherst, MA. It's been on my must-visit list ever since. Eric Carle is my favorite artist and the idea of an entire museum devoted to picture book art makes me so happy.

I received a promotional copy of the Carle Museum's Collage Workshop for Kids: Rip, Snip, Cut, and Create with Inspiration from The Eric Carle Museum (affiliate link here and below) and I love it so much. It's full of neat ideas for kids to make interesting collages. The projects use everyday materials in unique ways. I combined the ideas from two different workshops to create this collage featuring a row of colorful houses. I'm so happy with how it turned out!

Painted Newspaper Row of Colorful Houses

Materials:

• newspaper
• Folk Art paint - primary colors
• Frisbee
• paintbrush
• scissors
• light blue construction paper
• glue stick
• black colored pencil

Steps:

Add red, blue, and yellow paint to the Frisbee with a good amount of space between them. Add a small amount of water between each puddle of paint. (While you could use a regular paint palette for this project, I highly recommend a Frisbee. Not only for the reasons in this post, but because it contains the water much better than a palette.)

Use the paintbrush to draw some yellow paint into the water to thin it, then apply it to the newspaper. You want to be able to see the text through the paint, but there should be plenty of color. Do the same with the red paint, without cleaning the brush. Continue with the blue paint. This process will create orange, green, and purple. Paint each of these onto the newspaper. 

Mix and blend until you've made all the colors you want. So pretty!

I knew I wanted to make a row of colorful houses, so while the paint dried, I looked online for inspiration. The paint dried much more quickly than it took for me to look through all the beautiful photos!

Cut the colorful newspaper into rectangles. I kept all of the text running the length of the rectangles. Arrange them on the construction paper. 

When you are happy with the arrangement, glue them in place. I added a sliver of sun to the top right. Use the black colored pencil to add windows, doors, and other decorations to the buildings. 

This was such a fun project! If you have kids in your life, I highly recommend the Collage Workshop for Kids: Rip, Snip, Cut, and Create with Inspiration from The Eric Carle Museum.