Use a tissue paper mosaic cutout to make holiday decorations.
Paper mosaics are a colorful but easy paper craft to do with children. They are fun for kids from the time they can hold a glue stick through elementary school years. Help your child make beautiful mosaics at home with commonplace household items.
Supplies
The necessary elements of paper mosaics are few: paper, scissors and glue. If your child is a preschooler, use construction paper, and cut it up for her into pieces that are at least an inch long. (If they're smaller than that, she may not have the fine motor control to grab them properly.) An older child can use tissue paper and cut her own pieces, if she has the patience. Glue sticks work better than school glue, because there are no drips or unsightly lumps left after the mosaic dries. The type of paper you use for a base will vary with the type of project; again, construction paper works best for younger kids who handle supplies roughly, but plain white paper is fine for older kids.
Project Ideas
If your child is very young (say, 2 or 3 years old), she can make an abstract paper mosaic. Give her a pile of shapes cut out of colored construction paper, and let her make any designs she wants. You can even use this craft activity to review the names of shapes and colors as she uses them, or teach her about color patterns.
For a slightly older child, have her glue small construction paper squares onto her paper to form shapes or patterns. She can make a mosaic picture of a tree, a house, animals, or anything else she can think of. If your child wants help, draw an outline of the shape and she can choose the colors to glue onto the paper to fill it in.
If you have an older school-age child who can wield scissors properly and not tear fragile paper, help her make a tissue-paper mosaic cutout. Have her cut or tear various colors of tissue paper into small irregular pieces, and lay them on the sticky side of clear contact paper. This will allow the light to shine through. Give her a heavy piece of white paper to cut out a design. It can be a simple shape like a flower, words, or a geometric or swirly pattern. Then take the white paper and stick the contact paper to the back of it. You will be able to see the multi-colored mosaic through the cutout spaces in the design.
Uses
Some children like to make art for the pure joy of creating something beautiful; others want their efforts to have a practical use. For the latter, themed paper mosaics make wonderful holiday decorations. Kids can make birthday cards out of paper mosaics, too, especially if they are too young to write.
Tags: construction paper, your child, paper mosaics, tissue paper, white paper, contact paper
