Tissue Paper Collage Clown Craft For Purim!

This week's art lessons for kids was all about tissue paper collage. For five plus hours there were previously art deprived kids at my long dining room table creating all kinds of projects using tissue paper and watered-down glue for the first time in their lives! A great feeling and something I hope to do on an even larger scale, or at least encourage others to do as well.

The theme was to make a background with a collage of torn pieces of tissue paper, and then use that base to make either decorations or packaging for Purim. With the wonderful group of boys aging from 7 1/2 to 11 years old, we made some fun clowns with accordian folded limbs and bottle cap eyes.

I punched a hole in the top of the hat for hanging, and it was such a great feeling to see how proud they all were of their accomplishment. The boys arent' worried about what others are going to think, nor are they particular, so they just listen and get to work. Such a pleasure to give them something that is totally lacking in their schooling and yet so very important.

You'll Need:

  • round pieces of cardboard, (ours were saved from store bought pizza packaging)
  • tissue paper
  • white glue
  • card stock
  • bottle caps
  • a hot glue gun (optional)

How To:

  1. Dilute white glue with water so that it is on the runny side. Tear pieces of tissue paper, apply glue to small area apply piece of tissue paper and go over it again with a brush dipped in glue solution. Cover entire surface with tissue paper. Encourage a random collage, the stripes do look cute, but it's quit difficult to do for kids as the tissue paper is fragile.
  2. Set aside tissue paper collage to dry somewhat, or do this as a two step project. These clowns took the boys anywhere from roughly 1 hour to 1 3/4 hours to make depending on their skills.
  3. Make clown hats or any kind of funny hat with card stock, and decorate the hat.
  4. With strips of card stock, make accordion folded legs and arms, or give the kids an option to make arms and legs however they wish. To make longer accordion folded limbs you'll have to staple strips of letter sized paper together. (We'll do that for another project in the future.)
  5. Cut eyes, nose mouth from card stock or even felt if you have some on hand.
  6. Assemble all the pieces, with glue, or if pressed for time, help each boy by gluing with a hot glue gun. I didn't let anyone use the hot glue gun, it's too dangerous for most kids this age. For accordion folded limbs you may need to make a little cardboard bracket. Glue one side of the bracket to the back of the circle, and the second one to the accordion.
  7. Punch a hole in the top of the hat and provide string or ribbon for hanging.
  8. Wait for all the mothers of said boys to tell you wonderful stories of how happy the boys were when they came home. One mother even said that her boys slept better that night at they were so relaxed and fulfilled! Wow.
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