Making a foil collage is a simple process art activity that kids of all ages will love.
Using basic art supplies, kids can make this gorgeous, sparkly piece of art work!
Foil is one of our favourite art mediums. It’s cheap, easy to find, sparkly, reflective and really cool!
We’ve painted on foil, drawn on foil, finger painted on foil, we’ve even made Christmas decorations out of foil…and this morning, we finally got around to doing foil collage.
How to Make a Foil Collage
You only need a few basic art supplies to make this shiney, sparkly foil collage art.
To make a foil collage you’ll need:
- Glue – we used PVA craft glue with a little water.
- Container for your glue.
- Brush – for little hands use a nice big fat brush.
- Scraps of tissue paper, ribbon, sequins, glitter – anything you have lying around.
- Foil
- Tape (optional)
We used coloured tissue paper (recycled from gift wrapping) and some sequins to make our foil collage colourful and extra sparkly, but you can use any collage materials you have on hand.
PVA (White school glue or wood glue) with quite a bit of water added is a good glue to use for this art project. It’s easy to brush on to the delicate foil (a glue stick will tear the foil) and when it dries it’s strong enough to hold the sequins in place.
How to Make Foil Collage Art
To get started I taped a sheet of foil to a tray so that it wouldn’t slip around and frustrate my three year old. You could tape it to the table, or a sheet of paper or cardboard, or skip this step for older kids.
Now it’s just a matter of brushing on some glue, and adding your collage materials wherever you want them to go.
Little hands will find a nice thick brush and large collage materials easier to use, but older kids can manage smaller items and and small brush to make diner details.
We saved the tissue paper from gift wrapping and it’s the perfect paper to use for this activity as it is light and fluttery just like the foil. It also looks lovely when the colours overlap and you can even a little shimmery shine from the foil underneath.
This is a simple art activity that requires little set up and not much clean up either. Foil collage is the perfect quick and easy art activity for kids, and their tired parents!
More Easy Art for Kids
Doing art with your kids doesn’t have to be difficult, or something you dread. Choose an easy, process art project (one that is all about the creating, and not about the finished product), that is appropriate for the age and stage of your child , and join in with them and have some fun creating together!
If your kids loved this easy foil collage art project, they might also like one of these easy art projects for kids:
Your son has made lovely use of the space in this piece
he’s usually a ‘glue it all in one big clump’ kinda guy so I was surprised that he covered the whole foil this time… I think he like watching the glue go onto the foil!
i love foil!!! makes for a fun morning!
Oh, it DOES look all sparkly and shiny!
I love the photos of your little man at work..always such concentration! A great activity and easy to organise too!
Neat idea, and very pretty!
Lovely. We recently did a tissue paper collage but on canvas and really enjoyed it. Great idea to continue the fun and see the difference by doing one on foil. Thanks for sharing :)
This is really beautiful. We’ve tried al foil a couple of times but the littles were too heave handed and it soon ripped :( Jack is more steady in his movements now so might be time to give it another try.
This looks great! I have stacks of little squares of tissue paper left over from another project waiting patiently to be used up – this looks perfect.
What an adorable piece. I love that this is an activity for little fingers. I’ve pinned this one many times.
We always love your foil ideas
What a fun idea!!! I often struggle to find projects my 2 year old will enjoy and not get too frustrated with but this looks like it would be perfect for him!
This is so bright and lovely. Mr 5 is into collage in a big way so he will love this. I can see this happening tomorrow during “witching hour” so I might actually get the dinner made in peace!
What a great activity, my girls would love pasting onto a reflective surface like that! I also love your little man’s art apron, did you make it? It’s so adorable!
My Mum made the apron – we have a heap of them as they are designed specifically so the kids can get them on and off themselves and are super useful. We used this pattern as our starting point – http://sewliberated.typepad.com/sew_liberated/2009/01/childs-apron-pattern-and-other-free-tutorials.html
This is such a great idea! We use tin foil for painting and as a prop in our block area, but I never thought to combine it with tissue paper collage. Fantastic! Can’t wait to try!
I love the idea and the bright and cheery results! I’ll be featuring it on The Crafty Crow!
I like the collage idea – been looking at other crafts and i’ve also seen designs with contact paper – skip the glue all together which i like for easier cleanup!
I think this is just great! I also love that children can use a paintbrush to paint the glue on, as this makes it less sticky, especially for little kids! Thanks for the wonderful idea! Pinned and shared!