Kid Craft - Tabletop Collage

I am often asked how I manage to work on Bok Bok B'Gerk stuff during the day when I have a toddler and a baby at home, so today I thought I would show you just one of the activities we do while I get some work done - The Table Top Collage:


I think this activity is only successful because I also sit at the table while I do my work. If I were working elsewhere in the house I think Corben would lose interest a lot quicker with each stage of the activity than he does.

Anyway, first you need to cover your entire kitchen table with brown paper. We are able to buy a 10 metre roll of brown paper for $1.80 at our local service station. We use sticky tape to secure the paper to the table:


I have a number of craft supplies ready to go, but we start with the most basic - crayons and coloured pencils. If I am lucky, I will get about 15 - 20 minutes of work done while Corben draws with these. Next we introduce the texta tin, which gives me a further 10 - 15 minutes. Today I was lucky and got a full hour of peace and quiet:


I find it is helpful if you don't have unrealistic expectations of how much work you want to achieve yourself. Today I was aiming to paint 20 pairs of earrings, which I completed easily:


Once the texta tin is no longer a source of excitement, we open up the chalk box and bring out the 'magic pencils' (watercolour pencils we dip into a bowl of water before drawing):


Usually by this time I am finished my planned work, so I join in too and we do some drawing with the oil pastels:


Followed by a bit of painting:


Then some pasting:


If we have visitors, they usually join in the fun too:


And by the end of 3 and a half hours, the table usually looks something like this:


We leave the collage there for a day or two and add to it, before we take it off and cut it up into smaller pieces to use as wrapping paper or to include in Corben's art book.

During all this the baby is usually asleep, or is hanging out by my feet:

Enjoy your weekend!