Yes, it's that time of year again. Now that Halloween has passed, it's time to indulge in all the treats. Turn the wrappers into art!
There are countless opportunities to embrace collage through use of Halloween candy wrappers. Let’s face it, if you’re a parent and you took your child trick or treating then you will certainly have plenty of candy wrappers around.
Materials:
- Flat candy wrappers (anything the opens flat into a rectangle, square, or circle)
- Glue stick
- Decoupage or gel medium
- Any size piece of cardboard or cardstock (your choice)
- Acrylic paint (colors that match or mirror the candy wrappers gathered)
- Paintbrushes
- Palette knife
- Small containers of water
- Newspaper to protect work surface
- Black sharpies
Instructions:
- Create a very blotchy and swirling pattern using the acrylic paints. Layer the colors so they mix, blend, and bleed together. Use thick layers, strokes, and textures along with thin layers.
- Add glue to the back of each candy wrapper before adding it to the painted piece. Affix the candy wrappers while the paint is still wet. The glue stick will add some extra hold to areas that may have already dried or are tacky to the touch.
- Layer more paint over the candy wrappers here and there. Do not cover the wrappers over completely unless you are looking for the type of texture that would come through from foil wrappers.
- Allow the piece to dry completely once all the layers of paint and candy wrappers have been added to the collage. Depending on how thick the layers of paint are, this could take up to twenty-four hours. You can speed drying time using a heat gun or hair dryer.
- Once the piece had dried completely add bold text using the black sharpies. Write journal entries, slogans, quotations, song lyrics, poetry, or whatever else inspires you while you are working on this piece.
- Seal the entire piece with glossy decoupage medium. Depending on how textured your collage is, this may take more than one coat. Do not touch the piece until it is completely dry, otherwise you will leave fingerprints and other blemishes on the collage.
Variations:
- Collage over an old serving tray that is too damaged (or ugly) to use for its original purpose.
- Collage over a scrape piece of wood, and then paint the edges black or brown to create a framed appearance.
- Shake on glitter or seed beads while the paint is still wet to add extra sparkle and dimension to the piece.
- Add clip art, Halloween or otherwise, in with the collage.
This is a great project to work on with children, but be sure to supervise to ensure collage and painting occurs on the art piece and not each other.
The copyright of the article Candy Wrapper Collages in Collage Art is owned by Jenn Greenleaf. Permission to republish Candy Wrapper Collages in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
