Collage a photograph and paint an imaginary world on plexiglass in this fun and creative mixed media art project for kids by Catalina Gutierrez of Redviolet Studio.
Updated February 2025
I love to spark children’s imagination with a book before we start an activity.
The book that inspired this fun activity is A World of Your Own by Laura Carlin, an amazing children’s book that I love. The beautiful illustrations are captivating as well as the magical story behind it.
It narrates the life of a child who imagines a world of her own. In this world, houses are off the ground, factories are the shape of whatever they make (for instance a pencil factory is the shape of a pencil), passengers sit on top of trains, and so on.
After reading this book, we got into a really fun conversation that started from one question: “What would a world of your own look like?” As you can imagine the children were on a roll!
Anything from faucets running with chocolate instead of water, unicorns as pets, rainbow trees, living in a jungle surrounded by wild animals, eating popsicles for breakfast and ice cream for dinner…
You don’t have to have the book to get the kids into the fun of it. You can talk about what your own ideal world would look like. Then have kids to think about what theirs would look like and portray these ideas on the plexiglass.
How to Create Mixed Media Art for Kids
MATERIALS
- Paint markers or acrylic paint
- If using acrylics instead of paint markers, you will need a palette, brushes and jar with water.
- Black Sharpies
- Clear plexiglass sheet or any photo frame with plexiglass
- B&W photo of the child
- Contact paper
- Stickers (optional)
- Print photo
Begin by printing out a black and white photo of the child. Cut around the edge of the photo. Add clear contact paper to the back of it (sticky side up). Leave a border of contact paper and use it to stick the photo to the back of the plexiglass.
- Draw outlines on plexiglass
Give each child a sheet of plexiglass with his/her picture stuck to the back of it. Invite them to start creating their Dream World around their photo using black Sharpies.
Talk about outlines, and let them know this is just the first step and that they will be filling in their drawings with paint markers.
- Paint the dream world
Bring out the paint markers and encourage them to cover the whole surface, except for the part that has their photo, adding even more details to their Dream Worlds.
Note: If you want to use acrylics instead of paint markers, they work great too. We did both and loved them.
- Add stickers
Finally, bring out any fun stickers you may have around. Animals, insects, fairies, flowers, geometrical shape–anything works!
Invite the children to add any stickers they want to include in their Dream Worlds.
As your kids work, you can ask questions about their worlds to engage them even more:
- Which animals live there?
- Is it cold?
- Are there trees?
- Does your world have flowers?
- How about insects?
- What do people eat?
Once your mixed media dream worlds are done, let them dry and display them in a special place!
We really enjoyed this mixed media art for kids activity! I hope you enjoy it just as much!
More Mixed Media Projects for Kids
- Fun Mixed Media Collage Portraits for Kids
- Mixed Media Collage for Kids
- How to Make Picasso Collages for Kids
- How to Paint a Watercolor Geode
- How to Create Monochrome Paintings
- How to Draw Abstract Self Portraits
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