Creating a Collage with a Preschooler (My Little Pony!) -

What did I do on our two “cold” days off school this week? Well, besides snuggling under the warm covers and working on some school work, my 4 year old and I made some canvas collages for her bedroom.

While I would not necessarily recommend this for a project in an art class, I see no problem introducing appropriation in the context of Pop Art. After all, Andy Warhol used cartoons in his famous art. I observed a really awesome high school lesson where the students recreated cartoons and imagery from pop culture in a grid format.

That being said, this was simply a fun project my daughter and I did together. She wanted some My Little Pony pictures in her bedroom and I thought this would be a fun project we could do together.

Four panels with colorful My Little Pony characters on a pink and sparkly background.

First, I gathered some canvases I had that either 1) were blank and I haven’t used yet or 2) paintings I started and realized I did not like how they were turning out.

Materials: canvases, Matte Medium, paint brush, brayer, children’s books & stickers, craft paint & rollers

Supplies for a preschooler's art project are laid out on a towel, featuring a canvas, paintbrush, Mod Podge, stickers, and My Little Pony packs. Ideal for creating a fun collage!

First, the two of us cut out pictures from some of her paperback pony books. I cut out some and she cut out some. Her little hands got tired after awhile. Do you see my dog in the background of the picture below? He is yearning for warmer weather.

A preschooler is seated, cutting paper with scissors over a colorful book featuring My Little Pony characters.

Next, we spread the Matte Medium on the canvas with a paint brush. She and I both arranged the pieces on the canvases.

A preschooler in a graphic t-shirt and pink pants is painting on a canvas with a brush while sitting on a mat.

She used a brayer to flatten the pieces and I used a credit card/my fingers to smooth out air bubbles. Then we painted more Matte Medium on top.

A preschooler wearing a "Pow!" shirt paints My Little Pony images on a canvas while sitting on the floor, creating a colorful collage.

After the decoupage was dry, we added pink and peach craft paint. I placed little dabber caps on top and the paint was easy to paint around the cartoons. She did a lot of the painting herself. If any paint got on top of the images, we wiped them off with a baby wipe. After this layer was dry, I splattered some watered down white paint on top in various places.