Collage Winter Scene — Extra Ordinary

Create your own winter scene out of construction paper!

To start this project you need to first bundle up and go for a nice winter stroll! While on your walk, take note of your surroundings. What do the buildings, trees, and streets look like? Do they have snow on them? What color are they? If you are able to take a picture of your discoveries make sure to take a few snaps — if not, take a mental picture! When you return from your walk, take a few moments to reflect on all your eyes just saw. Choose one winter scene from your walk that you would like to re-create. Once you have settled on your image, grab a few colored sheets of construction paper that match the colors of the buildings, trees, cars, etc. that are in your winter scene. For example, my image is of my family’s brown home and the snowy backyard so I am going to grab some brown and white construction paper and a few different colors for smaller details in my scene (such as orange for the light above the door). If you took pictures on your walk this is a good time to take a look at those images. Now you’re ready to get to work! With some scissors, or an X-acto knife, carefully cut out the components to your winter scene (a house, tree, bird, street, etc.). With all your landmarks cut out, start to place them together onto a single piece of construction paper. This foundational piece should the color of your background. My winter scene takes place in the late afternoon so my foundational piece of construction paper is white. Now, with a glue stick, glue your cut out images onto your paper and… tada! Your winter scene is complete.

Over this holiday season, my mom introduced me to one of her favorite childhood Christmas movies: “The House Without a Christmas Tree” directed by Paul Bogart in 1974. Almost instantly I understood why this movie was so beloved by my mom. Not only does it depict a very realistic, tough, family story, it is also filled with messages of friendship, kindness and the importance of understanding those around you. However, there is another amazing component to this movie that I found simply extraordinary — the collages. The movie begins with a collage portraying a lovely winter scene of a red house on a snowy lawn. Suddenly, the collage fades and we see a real, wooden red house on a snowy lawn that looks exactly as the collage. The film is filled with moments such as this; one minute we see the actors embracing after a heart-felt discussion and the next it is a construction paper model of just that. Norman Sunshine was the man behind these stunning images. Norman made these wonderful collages for all four movies in this series: The House Without a Christmas Tree(1972),The Thanksgiving Treasure(1973), The Easter Promise(1975), and Addie and the King of Hearts(1976). See images of his works in these films below as well as a clip of The House Without a Christmas Tree here.

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See images of Norman Sunshines collages as well as my winter scene below. Happy making!