Mosaic art goes way back to classical times, starting in Mesopotamia and becoming very big in Greece and Rome. Now it is more often seen on stepping stones in gardens and walkways, or on your kitchen backsplash. You often see mosaics made with stone, tile, or glass. An easy and safe material to teach children about mosaic art is stickers. Mosaics are so much fun to make with kids, but all the cutting, placing, gluing gets very tiring for the little ones, so they often lose speed and are ready to move on after a while. My solution to this problem is color- coding labels. What child doesn’t like stickers? I have a large sticker box in the Wee Warhols studio, but you won’t find princess or super hero stickers in it. I am a big fan of brightly-colored or black-and-white shapes in a variety of sizes. I usually buy my stickers at the office supply store, but Instocklabels.com is really where it’s at for a large supply and a huge selection. They sell 29 colors! Did I mention they come in metallic colors? (Excellent for art teachers — or any teacher, for that matter.) Stickers can be really useful in art, math, pattern-making…
So here is the inside scoop: You can order a roll of 1000 1/2” square stickers from Amazon.com for $7.99, or you can buy a bulk pack — single rolls of 1,000 in 16 colors — directly from InStockLabels.com for $57.50 or a single roll of 1,000 stickers in one color for $3.99. (Full disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate and get paid a small bit if you click on an Amazon link during your visit to my Blog and purchase something. I have no financial connection with InStockLabels.com, but I’m always looking for a good deal, and I imagine you are too.
So feel free to visit InStockLabels.com later, but click over to Amazon in blue and do ALL your holiday shopping early. Just kidding…kinda!)
Today in our Wee Warhols art camp we supplied the children with black paper and a variety of ½” square stickers in many colors. Of course they were free to do whatever they liked with the stickers, but Sarah showed the kids some photos of mosaics on her phone and discussed the idea behind them, how small pieces come together to create a picture. We got a variety of art. Some kids spelled their names, some had a more Mindcraft video game pixelated thing going on…but all were interesting and original.
Later when my boys got home, we played around with the idea even more. I drew the first letters of their names and they worked on the pieces. Baron suggested we make a moon, so we did that. The possibilities are endless.
Another InStockLabel.com project that I LOVE is making our own stickers. I bought 2” white round stickers from them and they are AMAZING! I love to have the children draw on the stickers using Sharpies and see what they come up with. I have always stayed away from scented markers, since I feel the scent may encourage the children to put them in their mouths, but how cool would it be to bring the scratch-and-sniff sticker back?! The children will need some scented markers to make scented stickers. Have fun making mosaics, patterns, designs, and scratch-and-sniff stickers! (And don’t forget to go shopping on Amazon!)
