Make Your Own Creature with Fabric and Paper Scraps

Little artists love digging into a big box of fabric scraps to find the perfect patterned piece that speaks to them.

A collage featuring colorful, patterned animal art and a book titled "Zigzag," created using paper scraps. Text reads "Make a Creature Collage.


We have an upcoming Fine Arts Night with the theme of Animals. We are calling it “Wild about the Arts”, which someone suggested in the Facebook art teachers group.  The 1st graders made these fun creature collages.

A collage of a peacock made from fabric scraps and cut-out peacock feathers, with a blue body and face, yellow and red eyes, and a triangular orange beak—perfect for your next creature craft project.

 First we read the book Zigzag by Robert Souci and looked at the illustrations of fabric dolls. The students made creature collages, either of real animals or imaginary creations.  They had a selection of fabric scraps, solid color paper scraps and animal print paper to choose from. Pieces were cut, assembled and glued on to a piece of paper.  Backgrounds could be added with paper scraps or markers.

A child's drawing of an animal, crafted with fabric scraps, features a beige body, purple tail, two googly eyes, and a black mouth against a brown grid-like background with blue and green corners and a sunflower.
Create your own creature: a paper giraffe with a tiger-striped neck, zebra-patterned body, and red legs on an orange background.
Create a mixed-media art project using fabric and paper scraps, and crayon drawings of a figure and abstract shapes.
A colorful collage of a cat on a blue background, made from various patterned paper shapes and fabric scraps. A fun DIY craft that encourages creativity and imagination.
A creature craft collage artwork of a cat with a pink leopard print body and green and purple striped legs, created from fabric scraps, on a purple background with a white and purple dotted border.
Collage artwork of a penguin made from cut paper shapes and paper scraps on a blue background, with white pieces above it, bordered by hand-drawn blue snowflakes and dots.
A colorful collage of a person with a patterned shirt, vibrant skirt, and textured background on yellow paper, incorporating fabric scraps for added detail.

After the students were finished, they filled out an artist statement sheet telling about their creatures.

A worksheet titled "Make Your Own Creature Collage" with spaces to write about a creature.

You can download the PDF version here:  MY CREATURE COLLAGE artist statement.

My daughter heard me talking about this project and she wanted to make up her own creature.  She is also in 1st grade.  She just wanted to draw her creature instead of making a collage.  I think her drawing is adorable.

A child’s drawing of a whimsical animal with wings, surrounded by squares adorned with fabric and paper scraps.
A child’s collage and handwritten description of an imaginary creature called a "Lulpa," made with paper scraps, which eats flowers and carries its baby in a pocket. The collage includes a bear with drawn wings and claws—make your own creature today!.

(I helped her write the words for her artist statement.  Some of it is her handwriting, some of it is mine.)  She really liked the idea of making her own creature and then also telling all about it by writing.

Have you ever used the book Zig Zag with your classes?

.

Discover more from Art is Basic | Elementary Art Projects

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

2 Comments

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.