Come August we will have been in our new house for a year, and though we’ve definitely ‘settled in’, our house is still a little stark. We still have a few key pieces to purchase, but the biggest part of part of it? There’s really nothing on the walls. I figure it will eventually come together and while I have a few different ideas for this tall bare wall on our landing {instagram wall? low profile book case?}, in the meantime we’ve been using it for all kinds of vertical projects and play. This giant sticky collage was a total hit with both kids {and that’s no small feat when they’re 5 and a half years apart!} and was added to each day for about a week and a half.
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The best part is that so long as you have these three items – contact paper {CAN}, wide painter’s tape {CAN}, and scissors – you can pretty much make this project happen with random loose items from around the house. No need to buy anything new!
Now a word on contact paper… You can find this stuff at office supply shops, but many dollar stores carry it too. lt’s usually in the kitchen aisle with the other drawer liners and no slip grip rolls. For this project, we used two full rolls of the clear contact paper that Dollar Tree stocks.
Alright, so here’s the trickiest part of this activity… Getting the contact paper {CAN} up onto the wall. Not going to lie – it can be a bit frustrating at first. We’ve been doing contact paper activities since Miss G was wee and I kind of have my method down now, thankfully.
First off – don’t attempt this while you have little ones who desperately want to get to the playing part of the activity around. Still, even now, I put our contact paper up during nap time or at night when Sam is in bed. It’s just easier that way.
Second – roll your length of contact paper out on a table and fold back just a couple of inches of the paper backing along the length that you’re going to tape. This will reveal the sticky side {which of course you’re going to want facing outwards on your wall}.
Third – while still at the table, run a length of painter’s tape along that edge, adhering half of the tape’s width to the contact paper and leaving the other half to adhere to your wall.
Fourth – stick the contact paper up onto the wall, keeping it as straight and flat as possible and then gently peel off the paper backing.
Now if you’re going to do a GIANT sticky collage wall using two strips of contact paper like we did, prep the second strip of contact paper the same way – the only difference is that the taped edge is going to be the bottom side of the collage wall. Then, holding the non-taped edge of the contact paper strip {paper backing still on of course}, place it onto the first piece of contact paper so they’re overlapped a couple of inches. I sort of pat it into place to make sure they’re stuck together well before gently tugging downwards and adhering that bottom strip of tape onto the wall. The goal is to have it as flat as possible, I never seem to get mine *perfectly* flat and it really doesn’t matter.
Last step – add painter’s tape {CAN} along each vertical side to complete your sticky canvas.
Now for the fun part… Collecting your loose parts! Basically anything goes here – no need to buy anything new unless you truly have a house free of any little junky bits / craft supplies. Most all of our stuff comes from our craft drawers, but also look in your junk drawer. Things like bits of string, twist ties, bread ties, and scraps of packaging work well! You can also cut pictures out of your weekly flyers – they’re basically like stickers when paired with a sticky collage wall and bonus: get the kiddos to cut out their favourites for some added scissor practice!
Here’s what I originally set out with our giant sticky collage:
- coloured wooden matchsticks {CAN}
- craft feathers {CAN}
- flower acrylic gems {CAN}
- googly eyes {CAN}
- pompoms (these tend to stick for a short while and then fall off) {CAN}
- sequins {CAN}
But again, go with whatever you have on hand.
Then with the giant sticky collage wall set up and the loose parts collected, I left it for Sam to discover after his nap. {Of course there’s really no missing something of this size!}
He stuck up a couple of little parts {talk about an awesome fine motor skill workout} and was pleased as punch about the whole thing.
We had to run off to grab Miss G from school {yup, with Sam in robot jammies}, but as soon as we returned home, it was back to the sticky wall.
He was soooo excited to show his big sis!
What I love about open-ended invitations like this one is that kids always seem to add their own spin on them given some time and space. And honestly, most of the time their ideas are better than mine! After Sam had lost interest and moved onto something else, Miss G asked to bring out our giant ball of multi-coloured yarn and I just think it was such a neat idea.
Now here’s my secret to making the interest for invitations to play or create like this one last as long as possible… Add a few new things each day or two! So in this case, I’d make sure the landing was tidy (I’ve totally noticed that my kids don’t gravitate to spaces that are scattered and a mess), then I’d add a few new things into the loose parts tray to keep interest high.
Over the course of the week, I added:
- different types of acrylic gems {CAN}
- bits of colourful plastic straws
- foam shapes {CAN}
- sushi grass
- lolly sticks {CAN}
- and whatever else I found around the house that I thought would be neat
This is what our giant sticky collage wall looked like several days in…
Sort of chaotically beautiful, isn’t it?
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This creative table set up had a good long run in our house… It’s been worked on day in and out for over a week now, and I’m sure Gracen would still be adding to it if there was any sticky space left on the contact paper. 
When it began, it looked like this… A piece of clear contact paper, sticky side up, tacked down to one of our vintage apple crates (it could just as easily be taped down to a table top), and a few little jars of decorating goodies, as Miss G calls them.
Included were sequins, confetti, tissue squares, and a container of glitter.
Although I often set up Gracen’s creative tables while she’s sleeping, this time around she helped me set up, selecting the glitter (of course) and the sequins to be part of it.
When we’d finished gather our materials, she began creating without direction or instruction… Carefully adding each item, one at a time, and pressing them down onto the sticky paper.
The lovely thing about contact paper is that because everything sticks to it, projects (even when they include a full bottle of glitter) never get wildly messy.
Grae revisited it daily, adding a little bit each time, until today when we decided it was time to switch things up a little.
Now we could have easily called it quits at this point, because art like this is definitely about the process and not the finished product, but Grae had announced early on that she would be hanging her finished piece on her bedroom door. In order to preserve it a little better, we took out our contact paper once again and cut a piece the same size as the original one.
I then peeled the backing off of just the top edge of the new sheet, carefully lined it up with the art piece, and pressed the two sheets, sticky sides together, down. Afterwards, I pulled the remaining backing off in order to cover the entire piece.
Here’s what it looked like with everything sealed in. We could have left it as is, but Gracen chose to cut it into two hearts rather than keep it as one large rectangle.
Here’s the finished product. She very proudly hung it on her 
