Raid your craft cupboard or kitchen for materials and lets make this easy polar bear collage craft!
Using our free polar bear template this simple activity is perfect for arctic animal crafts or as an easy winter craft and with using up old materials and scrap paper you can also use it as an excuse to talk about the environment too.
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Polar Bear Collage Craft
I love polar bears, I think they’re one of those animals that genuinely appeal to everyone and they’re perfect for making winter animal crafts or arctic animal crafts.
Because winter can be an expensive month for lots of us I wanted to keep this activity as cheap as possible. It’s made using one of our free templates and all the materials I’ve used are ones that I found around my home to represent snow, icebergs, water and ice.
I’ll also be sharing some ideas for alternative materials that you could use in case you need a little extra inspiration.
Free Polar Bear Printable
For this craft I’ve used our adorable polar bear template. There are two slightly different designs so you can choose the one that suits you best and of course you can print as many copies as you need.
Polar Bear Craft Materials
- Polar bear printable template
- Colored card
- Glue stick or PVA glue
- Scissors
- Scrap paper
- Foil
- Cotton balls
How To Make Your Polar Bear Collage
Start by printing out your polar bear template. You’ll need some colored card to stick it on but the size that you choose is up to you, mine is quite large because that’s what I had available but go with whatever you have. Any shade of blue would be good for this.
Next carefully cut the picture out using scissors. I’ve cut quite close to the image but if I’m doing a craft like this with my kids then I generally recommend that they leave a bit of a margin around the picture to make it easier for them to cut.
I started this collage by adding some foil which I found in my kitchen. It’s a really nice material for adding a bit of texture as it doesn’t matter if it’s a little crumpled (or a lot crumpled), it’s easy for kids to tear and I also found that it was more shiny on one side than the other.
Tear a few strips and glue these onto your colored card.
My next material was colored paper, I’ve used two different shades of blue here both of which were scrap paper. If you don’t have any blue paper then scrap white paper or white construction paper would also work really well or you could try one of the alternatives I’ve listed below.
I’ve also added some lined paper which was also some scrap that I found in our recycling box and which is just another way to add a bit more different materials to your collage. If you have a recycling box then I really recommend having a look through it to see what you can find!
With both the foil and the paper if you have some hanging over the edge of your picture you can bend this around the card to give a smoother edge.
To make a snowy texture I unrolled some cotton balls and glued these onto the collage. You could also put these on unrolled if you prefer.
Finally glue your polar bear template onto the collage to put him into his arctic scene. If you are making this with younger children you might want to glue the polar bear onto your picture before you add the cotton balls (so it doesn’t all end up underneath) but that’s really one for personal preference!
Alternative Materials
Newspaper – you could also paint this using watercolours
Bubble wrap – this could also be painted if you wish
Magazines
Construction paper
Q-tips – not to be stuck on as such but you could dip these into white paint and then dab them onto your picture to make snowflakes
Corrugated card
More Polar Bear Crafts
we’ve made a lot of polar bear crafts over the years and these are some of our favourites that you might like to try too.
This paper plate polar bear craft is one I made with my kids when one of them was six and the other one was three. The gluing part is super easy making this suitable for preschoolers or toddlers too with some help from a adult.
Make some simple artwork with this polar bear craft that’s super popular!
This paper bag polar bear craft has two designs so you can adapt it to your child’s abilities. It also makes a great DIY puppet to play with!
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