Eric Carle, author and illustrator of many books, passed away recently. May 23, 2021 – so today I’m adding to my series of art inspired by children’s illustrators by taking on Eric’s imagery and style for inspiration!
Supplies for this project are linked at the end of this post. Compensated affiliate links may be used at no cost to you.
Yesterday someone sent me video of Mr. Rogers visiting Eric Carle in his studio! It’s worth a few minutes :
I chose a favorite classic by Carle, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, as my inspiration! If it’s not in your library for reading to any littles who come to your house, you can rectify that. While I had no idea what his process was while creating my projects, I thought collage could work well.
Video 1: cards
On my main channel I created cards that are CAS (clean and simple) 4Bar size cards (5″ x 3.5″)….Watch the video below or click HERE to see it on YouTube.
Video 2: Bible journaling page
On my Bible journaling channel…the hungry caterpillar himself showed up! Watch the video below or click HERE to view it on YouTube.
Rainbow cards
These are 4Bar cards as I said – 5″ x 3.5″….I used the Rainbow Card die with the Better Days Ahead stamp set for the sentiment, and a nice purple ink for it. Embellishments were holepunched from the painted papers!
Sunshine Cards
Simpler cards! Just cut a semi-round circle, draw radiating lines with Glossy Accents or other liquid glue, and attach the rays! I used the same Bettr Days stamp set for the sentiment – and this time an orange ink.
Bible Journaling page
I decided to take a more direct route to Eric Carle’s work on this one – putting my clunky version of his caterpillar on my tip-in page! (A tip-in is a separate sheet inserted into the Bible; I squeezed a tiny line of glue into the inside of the book and slipped the trimmed page into it.)
Supplies
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- Eric Carle, The Very Hungry Caterpillar
- Rainbow Card Die by Julie Ebersole, Essentials by Ellen Designer Dies
- Better Days Ahead, Essentials by Ellen Clear Stamps
- Tomoe River Paper
- Acrylics (any color, brand)
- Old paint brush
- Scissors
- Gluestick or other glue
- Neenah Cardstock, Solar White: 25pk – 250pk
- Essential 4-Bar Rectangles, Essentials by Ellen Designer Dies
- Scotch Foam Mounting Tape
- Glossy Accents
LOVE this post! I’m a huge Eric Carle fan and I love how you were inspired by him
Inspired here. Thank you for sharing this technique. I loved the Mr. Rogers video with Eric Carle too.
The kids and I cannot wait to paint and collage/ die cut some fun shapes with our summer fun days.
A great tribute to a great man Sandy. I know Carle only from his The very hungry caterpillar book and I love that book.
Thank you so much for sharing your and his aweosme work and videos.
Stay safe and have a wonderful day.
What a wonderful tribute to Eric Carle! Your videos were so fun to watch, both you and Eric Carle have inspired me to play with my paints, and create something. Thank you!
What a wonderful tribute. I so enjoy watching videos of him creating his unique art. Love your cards and journaling.
Sandy your cards were super cute and I loved the Bible Journaling page.
These are delightful! The style is so reminiscent of Eric Carle with the bright, cheery colors. A 5 star project!!
What a great way to honor Eric Carle. Love how your cards turned out. Thanks for sharing this technique!
Yes, I remember Eric Carle’s books – part of my children’s childhood. But I’d never seen him – thanks for including the piece with Fred Rogers – another favorite. Love how your cards came out. Instead of “clean and simple”, I think we should call them “sweet and simple”!