Paper Crafts for Children

Bright and cheery flower brings the sunshine inside

Our garden is full of birds feasting on all sorts of seeds and berries. Yesterday I investigated why the children stayed sitting in the car when we got home. They had been watching some birds eating the sunflower seeds out of our big sunflowers. For us it is autumn and our sunflowers look sad but I leave them there for the birds and so they can drop seeds to grow again next year. However in summer they were gorgeous so we made some paper plate sunflowers to remind us of summer.

You need
- paper plate
- yellow and green paint
- sunflower seeds or tea leaves
- stick or strong card
- scissors, paintbrush and glue

	Paper plates are really useful for paper crafts for children, so when you see them in the shop make sure you buy some. This one is easy for children to craft and they look so dramatic when done. Start by painting your paper plate yellow and when the paint is dry trace around something to make circle in the middle.
	Cut from the edges to the circle to make the petals. Our paper plate had regular creases around the outside so I cut every second crease and it worked out just right. Gently fold the petals up a little so they separate out and bend in a bit. Strictly speaking, our petals are too long for a correct sunflower but we cut first and checked later – oh well!

Then glue whatever you are using for the seeds – you can use real sunflower seeds of course. The first example has real sunflower seeds, but we liked the second example better which has tea leaves – the contrast is more dramatic.

To make the stalk paint a stick or a strip of strong card green and glue to the back of the flower – then you and your children can bask in the sunshine of your craft.