Paper Crafts for Children

This example of papier mache is probably a bit of a big project for young children, but it is a great example of how durable papier mache can be.

I first made this hat over 15 years ago and between fancy dress outings for it, it is stored in our cold garage. It was a lot of fun to make, so I am really glad it has lasted this long – and it shows no sign of wearing out or coming apart yet. I go into some more detail about how to make this sort of item at my What is Papier Mache page. I enjoy both the process of making papier mache as well as the variety of things you can make, which is just about anything!

For the hats latest outing, I accompanied it with brushed hair and some spooky make-up – it was lots of fun!

We have always enjoyed making these. So special to give a card that you have made by hand and also uses flowers picked from your garden.

You do not need many flowers, even grasses and weeds can make a lovely picture. If you do not have a proper flower press, or if like me you have two but cannot find them, just press some flowers between some absorbent paper in a telephone book under a heavy box. We use cartridge paper for our absorbent paper. As soon as we finished pressing our flowers, I found the flower presses!

Cut up and fold some lightweight card to make some simple cards, and then carefully arrange the pressed flowers and glue them onto the card with just little bits of glue.

You can recycle cardboard rolls or tubes into so many fabulous paper crafts for children. We have used toilet paper rolls, but you can use any sort of cardboard roll, or even make your own by rolling up a piece of card.

	Cardboard Tube Reindeer Make a row of these cute little guys for a great seasonal decoration.
	Rattling Cardboard Tubes Get rattling and rolling with these.
	Cardboard Roll Sandcastles A great craft if it is summer in your part of the world, or you want to recall summer.
	Cardboard Tube Birdie Crafting with the children is very exciting when they start to make up their own crafts, like my daughter did with this.
	Cardboard Tube Telescope She also showed me how to make this craft too.
	Cardboard Roll Glasses I spy a fun craft here.
	Cardboard Roll and Hand Shape Spiders These very rare spiders are only found in boxes of craft materials.
	Paper Roll Fish These made a splash in our craft box!
	Cardboard Roll Penguin A cool cardboard craft
	Giant Spring Flower Use all sorts of paper items, including cardboard rolls, in this fab flower.
	Cardboard Construction Car Roll those cardboard rolls out for wheels too!
	Newspaper Tree A craft with extra recycling bonus – recycle some newspaper too.
	Toilet Paper Roll Butterfly. Can there be such a thing as too many butterfly crafts?
	Toilet Paper Roll Butterflies No, you cannot have too many butterfly crafts.

A craft that hides a lollypop inside it is going to be a winner with the kids.

	You need a square or circle of tissue big enough to ‘wrap’ the lollypop, and another couple of pieces about half that size. You also need some ribbon and wool – and don’t forget the lollypop.
	Drape the large tissue paper over the lollypop and then the small piece over that, tie a ribbon where the lolly connects to the stick to create the neck.
	Make some wings by tying a piece of tissue in the middle.
	Attach the wings, draw on a face and add some wool for hair. Now see how long the tug of war between retrieving the lollypop and preserving the creation takes!

We were doing a bit of crafting with paper, as we tend to do quite a bit around here, and the younger crafter decided to make something from a cardboard tube.

She based the idea for the beak on something she had seen before.

Although this tube is not painted, we both agreed that it would have looked even better if we had painted it or covered it with paper first.

Fold some paper to make the beak, and make the tail with a tab to attach it to the tube. Attach the wings so that they stick out to the side a little, and the eyes so that they sit above the edge of the tube. See the pictures to see exactly what to do.

She has also made another cool craft with recycled cardboard tubes, a cardboard tube telescope.