Paper Crafts

This craft can be adapted for all sorts of occasions but it suits a gratitude garland perfectly. It is a simple but thoughtful craft which requires no glue so can be done anywhere.

You need paper cut into strips, the paper can be patterned on one side but it needs to be plain on the other so that you can write on it. You also need a pen and small stickers.

On each of the strips of paper write one of the things you are grateful for.

Make a loop with the first strip and use a small sticker to secure the ends together.

Loop the next strip through the first and secure with a sticker.

Continue until all the strips of paper are used.

Both of these are super sweet and one is especially simple.

Hearts and garlands are just made to go together – the shape is so easy to cut out from the concertina folded paper. It was so easy I had to do another Valentine themed garland for you to try – this one involves a bit of planning, and although I usually cut first and plan later – this is still easy enough to work out really well.

Fold a strip of paper up until the front or face of it is about the right size for a picture. Draw on your picture making sure that the edges of the picture go on the edge of the paper.

Cut out the shape making sure you leave the edge of the picture not cut – you remember, that bit that is touching the edge of the paper. When you unfold your paper you will have a lovely row of hearts, unless you did some other shape – in which case it is entirely likely that you will have some row of shapes that are not hearts at all.

I love the way that the birds are kissing each other – perfect for a Valentine card.

This is a great paper craft for children to do independently, and to help them I have a Paper Garland Tutorial. For other garland ideas have a look at the Flower Paper Garland or the Halloween Garland ideas.

You only need thin strips of paper to make these heart shapes for hanging.

Another easy paper craft for children, and perfect for Valentines day decorations! You just need some string, a stapler and strips of paper – any width or length is fine – as long as you have two pieces the same length.

Tie a knot in one end of the string and staple it between two pieces of paper. I was trying to work out how to explain on which side you should place the knot, the best I can put it is to have the knot sitting on the edge of the paper – read the next step and hopefully it makes sense

Bend the two pieces of paper away from the staple and staple them together again where they meet as pictured. The heart will now hang from the string, as long as the knot is sitting on the correct side of the staple.

Make lots of these easy heart shapes and …

… use them to make a mobile for Valentines day.

I wanted to keep the craft as simple as possible, but if your children want to try another step, you can also make them with multiple strips of paper on each heart.

One of the super simple, stylish, and seasonally suitable paper crafts for children!

Now I have the urge for alliteration out of system – on with the craft. My daughter made this one at school over a year ago. I kept it (OK, I keep most crafts) as I was impressed with how great it looks, but also the amount of effort that she put into the decorating of the letters. These ones are photocopied, but you could as easily write them and decorate with felts, stickers and perhaps a small pile of glitter.

For some other festive crafts check out the Christmas Paper Crafts for Children list.

Once the letters are all decorated, cut them into individual squares and punch two holes at the top of each square. Thread some string back and forth between the holes and then you just need a superb spot to suspend your garland.

We took two of our recent paper crafts for children projects and combined them to make these very cool hanging Halloween garlands.

We started with the Halloween fold out garland craft bats, skulls, ghosts and some witches hats that had not looked so good in the fold out craft.

We introduced them to our hanging decorative garland and then blended both ideas.

To create the hanging garland from the fold out one, you need to cut your fold out creations into pairs, fold them so they are closed, you may need to fold some the other way so any decorations you have added are facing out. Cut some string and glue the pairs together with the string running in between them. Then hang them for all to admire and to duck under as they move about the place!

These are really very pretty – and pretty easy to make too.

Start with two or three different pieces of colored paper and cut some circles out of them. You only need two circles from each color, but the more you cut, the more garlands you can make. Fold all the circles in half, draw a half circle on each folded piece of paper and cut it out. On the smaller half circle, draw and cut out a half heart shape. Aim to end up with a series of folded shapes as pictured below. Unfold all the shapes. Spread glue on one shape and lay some string on it, lay a matching shape of a different color on top. Keep adding more shapes to the garland. You can decorate the shapes with glitter – but we quite liked it plain.