Paper Crafts

I love making costumes, just as long as I can create them quickly and easily – and for this costume I had some very speedy short-cuts to my water monster outfit. The secret is out now, so I can finally share some ideas for using paper to make this costume. The secret was that I was a surprise guest at a great friends birthday party – I was unexpected as I had to travel from New Zealand to Australia to go to the party.

There are three main elements to this costume, the first is the basis of green clothes with lots of ragged scraps of green fabric pinned to the clothes and clipped in my hair.

The second element is the mask. The easiest way to make one of these is to start with an old or cheap plastic mask. The one I used was both of those! It was very thin and split plastic – but it had the perfect shape. I trimmed off some off the bottom of the mask as I don’t like them going way down past my chin, they get too hot and stuffy. I also made the eyes bigger and shaped them.

Then I covered the plastic with a few layers of newsprint.

The final layer was green paper, you can use white paper and then paint it the colour you want – but I used green because I had it and I like short-cuts. I then painted my designs on and tied some elastic to make it fit.

The third element and the one that excited me the most because it is just soooo easy and quick, were my flipper style hands and feet. To make these you just cut the shape you want out of some card – making sure that the shape has wrists and ankles on them. On these wrist and ankle sections cut slits so that you can thread either elastic or fabric through to tie them on to your wrists and ankles. Decorate them if you wish, I painted patterns on mine to tie them in with the mask.

Walking with the flippers on is entertaining as you have to lift your feet up each time, but that is part of the fun. I loved that I could hold a glass quite easily with my hand flippers as the hands were free underneath – I did have problems picking up some cake and made a small mess – but that was OK, I just threw the flippers out at the end of the night, as they were so easy to make.

A perfect time to re-issue this paper craft – first made a year ago!

Borrowing a line from the Cat in the Hat movie, but relating it to papier mache instead of cupcakes … “You can make anything …” out of papier mache. Not sure if that is the exact line but it is something like that. And I love any excuse to make something using one of my favorite paper crafts. To celebrate the queens birthday holiday weekend, we crafted a crown out of papier mache. A crown is a classic essential for the dress up box and to crown it off, papier mache is a classic paper craft for children! The resulting crown is very cheap to make and it is surprisingly sturdy.

	We used a papier mache pulp on a cardboard base and left it to dry for ages.
	Then we painted it with white paint to make an even base. Then painting it which is brings it to life and is my second favorite step! The best step is having hands in the goopy papier mache pulp when creating the shape.

We were so pleased with our crown we made an exact replica and sent one to the queen of England. We thought that all those heavy crowns that she has to wear would be such a nuisance, and she is such a lovely lady that we wanted to help ease her load. She of course was very nice about our gift and sat for special photo with it. For her next birthday I think that we need to make her some matching earrings!

To learn some more about this paper craft for children have a look at What is Papier Mache?

We started off crafting up one thing from our left over egg cartons, but instead we followed where the materials wanted to lead us and ended up with something else altogether.

When doing paper crafts with children a lot of the value is in the experimentation. Taking an activity and adding your own ideas to it is fun for all of us. In this activity we started off planning to make a fish, but as we worked with the bits of egg carton, it seemed to want to be made into a rocket. So we decided to make both.

The first step is to cut up and glue your bits of egg carton together. I do not know if our egg cartons are too uneven in shape, or if I am just a bit too rough and ready with my cutting – but I thought that this first step would be a bit fiddly for younger children to do by themselves.

Glue on extra bits for fins or wings. We used some holes we already had in our shapes and extended them into slits which held the bits of card we were attaching for the fish. For the rocket we made flaps which we glued on to attach the wings.

As ours were a bit wobbly and fragile I glued a few strips of newspaper on to hold everything in place and strengthen them.

Then the fun bit, painting the models. We had three generations working on our painting. My mother was staying with us so all of us girls did a bit of painting. I am not sure what we will do with the fish, but the rocket is a perfect toy to go with some little moon men we have.

Make someones day by crafting up a totally cool pen for them.

I love paper crafts for children that involve their own creativity in making a gift for someone special. You may need to get them to make a few of these pens as they will want to keep one for themselves.

This idea was inspired by painted sticks at Creative Jewish Mom’s blog. When I saw them I thought that I would love to be able to use them to write and draw with.

We created our own sticks by wrapping some pens with papier mache. We tore up some newspaper into little strips and used wallpaper paste to glue the paper onto the pens. Of course you need to make sure that the pen is clicked on before you start! To create the shape on the pen with the ball at the end we also folded and squished some paper and attached it with more strips of paper and paste.

Then it was just a matter of waiting till they dried, hiding them in a bag of other projects, finding them again, burying them under a pile of decorated paper, uncovering them, sitting them on the coffee table for a week, and them painting them. An extension is to then decide that you do not like one of them and paint over the top of it with white paint – them repeat from the beginning of this paragraph.

Use this craft to recycle your old paper into something new.

Papier Mache is one of the most versatile recycling paper crafts for children and for grown-ups – you can make just about anything. I have even seen furniture referenced in papier mache books I have read, but we keep to smaller, faster items.

Before we made this pencil holder for my daughters school desk we had an empty tin and a pile of newspapers. We made some papier mache pulp – instructions on how to make the pulp here. We taped on some pointy shapes at the top and then we covered it with the papier mache pulp. As the pulp dried it shrunk and curled the pointy bits back a bit which we thought looked really good. We painted it with some bold stripes but thought it needed something else and added the jewels – a very regal result!

If you want to learn some more about Papier Mache, you may want to read my article – ‘What is Papier Mache?‘

All you need for this super cheap craft is newspaper, wallpaper paste or white glue, scrap cardboard and some paints.

	Fill a bowl or bucket with torn bits of newspaper. Cover the paper with warm water and leave to soak for 24 hours.
	Pour off the water and slowly mix in wallpaper paste or white glue until the mixture feels like dough or soft clay. It is now ready to use.
	To make a small shape like a fridge magnet or brooch, cut a shape out of cardboard.
	Shape the pulp onto the cardboard.
	Leave the shapes to dry. Depending how thick the pulp is, this can take a few days.
	Paint a layer of white paint onto the shapes to make a plain background.
	Finish with lots of bright paints and fun designs.

Download the printable version of the worksheet – PDF Worksheet – Papier Mache Pulp

For more information about Papier Mache, check out my What is Papier Mache? article.