Paper Crafts

My darling husband is slightly challenged in the gift purchasing front but this time he got it right!

He went for a trip to Australia to visit family and came back with presents for us all. He didn’t try to get me perfume or clothes that I would not like, he bought me something I would use, a paper crafts for children related book! Just my thing … the Chicken Socks ‘Make your own Paper Flowers’ book. I think that these books are really great as they introduce not just paper crafts, but all sorts of activities, in a way that makes it so easy for the children (and this grown-up) to follow.

The technique it uses is on the rather basic side so it is probably not that fabulous for at home use. You could just follow the Tissue Paper Flowers Tutorial for a similar result. However it is brilliant if you are going to be traveling and want to bring out an activity that has everything already all sorted, nothing to cut, or glue!! It also has some fun add ons like stickers, tags, a doily holder and the watering can vase pictured. It would be a very safe gift for any little girl.

One change I suggest to the instructions is to roll the top of the pipe cleaner into a spiral and not to twist it around itself on the stem as pictured here. I found that when I twisted it around the stem it made it harder to push the petals up the pipe cleaner – not impossible, but I thought it could be frustrating for small fingers.

This decorative topper for a pencil ticks lots of paper crafts for children requirements!

It is quick and easy and the results are great. And although mess is an important part of arts and crafts with children, sometimes we need something that is no mess, and this craft is one of those. It is also a cheap way of making a useful little gift for someone. We have used paper already printed with a pattern for our flower pencil topper but to make it more personal you could use decorated paper from something like painting with balls or wheels or leaf printing.

I have made a flower pencil topper tutorial which shows all the steps, but in summary the steps are …
1. You need an oblong/rectangle piece of paper.
2. Fold it a few times and cut slits in it from one end almost all the way to the other end. Cut parallel to the fold lines but make sure you do not cut the fold lines.
3. Unfold and then wrap the paper around the pencil and tape in place. Pattern to the inside and cut bits at the top.
4. Bend down the cut bits of paper to open them up like a flower. If you want you can also roll some of the paper strips around a pencil to curl them.

For this speedy paper craft you need children’s hands to trace around, paper and scissors, tape, and chenille sticks or pipe cleaners to make the stem and stamen.

	The basis of these lilies are hand shapes. So the first step is to trace around a hand and cut the shape out.
	Roll the hand into a cone shape and tape it near the base. Leave a small hole at the bottom of the cone shape.
	Wrap each finger around a pen …
	… to curl the petals
	Twist the end of a green piece of pipe cleaner around the middle of a short piece of pipe cleaner. Fold that short piece up and curl over at each end.
	Push the pipe cleaner stalk through the lily to make the stalk and stamen.

To see these in red have a look at some other Hand Shape Lilies.
Download the printable version of the worksheet – PDF Worksheet – Hand Lilies.

This uses a couple of paper crafts for children, both much easier to make than they look.

I have used lots of fun paper crafts in this card. Like all my favorite crafts, this one is easy to make but still has ‘wow’ factor. It is made up of a few elements. The first thing you need a piece of card or heavyweight paper that you make the accordion pleats in. Make the pleats by first folding the card in half, and then folding it back and forth from each side, ending up with the pleats inside the card. The pleats do not need to be very big, but you can make them bigger than I have.

On my one I added a separate piece of card for the front and back, but you do not need to do this. I had to because I mucked up and used the wrong weight for the inside, it was too light weight to stand as a card, and also my flowers were poking out from the inside – whoops, but it looks great with my wee fix!

Then you just need something to attach to the pleats to pop-up when the card is opened. I had lots of little origami flowers that I had made that I needed to use – perfect! I made lots of flowers as they were also really easy and fun – if you want to make some of these check out the Origami Tulip Tutorial and Origami Stalk and Leaf Tutorial.

Something else I have done on this card that is effective and very easy to do, is to layer up a few shapes of decreasing size for putting the message on. It makes a big difference to the writing, it really frames it.

I found the idea for this card in a cool book by Sandi Genovese – Pop-Up Cards. I liked that it covers some basic concepts and shows lots of cool ways of using them. Some cards would be too tricky for kids to attempt on their own though. Templates at the back are supposed to be enlarged on a photocopier – I found them really useful as a guide for what I need to do but did not bother to copy them, that would be a pain.

Blooming Tissue Paper

This a fun paper crafts for children that grown ups love too! Great results really fast, and you can make so many variations, my kinda craft. I first did these as an activity at my daughters ‘crafty’ 7th birthday party – they were a huge hit. And even better, after a few simple instructions the party goers were all able to make them independently. I have started to get a little more creative with them and made some with fancy stamens and different types of petals. Any tissue paper shape that can be threaded onto the pipe cleaner is worth trying!

If you want to make these then have a look at the free step by step tutorial. Or download the free PDF Worksheet on how to make these – PDF Worksheet – Tissue Paper Flowers.
Also for a bit of fun, a speedy demo – Speedy Tissue Paper Flower Demonstration Movie

This is great for spring – check out other spring craft ideas.

My original idea came from the excellent book by Klutz; Tissue Paper Flowers. It makes it really easy to follow and has lots of ideas for uses.

The materials you need are just tissue paper and pipe cleaners. It is a ‘not very messy’ paper crafts for children – we need those sometimes!

	Cut various shapes from tissue paper. The shapes do not need to be neat.
	Roll one end of a pipe cleaner into a snug spiral.
	Start threading the pieces of tissue onto the pipe cleaner.
	Keep threading more pieces of tissues onto the pipe cleaner.
	Push all the tissue to the end and scrunch and shape the flower.
	Now make lots of flowers using different colors and shapes.

Download the printable version of the worksheet. Worksheet – Tissue Paper Flowers PDF.

See the super speedy demo Speedy Tissue Paper Flower Demo