Paper Crafts

I initially thought that this is a good one mainly for younger children as it is easy for them to do and is also a great way to learn about some basic shapes. They can make a fish with the prepared shapes or cut out some of their own shapes. However our older children had a go and created some fantastic fish out of all sorts of shapes, and none of them were what I was expecting, they were far more exciting! It is sometimes worth while to try things with different ages and see what happens!

	Cut out lots of different shapes of paper.
	Arrange them until the fish you want swims into shape.
	Glue your fishy shapes down.

Add a bit drama to a simple crayoned picture with this technique. It is especially good for pictures in a dark setting like a night time scene, a forest or a space craft rocketing through space.

Draw and color in a picture with crayons. It is good to have some white paper left on the picture. Paint over the entire picture with a dark colored paint, and before it dries, wipe the paint off the crayoned sections. The crayon will resist the paint and it will wipe off easily while the paint is still wet. The paint will soak into the paper and make the crayoned parts stand out.

I could not resist another hand shape craft any longer! And with dragons a hot favorite in our household this was an irresistible paper craft.

All you need are some colorful paper hand shapes – add a head and a tail and you have a fanciful dragon. You can also add legs and more hand shapes – play around and make a family of them.

Try changing one element of the paper you offer to your children to create their artwork on. It is surprising how a simple change can alter their process and result.

In this case we have changed the color of the paper for the artwork, this makes even a simple picture a colorful artwork. I think that a display of these in all different colors on a school wall would look pretty fabulous!

Another similar example from a while ago that you may also want to try is Holey Paper for Children’s Art.

When I saw this idea I was a bit suspicious as it looked too effective for the simple steps – I thought it may have taken a long time or many practice runs to achieve this affect. But not so, it really is quite simple. Note that this is my attempt, not a child’s, but it is my first attempt.

	Pop your black paper in a box to protect the general surround from paint, or head outside. Then to make the milky way background – splatter some white paint onto a black piece of paper by flicking it on with an old toothbrush
	Start off your planets by drawing some circles on your paper and then use a rag or a piece of sponge to drag paint on in a curve. Use one color from one side and then use a different color from the other side. The colors will mix up a bit but that just adds to the effect.
	Then put this bit of paper in a box to contain the splatters, and splatter some contrasting colors onto the planets.
	Once everything is dry, cut out the planets and arrange them on the milky way for a very effective space scene. Now you just need a few space crafts or Martians.

This fabulously fishy picture was made with the crayon batik technique. The full steps for this art technique is at Paper and Crayon Batik.

In summary the steps are … - take a beautifully crayoned picture and screw it up - smooth it out reasonably flat again - brush on some watery paint or dye, something that will be resisted by the crayon - use a paper towel to soak up any excess paint or dye.