Paper
Craft Projects for Kids - Page 1
Journal Craft
Even young children (preschool) that can't write yet enjoy
these books. Danielle pretends she is writing by making wavy lines.
These make great Sunday school projects for older children.
 What
you will need: fabric,decorated construction paper, or wall
paper samples, string to bind the book, feathers, beads, sticks,
etc. to decorate the book, typing paper, poster board, hole punch,
and tacky glue.
What
to do:
1. Decide
what size journal you want to make. A half a sheet of typing paper
or a quarter sheet of typing paper is a good size. You can
recycle used paper by using the back side of the paper. Cut
up the paper to desired size and punch holes in one side where
you want to bind the book.
2. Decide
what you want to use for a cover. You can decorate a sheet of construction
paper. Collect natural items such as leaves, pine needles,
and seeds. Dip them in different colors of paint and press them
onto the paper to make an imprint. If the items are too thin
to hold, glue them on wood blocks to make a stamp and then dip them
in paint. If you put your paint ona folded up paper towel
on a dish, sometimes that makes it easier to cover the whole stamp.
3. Cut
a piece of poster board for the cover to fit over your paper
so that it is about 1/4" bigger on the 3 unfolded sides.
4. Fold
your cover material in half and cut it at least 1" bigger
than the poster board on all three unfolded sides so that
you will be able to fold it over the poster board. Glue the cover
material onto the poster board. Fold over the edges and glue
them down.
5. Now
cut another piece of paper to cover the inside of the cover
and glue it in place. Punch holes in the cover to match the
holes you punched in the papers.
6. Now
you are ready to bind the book. You can use string, leatherstrips,
or any thing you have available. Decorate the binding with
beads, feathers or other natural items. You can tie a bead
onto the front cover and glue a loop of braided string onto the
back cover so that when you close the book you can bring the
loop around to hold onto the bead to keep your journal closed.
You can also glue a long braided string onto the inside top cover
to use as a book mark.
Rainbow
Pattern Book
 This ideas comes from a first grade teacher, Patty
Ligas, who got the idea from Paula Chung of California. This
is a very easy book to read by young children. It is called
a "pattern" book. The sentences are all one pattern
with only a word or two changed and the change is seen in the picture.
This project is great for preschool children and homeschool.
What
you will need: Six colored pieces of construction paper:
red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple in that order. Stapler,
scissors, markers, or computer printer. (I used a half a sheet
each to make the book, and it came out very nice).
What
to do:
1. Make
a rainbow pattern by folding a piece of construction paper
in half the long way and opening it up. (We call that a "hot
dog" fold as opposed to the "hamburger" fold
the other way.) Round off the corners of the top half of the
paper to form an arch.
2. Use
the pattern to cut all six papers.
3. Cascaded
the papers about an 1/2 or less apart with red at the highest
point. This makes the rainbow. Staple the pieceson the
RIGHT side two times. Turn the papers over (now the staples
are on the left) and staple again.
4. Cut
off all the pieces at the bottom edge so that only one color
shows per page. You can staple two more pieces on for the
covers.
5. On
the inside first page hand print or use the computer to make
a sentence strip saying, "I can see red." When making
books for young children, use a large font size (24 or bigger)
and space three or four spaces between words to make it easier
for them to read. Look for fonts that are shaped simply not
fancy. On each page, put "I can see _____." On the
back side of the purple, put "I can see a rainbow."
(I added a white paper to the back cut the same shape). To
make this a Bible lesson related craft, instead of putting
"I can see ____." Put Thank you, God, for
____". and on the last page put, "Thank you, God,
for the Rainbow. When we see it up above, we are reminded
of your love." Or something like that. If you use a title
page, you can put "We thank God for colors".
Paper
Bag Backpack Craft
 Preschool children love this project and it is a great way to
recycle your grocery bags.
What
you will need: Three brown paper bags foreach backpack,
buckles, glue, paint.
What
to do:
1. If
you have the longer type bag, cut one paper bag to measure
14 inches high. Insert the 14 inch bag inside another paper bag.
Cut slits on the four top corners of the outside bag to make
flaps. Fold the flaps to the inside of the bags so that you cover
the top of the first bag. Glue the flaps down. Now you have a
double bag measuring 14" high. If you have the 14"
high bags, just insert one inside the other and glue them together
at the top.
2. To
make the front flap of the backpack, cut a piece from the
third bag that measures 14" x 14". Fold the bag on
the dotted lines as indicated on pattern and then glue the sides together. Glue the flap to the top of
the bag so that it overlaps the bag 2" as indicated diagram
2.
3. Use
the pattern provided to make the shoulder straps then glue them to the
backpack as indicated on the pattern.
4. To
make the straps, cut long pieces of the bag 3 times the size
of your buckle. You can buy any number of different kinds
of buckles at fabric stores and outdoor stores but they tend
to be very expensive. Glue the straps onto the shoulder straps and
to the bottom of the backpack so that they will meet
each other and overlap. Attach the buckles to the straps by
inserting the straps through the top of the buckle and folding
over. Secure with glue.
5. Attach
more straps (about 9 inches) to the top of the top flap so
that they hang down from the bottom of the flap about
4 inches. Attach a buckle to the end overlapping the strap about
2 inches. Then attach straps to the bottom of the pack so that
they will match up to the top flaps and overlap at least 4
inches.
6. Decorate
with water paints, markers, or crayons.
Paper
Kite Craft
 What you need: Legal sized paper 8 1/2" by 14",
plastic straw, tape, paper or plastic, string.
What
to do: Look at the pattern to help you understand the following directions.
Fold
a sheet of legal sized paper in half to form a folded paper
that measures 8 1/2" by 7".
Fold
down each side at an angle as indicated on the pattern to
form the wings. Tape the wings together at the fold.
Tape
a plastic straw across the widest part of the wings to keep
the wings from blowing back in the wind.
Place
a piece of tape over the area you want to punch a hole in
for the string. Then punch a hole through the tape and the
paper.
Attach
the string.
Cut
a snake from a 6" circle to attach to the end of your
kite for a tail.
Decorate
your kite so it looks pretty up in the sky.
Paper Quilt
Craft
Here is a fun group project. Or save your child's pictures as she
makes them and then put them all together to  make
this quilt.
What
you will need: Construction paper, markersor crayons, stapler,
fancy scissors.
What
to do:
1. Have
each child draw a picture on a piece of light coloredconstruction
paper. You may want to use just half a piece ofconstruction
paper if you have a lot of pictures so that the quilt doesn't get
too big. Instruct the children not to draw to close to the edge
of the paper.
2. When
all the pictures are complete arrange them in the order
you want them to appear on the quilt.
3. With
right sides together (the picture side) staple the first two
pictures together in the first horizontal row, open them up
and fold back.
4. Staple
on the next picture in the row, and continue untilthe first
row is all stapled together.
5. Staple
the next horizontal row together and the next until all the
rows are complete.
6. Now
staple the first and second horizontal rows together with
right sides together.
7. Use
some of those scissors that cut fancy edges to cut a border
for your quilt. Staple it on the same way you did the pictures.
Paper
Chain Butterfly Craft
 A
fun project that even very small children can help with. My
child's response
to seeing her first paper chain was "Wow!" © Carolyn Warvel
What
you will need: Paper (any type colored paper or plain paper)
We used standard typing paper, Scissors (a good pair since
you will be cutting at least 4 layers at once), Paint, markers,
crayons etc. (optional) and tape.
What
to do:
1. Paint
the paper with finger paints by putting dabs of color on the
paper and folding over the paper to make a pretty pattern.
(Small children as young as one year old will have fun with
this step. Let the paper dry. Or use crayons or markers to decorate
the paper.
2. Fold
the paper in half from the long end. Unfold. Use the fold as a guide
to fold the paper in a fan pattern with 4 equal sections.
3. Print
out the butterfly (pattern) and use tracing paper to copy it to the folded paper. (The
pattern should fit on 3 times).
4. Cut
out the butterflies remembering to leave the tip of the wings
attached. Tape the 3 chains together to make one long chain.
No
Mess Sand Art Craft
 Do this project outside in the sand box and you won't have to clean
up a big mess in your house.
What
you need: Heavy paper, white glue, water color paint, and sand.
What
to do:
Draw a design on the heavy paper with theglue. Place
the picture in the sand box and sprinkle sand all over the design.
Dump off the excess sand. Let dry for a little bit and then
paint with water colors.
Card Fan
Craft
 Use old cards to make these fans. Makes beautiful yet cheap mother's
day gift. © Carolyn Warvel
What
you will need:
Old cards, things to decorate card with such as Rick Rack, buttons,
sequins, ribbon, beads, etc. four craft sticks, hot melt glue
To Make:
1. Paint
four crafts sticks and let dry. When dry glue together to form the
bottom of the fan, then glue to the bottom, inside of the card.
2. Glue the card closed.
3. Decorate.
Other
ideas to recycle old cards:
1. Use
old cards or parts of old cards to make little notebooks.
Just cut out the part of the card you want. Then cut paper
tofit inside the card cover. Staple to form a book. Children
love these little notebooks.
2. Save
your old Christmas cards. Cut the pretty pictures out with religious
themes and have your Sunday school class make a group mural out
of them. Just tape a piece of poster board to the wall and
let the kids take turns glueing on the pictures and decorating the
picture.
3. Here's
another idea to use your old Christmas cards. Instead of buying
gift tags, cut out the pictures from your cards and wright on the
backs the "to" and "from" to make your own gift tags.
Do
you have any other ideas to use old cards? We would love to
hear from you.
Other
Ideas from our Readers
1.
An idea for using old greeting cards is to cut them to size for bookmarks.
Use pinking shears, or other edged shaped scissors to cut out the
part of the card you like, use a hole punch at the top and loop ribbon,
cording, or a tassel through the hole. If you would like to
"laminate" the bookmark, use clear contact paper before
punching the hole. Sincerely, Traci Thanks for sharing
your ideas with us, Traci
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