Book: Paper Crafts Workshop

Today I'm sharing a short review of the wonderful "Paper Crafts Workshop: A Beginner's Guide to Techniques & Projects". Writing about it is particularly pleasant, because from this book I've learned about paper quilling for the first time.

Paper punches collage for kids

Recently I've bought a few paper punches for scrapbooking. I haven't tried them yet, but my children have :)

Exploring acorns: vocabulary, collage, and quilling

Without doubt the oak is one of the most fascinating and interesting trees. Among other activities we like watching an oak that grows nearby, at different stages of its life cycle. It has different parts and looks different when seasons change. There also different creatures living in it.

Kids' collage with symmetrical silhouettes

Cutting out symmetrical silhouettes looks to me like a magic. You fold a piece of paper, cut something that looks like nothing, open it and...

Easy three-dimensional paper craft fish

It takes no more than 5 minutes to make this relief paper fish.

Easy dragonfly collage nature craft

This is an easy-to-make dragonfly craft, made using natural materials: samaras, like maple ones, for the wings, a twig or a stem for the body, and allspice or black pepper for the eyes. Arrange the elements and glue them onto a sheet of white or colored paper.

Cute snail made using a discarded CD/DVD

This happy snail is made out of a recycled CD and coloured paper. One of our ways to use old CDs. You'll need just to cut out a swirl, eyes and mouth, and then glue everything down. Even 4-year-olds can do this simple craft.

Make a cute caterpillar picture frame

This cute caterpillar picture frame was really easy to make, and my kids enjoyed both the process and the result.

You will need cardboard, coloured paper (or paints), scissors, adhesive and photographs. There are also a lot of ways to decorate your frame: glitter, beads, collage or whatever you want. We just glued pom-poms and wiggly eyes. I hope the making itself is quite obvious. I'll mention only that we used a circle-and-leg template for caterpillar sections.

Chigiri-e flowers easy kids' craft

These flowers are made using chigiri-e technique, adapted for children.

Collage: Fishie with paper punch scales

We try various materials and techniques for our collages. The scales of this fish are made of waste paper circles from a paper punch. We used colored construction paper and also pages of a colorful magazine we were going to throw away. The fins, head and tail are simple cut-outs. First, we glued the large elements onto the base, then spread glue over the body and sprinkled the scales. Even very small children can do this.

Cereals landscape collage

We used mung beans, semolina, oatmeal, buckwheat etc. to create this picture, like many others. Outline picture elements, spread glue and let your child sprinkle over the cereals.

Sunflower collage

This sunflower is very easy to make. I found this project at KinderArt.

1. Take brown, yellow and green paper, sunflower seeds, scissors and glue.
2. Cut out a brown circle, yellow petals and green stem and leaves.
3. Glue the petals and stem onto the circle.
4. Turn the sunflower over and glue seeds onto it.

The trick for me was to find nice sunflower seeds. No need to say, children love both the process and the result.

Collage: Bouquet of flowers made of pencil shavings

Don’t throw away pencil shavings! You can use them to make lots of interesting things, a bouquet like this one, for example.

Make a ladybug and dragonfly collage using craft sticks

Very special crafts can be made using wooden craft sticks (a.k.a. popsicle sticks or lolly sticks), like this ladybug and dragonfly collage. Find a simple picture for your design and color the sticks according to it. Then let your kids arrange and glue the colored sticks on a piece of construction paper. Using other supplies along with craft sticks and combining different techniques can be a good idea. For example, I used also black round stickers, a pipe cleaner and wiggly eyes for this simple project. Wiggly eyes can be easily made out of discarded tablet blister packs, or just purchased at a crafts store.

Nature craft: Owl made of river sheoak fruit

Every child brings home pebbles, twigs, rocks, pine cones and other objects from his or her outdoor walk. Once, after looking into my children’s pockets, I’ve decided to make this cute owl. Materials used: river sheoak fruit (casuarina cunninghamiana) and araucaria stems.