Have paper, will craft! We round up our fave paper craft activities for kids using the simplest of supplies.
Kids love crafting? Ours, too! If you’re looking for more hands-on ideas during the extended circuit breaker, paper crafts are one of the easiest craft activities out there. The best part? You don’t need a lot of fancy art supplies. Yep, a lot of the tutorials out there only require paper, scissors and glue… pretty simple, hey? Always a good thing when we’re pulling our hair out trying to come up with new ways to keep the kids entertained in between all the working from home! So, if you’re looking for activities to do with your little ones, check out these paper crafts for kids we’ve rounded up. Ready, steady… snip!
1. Folded bracelets
We’ve already listed out some different ways you can display your kids’ art around the home. But how about this idea to repurpose your children’s paintings – turn them into bracelets! We found this great tutorial from Picklebums and reckon it’s one of our fave paper crafts for kids. You could even make a huge one to wear as a crown instead! Perfect for pretend play, we say.
2. Mosaic letters and pictures
Warning: once you get started with crafting mosaics, they can be pretty addictive! All it takes is small pieces of coloured paper, a large piece of white paper and an outline of what you want to fill in. For young preschoolers, we love the idea of drawing giant letters (try the letters of their name) and getting the kiddos to fill with paper shapes. Older children may enjoy creating underwater scenes, nature landscapes, rainbows… or whatever takes their fancy!
3. Tissue paper sun catchers
How excited were we to stumble across this idea for paper crafts for kids: gorgeous sun catchers in all our fave colours! The Artful Parent has a great set of instructions for a more professional-looking artwork (pictured above: it uses an embroidery hoop, which we love the look of). For a no-frills version, check out Make and Takes’ DIY stained-glass kites. So cute!
4. Rainbow paper cranes
It’s no secret us HoneyKids mums love a rainbow. How’s this for a cool paper craft for kids: origami cranes! Hello Wonderful is getting the whole world on board to make one million cranes in the fight against Covid-19. These gorgeous paper birds symbolise hope, healing and happiness – something we can all get behind. All you need is some coloured origami paper. We love the idea of stringing them all together into a garland, too.
5. Paper pinwheel fish
No craft kit would be complete without some googly eyes, so put them to good use and make these cute hanging fish! A great idea from Buggy and Buddy, we think.
6. Scrapbooking
Older kids and tweens might like to start this very awesome craft activity… scrapbooking! (Mum confession: we like to create our own memory books of all the baby milestones.) They could even start a time capsule of what Covid-19 life is like, so they can look back at this piece of history one day. Our top pick for buying supplies? PaperMarket has lots of super-cute stickers, patterned papers and heaps more, including entire kits for cool paper crafts for kids. It’s our go-to – and it’s still delivering. Huzzah!
Supplies for paper crafts for kids
If you haven’t already started, be sure to save scrap paper, shiny wrappers and assorted ribbons for fun crafting and rainy day activities. They’ll be sure to come in handy with your kids’ matserpieces! Here are some suggestions for what to collect:
- ribbon
- leftover yarn
- tissue paper
- wrapping paper
- magazines
- coloured paper
- candy wrappers
- foil wrappers
- stamps
- washi tape
- and so on!
Happy crafting, everyone!
Top image: Amy Shamblen
