When my husband and I decided to home school our daughter last year we bought a quite frankly staggering amount of supplies. One of the things we bought that has lasted well and yet seems to be in constant use is a big stack of coloured card. Our daughter uses the card on an almost daily basis and the stack is still pretty hefty. In preparation for home schooling this year I began looking into craft activities that could use this card, it’s light but sturdy, so it lends itself to a wide variety of uses. In no particular order are fifteen that jumped out at me. Some of these activities are quick enough that you could do a few of them in the one craft session, whilst others will be a session all on their own.
Origami Cat
Photo from origami-tutorial.com
My daughter is obsessed with cats, so when looking for anything for her I always begin with cats! Origami is such a lovely art to learn, and it’s wonderful for building finger dexterity as well as working on following visual instructions.
Cute Hedgehog Paper Craft
Photo from easypeasyandfun.com
Aren’t hedgehogs adorable? We don’t have them here in Australia, though we have our own cute allegory to the hedgehog, the echidna. This adorable little craft could be adapted by using grey tones for echidnas, but either way it’s going to be great for building cutting skills.
Woodland Animal Craft
Photo from messylittlemonster.com
The minute my daughter saw this one she wanted to make it! It’s so cute, and detailed enough that it will be a whole craft session by itself, maybe even two depending on the attention span of your crafters. A lot of good cutting practice here, though you might need to do the cutting for the littlest of crafters.
Cute Paper Rainbow Kid Craft
Photo from easypeasyandfun.com
I love the rainbow and cloud motif, and this adorable little craft is no exception! Simple and highly customisable; you could even do a muted rainbow with a dark cloud for a stormy variation! Maybe add a lightning bolt for good measure!
DIY Paper Mask Craft for Kids
Photo from thejoysharing.com
I don’t think any list of paper crafts is complete without a mask, and this is quite the mask indeed! I really love how the large feathers are done; I think they could be incorporated into a variety of different activities.
Paper Plate Dragons
Photo from pinkstripeysocks.com
I was very into dragons when I was a child, and I think I would have loved to make these ones! Provided you also painted the underside of the wings you could hang these on some fine line and make a whole flight of them to hang from your ceiling!
Crumpled Paper Art for Kids
Photo from buggyandbuddy.com
I love that the result of this craft, these beautiful pieces of tactile, painted, paper could then be used in another craft! There’re so many possibilities for your painted paper here that I can’t wait to make these with my daughter and see what we do with them!
Origami Animal Bookmarks
Photo from thejoysharing.com
Of course more origami! These little bookmarks are so cute and such a great idea. My daughter is a big reader and usually has more than one book on the go, so these would be perfect for her and any child or adult that loves to read but doesn’t read just one book at a time.
Paper Ninja Stars
Photo from frugalfun4boys.com
The minute I saw these I immediately could envision my husband and daughter piffing them at each other. I love the juxtaposition of quietly folding origami, only to follow that up with everyone in the house madly dashing around to throw our carefully made creations at each other!
Paper-Weaving Sea Turtle Craft
Photo from homeschoolpreschool.net
Weaving is a delightful art! My art teacher at uni once left a huge frame set up with a basket of fabric scraps for us to weave if we felt like it. I became so engrossed in the process that I think I wove about 80% of the whole frame in one go! Turtles are also radicle, so this is a fantastic paper craft!
Pom Pom Balloons Birthday Card
Photo from thejoysharing.com
If you’re a parent of a child who has ever gotten any kind of craft kit, you’ll know that they always come with a small group of tiny pom poms. My daughter has quite a few of them, even with the cat tyring to eat them any time she finds them. This card is such a quick activity that it can be combined with others for a craft session, but the end result is so cute that anyone who receives one will be just chuffed with it, I assure you!
Paper Heart Wreath
Photo from thehybridchick.com
This adorable heart wreath would be great done with scrap-booking paper that is printed with contrast patterns on each side. You could make your own printed paper by decorating both sides of a few sheets of craft paper yourself before cutting your strips out.
Dinosaur Handprint Card
Photo from thejoysharing.com
Baby hand prints! I can’t wait to make these with my daughter! Anything that results in permanent examples of how adorably tiny her hands or feet are, are just the bee’s knees if you ask me! Another use for those teeny tiny pom poms, too!
Heart Paper Flower Craft
Photo from thejoysharing.com
These flowers are super simple but oh so cute! Also, they’re a great use for the 1000 pipe cleaners that all children’s craft kits come with, along side the pom poms. Our cat looooves to try to eat pipe cleaners, so it’s kind of a race against the cat to actually use them before she runs off with them to chomp on!
Snowflake Ballerinas for Little Hands
Photo from krokotak.com
These paper ballerinas are so pretty! I love making paper snowflakes so these were instantly appealing to me. They’re great folding and cutting practice and would look so lovely strung up as a garland!
