Creative Kids: Wrapping Paper Canoe
Brina and Karlie’s wrapping paper canoe
After a recent celebration at our house we had leftover wrapping paper, tissue paper, and a couple boxes. As I was cleaning up the girls asked if they could use the leftover items for a few days before we threw everything away. After a few moments of hesitation I decided it wouldn’t hurt anything to let them play with the items and get creative. They were thrilled to have such large pieces of wrapping paper and goodies to create something super special.
Once they decided what they wanted to do they took the largest piece of wrapping paper they could find and made a wrapping paper “canoe” out of it. The red tissue paper was used to create four rows of benches inside the canoe. They used some of the cardboard to make oars for their boat. I am not sure why they decided to make a canoe but they both worked together to come up with the idea and did well working together on it. I let them keep out their wrapping paper canoe for several days. I was pretty impressed with how they were able to put everything together all on their own and even made something that resembled a paddle out of cardboard.
Even though my preference would be to clean up the wrapping paper, cardboard, and tissue paper right away after the celebration I allowed myself to let go and let the girls have fun with the items. The items were trash but they had a blast creating, using the scissors and the glue to put together their wrapping paper canoe. Yes, I could have thrown all the wrapping items away as soon as the celebration was over but I would have never had the joy of watching my kids entertain themselves for hours with their handcrafted wrapping paper canoe! It is a great way to reuse the wrapping paper multiple times plus the kids have a blast too!
Cardboard paddle for their canoe
Creative Kids: Outdoor Painting Fun
The girls love their easel and can often be seen drawing with crayons, colored pencils or chalk, but their absolute favorite activity is painting. When we have a nice day outside and a few minutes we will take the easel out onto the front porch and let the girls paint. Over the years it is amazing to see their painting masterpieces become even more beautiful and specific.
Karlie getting started with her painting project on a clean sheet of paper!
Karlie’s finished artwork
Paint table complete with a bowl to rinse the paint brushes. Paint table complete with a bowl to rinse the paint brushes.
Brina starting her artwork with a clean slate! I wonder what she’ll paint?
Brina’s artwork masterpiece. A flower blooming on a sunny day with the initials of her entire family.
Kid Crafts: Decorative Gift Bags
Decorative Gift Bags - "Tilted Heart with Wings", "Flower", and "Happy Star, Butterfly, & Race Car" The girls loved this craft because it is fun and easy. The last time they did it they were occupied for hours and they managed to make several really cute decorative gift bags. The neat part about using wallpaper is the different designs are beautiful themselves you really don’t need to add much to the gift bags (you can see the butterfly got it an antenna and the star got a face but otherwise just plain they look pretty). This kid craft helps with stimulating creative juices from picking out the color and pattern of wallpaper to cutting, gluing, and putting their pieces on their special bag. The bags above are a few of the ones the girls did recently. I am thinking about having them do a few more for the Christmas Season.
What you Need:
- Wallpaper Samples or craft paper
- Cookie Cutters
- Pencils
- Scissors
- Glue
- Paper Bags
- Wallpaper Samples from a local store
We got these papers from wallpaper sample books that we’ve had for several years (they have been loved as you can see). We were able to get them when the store was throwing them out. You can go to Home Depot, Walmart, Lowe’s, any Fabric Store and ask if you can have their old wallpaper sample books. Most of them would rather give them to you then throw them away or recycle them. The wallpaper pages make great craft paper!
- A variety of cookie cutters
I got out a variety of cookie cutters and put them in a sheet cake pan so they were spread out a little more. The girls had fun digging through the cookie cutters to find one to use for their gift bags.
- Brina laying out her design
Brina would trace her cookie cutter, cut out the design, then lay out the items on the table before gluing them to her decorative gift bag.
- Karlie proud of her colorful butterfly
Karlie is busy watching what Brina was doing while showing me her butterfly. I let the girls do whatever they wanted to do and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at how well the bags turned out especially for 6 year olds putting them together. More importantly they had a blast doing the craft together. They were excited to put goodies in their decorative gift bags and share them with others.
