I just love this adorable paper plate umbrella craft. With all the wet and windy weather that we’ve been having lately this was the perfect craft for us to gather around the Kitchen table and do! My kids had loads of fun making these and it was a great way to burn half an hour too.
First we started with the fun part – finger painting! Take a piece of paper and using finger paints design a backdrop, for example my kids made lots of spotty raindrops and some squiggly clouds! Once finished pop your backdrop aside to dry.
Take the paper plate and cut it in half . Cut a wiggly line into the bottom to make the shape of the umbrella. Now it’s time for decorating the umbrellas! My kids used Tissue paper squares with glue but you can use anything you like.
Once the back drop and umbrella are dry take a piece of coloured paper and cut out the shape of the umbrella handle. Glue the handle onto the umbrella and then the umbrella on to the backdrop! Aren’t these just adorable? They’re great as a supporting activity when learning about seasons or weather.
How fun are these paper plate rainbow fish? We had so much fun making these to add my kid’s animal wall! Both my children love watching ocean documentaries and learning about the various creatures big and small that live under the sea. Whales are usually the favourite but recently my son’s grandfather was given an old 3D tv and my little guy loves to watch the different coloured fish swimming around in front of him. So inspired by that we decided to create our own Rainbow coloured fish and we just love them!
Here’s what we used
Paper plates
Tissue Paper
Coloured paint and paintbrush
Wiggly eye
Pink paper
Scissors
Glue
How to make a paper plate rainbow fish
For each fish you will need one and a half paper plates. Coat these plates in the chosen colour paint and pop aside to dry.
Once dry take your half paper plate and cut in in half to create two triangles. Glue one triangle onto the back of the paper plate to make the tail. Then, take the other triangle and cut it in half downwards from the point to give you two smaller triangles. Glue one of these triangles on an angle at the top of the paper plate and one at the bottom to make the fins.
Cut out several tissue paper circles to make the scales and glue them over the back 2/3rds of the fish’s body
Add a Wiggly eye and a cute heart shaped mouth and once dry the paper plate rainbow fish is finished!
For todays craft we decided it was time to use up some of our mountainous pile of tissue paper. We’d recently made some cute rainbow suncatchers and decided it would be nice to add some more colours to our windows. My son decided that we should make some stars. I find stars a pain to draw (I can never get them equal), so we made our star template on the computer and have also added it below to make our cute magic star suncatcher craft that little bit easier for anyone else who has the same problem! I think these suncatcher crafts are loads of fun and hopefully we will have some more to share soon!
Here’s what we used
Black card Star shape template(optional) Tissue paper Crepe paper Scissors Double side tape
How we made our magic star suncatcher craft
First you will need to make your star shape outline. To do this you can either free hand draw a star and then draw another star inside at a 1-2cm gap or you can print, cut out and draw around our star shape. Once you have drawn your star you’ll need to cut it out.
Place your double sided tape around the edges of your star. Then cut out some strips of tissue paper, stretch and stick them tightly across the centre of your star.
Trim around your star to remove any excess.
Then, cut out some long coloured crepe paper strips and using double sided tape secure them to the bottom of your star so that they hang freely.
Your cute magic star suncatcher craft is finished! Dont they just look adorable in the windows!
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Easy rainbow window suncatcher craft
How adorable is this easy rainbow window suncatcher craft? Since the lock down began many children have been making and displaying rainbow crafts in their windows to add a little brightness to the days of people walking past. We’ve seen some fab ones on our road and they inspired us to make another for our own window. We knew we wanted to make it using tissue paper as tissue paper looks so lovely in the light and after a bit of playing around we finally figured out the easiest way to make a rainbow shape. My little boy is super proud of his rainbow creation – and i can see why!
Double sided tape (you can use glue, but we’ve previously learned the hard way that tissue paper will bleed and stain surfaces when its gets wet!)
Scissors
Take your piece of paper and fold it in half. we found it easier to cut if the fold was on the right and the open side was on the left.
Take your scissors and cut your paper into half an arch to make your rainbow shape.
Following the shape of your rainbow cut out several segments to create the gaps that you can fill in with colour.
Open up your rainbow shape and stick your tape in rows around either side of each segment.
Take turns layering your colours in rows across the gaps. You could cut them into squares but my son found the tissue paper too hard to cut so we just ripped it into strips. You may need to use more tape as your go.
Once you have finished layering your colours, your rainbow is complete and ready to hang in the window. Don’t they look gorgeous!
