Tag Archives: paper plate

Jun27

Rainbow Mobile

Posted on June 27, 2014 by TodayWeDid

Colouring a rainbow.

Paper plates, again, so versatile! I cut some paper plates in half and I coloured one half in using markers to form a bright rainbow on one side. I coloured the other side with crayons, which made a pale rainbow. A liked the bright marker rainbow better, so she chose to use the markers for her rainbows. It was easy to make the arch of the rainbow by following the shape of the plate, though for some reason, A’s rainbows have more stripes than normal, and they are a bit jagged and spiky. She is no perfectionist!

Colouring the second rainbow.

Once she had finished colouring in two rainbows, she punched a hole into the top of each plate. She also punched a hole in the rainbow I coloured in, as she wanted to use it on her mobile. I helped her to tie some white string to the rainbows, and then attached them to a plastic hanger. I collected a handful of these hangers from some clothes I had bought the children a few weeks back. I knew they would come in handy, and they are perfect to use as the top of our mobile.

Very proud of her mobile.

She was very pleased with her mobile, and asked me to hang it up in our lounge room.

Jun22

Paper Plate Collage

Posted on June 22, 2014 by TodayWeDid

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Collage materials ready for use.

A used a paper plate as the base for her latest collage. She chose a range of collage materials and I placed them on a tray for her to use. She had feathers, cardboard mosaics, felt flowers, sparkly fabric shapes, cut up straws, matchsticks and buttons.

Using Clag glue, A pasted her items onto the plate. I helped her glue down the buttons and pom poms with craft glue, which is stronger than Clag. She was very careful about where she placed each item, and wanted to make sure that everything was visible, and that she had just the right amount of each shape (for her own standards!). She was very pleased with her finished collage.

After it had dried, she wrote a birthday message on the back for Big L, and gave it to him as a birthday card. He said it was one of the best birthday cards he had ever received.

Putting on glue.

Making the finishing touches.

Apr7

Paper Plate Hot Air Balloon

Posted on April 7, 2014 by TodayWeDid

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There was recently a Hot Air Balloon Festival held near us, so we have been talking about hot air balloons a lot lately. This led to some hot air balloon craft using a paper plate and some cardboard.

The basket attached to the balloon.

The pegs attached to the passengers.

We used a rectangle of cardboard to make the balloon’s basket, and we attached this to the paper plate using string. A drew a picture of herself and one of her friends to be the passengers. I carefully cut around them, and we glued tiny pegs to the backs of these pictures, and left them to dry.

Placing the cardboard mosaics.

Adding more mosaics.

I had a bag of cardboard mosaics, which are little squares of coloured cardboard, great for decorating art and craft projects, or making pictures with. A brushed Clag glue all over the inside of the paper plate, and then she stuck the mosaics squares on randomly. We had to leave this to dry for a while.

A used the little pegs on the back of her passengers to attach them to the basket. We hung the balloon in her room and her passengers can go for a ride in the breeze from the window.

Apr4

Paper Plate Rabbit

Posted on April 4, 2014 by TodayWeDid

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A made a paper plate rabbit today. It has paper ears, a button for a nose, googly eyes, a pipe cleaner mouth and little pom pom teeth.

Adding a button nose.

I cut out the ears for A, and she glued them together. Once she had glued the ears to the top of the paper plate, they were a bit floppy, so we added a couple of popsticks behind the ears to keep them upright. A glued down the nose, eyes, mouth and teeth, and then left it to dry.

Adding popsticks to keep the ears up.

We used the hole punch to put a hole in the plate between the ears and added some string so that it could be hung up in her room. This was pretty simple and quick, and A is very happy with her rabbit.

Mar28

Monster Masks

Posted on March 28, 2014 by TodayWeDid

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Gluing down some tissue paper.

The kids created their own monster masks using paper plates as a base. I cut some eye holes, and then they got started decorating their masks. We started by placing tissue paper over the plate to create the monster’s skin. Once we’d glued the tissue paper down, A chose to leave her tissue paper loose around the edge as a bit of a frill. L chose to push the edges of her tissue paper around to the back of the plate and glue it down.

Gluing the edges down.

The kids used some crepe paper to add fur, felt and foam for horns, mouth and ears. L added a silver tail to her mask too. And then it was glitter glue and more glitter glue. A used lots of glitter glue to create some pretty sparkly teeth that haven taken a couple of days to dry in our damp weather.

Adding a glitter glue nose.

I added a large pop-stick to the back of the plate to help support the mask, and then another large pop-stick at the bottom of the mask for the kids to hold it.

A adding purple fur.

Glitter glue teeth.

When I took photos of the kids using their masks, they growled and roared for me. They also ran out wearing their masks to scare Big L when he got home from work.

L modelling her monster mask.

A modelling her monster mask.

Jan29

Paper Plate Aquarium

Posted on January 29, 2014 by TodayWeDid

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Both L and A have been fascinated by the ocean and its inhabitants for a while now. They want to read books on ocean creatures, watch ocean documentaries, do sea creature craft, and watch The Little Mermaid and Finding Nemo over and over and over… They also want some pet fish, but we just don’t have a good place where we could keep a fish tank at the moment, not with Baby T learning to climb on everything and pull things over. We improvised instead, and made some little aquariums using paper plates to hang in their rooms.

L’s aquarium.

Painting the plate blue.

First, the kids painted one of the plates blue to represent the water in their aquariums. This was fairly quick, but of course, we had to wait until they were dry. While that happened, the kids started colouring in their sea creatures with markers. L only coloured in a few of her creatures, as she only wanted to make one aquarium, but as A wanted to make two, she coloured all of hers in. I found the undersea creatures to colour in on the Crayola site. There are lots of colouring pages available to print there.

Colouring in.

L cutting out her fish.

L only needed a little bit of help cutting her sea creatures out, but A asked me to do hers after she almost cut off the fish’s head. We used crepe paper to make sea weed, I just cut a few different green shades and some brown into strips. The kids glued some seaweed on, and then added their sea creatures. They both added some more strips of seaweed after this, making some of the animals appear to be hiding in the sea weed. This was their idea, and I love it.

Adding sea weed.

Gluing on sea creatures.

I made the lids for the aquariums using a second paper plate. I cut the centre out, leaving just the ridged bit around the edge. Then I taped some plastic cling wrap over the plate, creating a clear cover for the aquarium. We stuck the two paper plates together at the edges using tape, added some string to the top of each aquarium and hung them up.

A’s aquariums.

Nov7

Paper Plate Fish

Posted on November 7, 2013 by TodayWeDid

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I love crafting with paper plates, they have so many uses 🙂 This time we used them to make fish. A whole plate for its body, and a quarter plate for its tail. I cut a triangle out of L’s for a mouth, but A decided to draw a mouth on for herself. The kids used collage materials and paint pens to decorate their fish. Once they were dry I punched a hole in the top of them so that we could attach some string and hang them up.