Easter Kids Crafts

Here's a craft that resembles a stained glass window when complete. This craft can be adapted for any holiday by changing the shape of the outline and the colors of tissue paper used. For Easter, use a cross or an egg shape: Here's an egg (and bunny) shaped template you can print out, then reduce or enlarge from FamilyFun.

Tips and Hints: the size of the "window" should be proportional to the age of the child. A young child may "burn out" before he or she is finished with a large window cut out. My 12 year old was able to make a full sized sun catcher from a 9"x12" sheet of construction paper. But a younger child will probably need a shape about 1/2 of a sheet of paper.

Directions follow...

Materials:

Construction paper

Clear Contact Paper (find at Walmart)

Glue or glue stick

Scissors

Hole punch

Suction cup hanger

Colored tissue torn into approx. 1" pieces

1. Cut out an egg shape from the center of a piece of construction paper. Repeat, using the first sheet as a guide so the sheets are identical.
2. Cut out a piece of clear contact paper about an inch larger than the egg shape and attach it to one of the pieces of construction paper making a "window".
3. Have an assortment of torn tissue paper ready to use in various colors.
4. Attach pieces of tissue paper to the sticky side of the "window" of the egg shape until it's fully covered.
5. Using glue or a glue stick, glue down construction paper #2 to construction paper #1, lining up the eggs to match exactly. Be sure to glue right up to the edge of the egg shape. Allow to dry if using glue.
6. Cut another piece of contact paper a little larger than the egg shape and carefully press it down on top of the tissue covered egg to seal everything.
7. Trim around egg leaving about 1/2 inch of the construction paper for a border.
8. Punch a hole at the top of the egg and hang in a window.

***Here's an example of this craft we made with a Valentine's theme.

Don't forget about the tried and true woven placemat. There are many methods for making placemats - this is the method I use with kids. You leave the main sheet of construction paper intact at one edge. You'll see what I mean.

We used Easter colors for this placemat. I made the strips rather wide at 1.5 inches (which works out perfect for 9 x 12 construction paper). I made them wide so that we could decorate it with thumbprint art on the resulting squares. Weaving in a strip or two of white paper is great for the thumbprint art since it shows up best on white paper.

For younger kids, weaving the placemat is probably enough for one sitting. Older kids could add the thumbprint art especially if they had 2 craft sessions. I've written an article (listed below) all about thumbprint art if you'd like to learn more, but here's a quick example of a cute cat to get you started.
This is just one idea for using thumbprint art. FamilyFun has another Easter craft using thumbprint art to make an Easter Card and it's really very cute.

Here's an Easter Paper Doll Chain which can be made from any number of simple Easter symbols. Kids always LOVE paper chains sometimes called paper dolls. We made this duck shape we found online, but bunnies, eggs or flowers would be cute too. I'm going to make a couple more and add them here.

I cut our paper to 10 inches long (it had been 11") and folded it back and forth every 2". This made 5 layers of paper. Or you can leave the paper 11" long and fold in half and half again to get 4 layers (refold to make accordion style). The more layers, the harder it is to cut. Use a copier to get your shape just the right width to match the width of your paper.

This one is pretty simple once you've got your supplies ready. Spread out newspaper over work tables, portion out the Mod Podge (decoupage glue) to kids and this craft won't be as messy as you think.

Materials:
Cleaned glass jar of any variety
Decoupage glue*
Crepe paper (I call it streamer paper) or colored tissue paper torn into approx. 1 inch pieces
Paint brush

*I use Mod Podge brand in a matte finish. I like the matte finish better than the glossy. Mod Podge can be found at any craft store.

What to do:
1. Apply Mod Podge to glass jar with paintbrush one section at a time (so it doesn't dry out too fast).
2. Using your fingers, apply pieces of torn papers to wet Mod Podge overlapping paper pieces.
3. Seal paper pieces with another coat of Mod Podge on top.
4. Let dry

It's fine to decoupage the bottom of the glass jar too, just turn it upside down to dry.

This original idea comes from a featured craft at Two Hearts Together. Here's how I made mine: Cut flower shapes out of colorful paper. I found these three flower shapes in an old clip art package. I used some cardboard to make sturdy templates of the shapes. For the paper, I used scrapbook paper, but construction paper or kid-colored flowers from a coloring page will work too. Tape the cut out flowers onto wooden sticks (I used wooden skewers because I had them handy). Stick them in floral foam or display them in a vase.

Tips and Hints: If you decide to use scrapbook paper or construction paper, PRE-CUT the paper into squares a little larger than the flower templates (as shown above) before handing it out to children. This will save them frustration from handling a large piece of paper and will save paper too as kids tend to trace things in the center of a sheet of paper - no matter how large it is.

I think this would be a fantastic project to make for an elderly person, a sick neighbor or a teacher or school principal. I stuffed white tissue down into the bottle because the sticks weren't long enough to make varying heights. This worked OK, but if the mouth on the jar had been wider, I would have put a piece of floral foam into it. I could have then adjusted the sticks much more easily.

Another idea (I hadn't thought of until just now) would be to decoupage the bottle with small pieces of the same scrapbook paper the flowers are made from. The flowers would match perfectly to the bottle. The paper pieces would have to be small though as that paper is thicker than crepe paper. If I attempt this, I'll post it here.

This Easter Chick Craft is from Kaboose and it gets a thumbs-up. The instructions call this an Easter card, but I'm simply using it as a decoration. FamilyFun has included a template for the egg shape, chick legs and beak. You'll also need a willing set of hands to be traced for the chick wings (shouldn't be too hard to find). My "baby" is almost as tall as I am, but still enjoys holiday crafts so I enlarged the egg shape on the provided template for a better match to the size of her hands.

This Easter Lamb Craft is irresistibly cute. I saw this craft in a girl's club workbook many years ago and have loved it ever since. This is one of my daughter's favorite Easter crafts. I think because the sheep are so cute.

Materials:
Sheep template
White Card Stock
Black marker
2 clothespins per sheep
Glue
Cotton balls

1. Trace sheep template onto white card stock and cut it out.
2. Draw in face of sheep with black marker on both sides of sheep's head.
3. Attach clothespins (sheep legs) to sheep body testing to make sure sheep stands up properly.
4. Using a zig zag or crosshatch pattern, squeeze glue onto sheep body.
5. Add cotton balls to sheep's body being careful to not cover the ears and tail. Cotton balls can be used full size or for smaller cotton balls, pull each cotton ball in half and re-roll into balls in the palms of your hands.
6. Let dry.

I don't have a pdf file of this sheep template to offer, but I scanned it and am posting it below. Feel free to right-click on the sheep and "save as" to use for this project. This will give you an outline you can tweak to your liking.

Easter Beaded Cross Necklace
*Please see my notes in "More Easter Crafts" above

Bejeweled Easter Cross Craft
*Please see my notes in "More Easter Crafts" above