Unique and Fun Arts & Crafts Ideas With Paper That Toddlers Will Love

Arts and crafts is a wondrous way to let teeter toddlers explore their way through imagination.

Time spent in activities such as origami or paper folding, making a paper airplane or finger puppets and even bookmarks or holiday cards are types of arts and crafts activities that enhance spatial cognitive activities.

Other advantages of engaging a toddler with arts and crafts activities when it comes to paper is superior hand-eye coordination, enhanced creative skills and muscle coordination.

As the world moves on to gadgets and mechanical devices, let’s take a step back to embrace the olden art forms created out of paper. You will be surprised at how flexible the uses of paper are when it comes to arts and crafts.

Our aim is to endow you with the best paper craft activities that your tiny little companions can engage in.

Moreover, all you need is different sheets of paper in colors of your choice, scissors and perhaps some glue. You can also let your tiny toddler companion decorate their paper made arts and crafts with stickers, glitter or any other inventive alternative they come up with.

But before that, would it not have been splendidly spectacular if your toddler could do their paper arts and crafts with homemade paper?

Of course, there are other types of paper that you can use. Some examples are regular paper, chart paper, origami paper, scrapbook paper and construction paper.

You can also find various varieties of paper online from sites such as Amazon, and Etsy. The paper you choose can depend on the type of arts and crafts activity that you would like to perform.

So let’s scratch the surface first with discussing how to make homemade paper, and what are the other types of papers that you can use for creatively spectacular results.

How to make homemade paper?

Homemade paper carries an intimacy to it that regular paper never could. This could mostly be because of the time we invest into creating something personal with a feeling of gratitude and appreciation. Having a tiny tot making paper related arts and crafts from homemade paper would only add value to their mini creative sojourn.

Read: A Guide on How to Age Paper and Make a Paper Look Old

So, let’s learn how to make homemade paper out of easily available ingredients at home in 11 easy steps:

Supplies:

● Sheets of paper
● Water
● Wooden frame with a screen attached on one end
● Blender
● Absorbent cloth; dish towel or wool felt

Step-by-Step Procedure:

Step 1: Get some scrap paper; it could be out of magazines, newspapers, books or notepads.
Step 2: Shred the scrap paper either via using a paper shredder or tear them using hands.
Step 3: Soak the paper overnight in a bowl filled with water.
Step 4: Drain all the water out using a strainer.
Step 5: Add two cups of water in the blender along with two handfuls of paper pulp.
Step 6: Blend till the paper pulp mixture is runny, not thick and pasty.
Step 7: Place the paper pulp on the wooden frame with a screen attached to it.
Step 8: Ensure to drain all the water out while pouring the mixture onto the wooden frame.
Step 9: Let the paper sheet dry for some time.
Step 10: Place the paper on either a dish towel or any other absorbent material.
Step 11: After it has dried, use the sheet of paper for arts and crafts activities.

A couple of extra tips:

● If you would like to add a personalized touch to the homemade paper, you can add small flowers, flower petals or leaves cut into smaller pieces to the blended paper. Moreover, you can also add essential oils for fragrance.
● If you would like to make colored paper, then you can add a few drops of food color to the blended paper pulp. This would give a unique touch to the arts and crafts objects being made out of the homemade paper.

Be cautious:

If you are executing the procedure of making paper at home, then we request you to be cautious while using electrical appliances and devices such as blenders. Ensure that the toddlers are under constant supervision, and you perform all the hardy work around the process.

Glimpse’ in: How to do it the other way?

Apart from homemade paper, there are various other types of papers that you can use for your tiny companions arts and crafts activities. Here is a list of some of the most common types of papers used for such activities:

● Regular Paper

Regular Paper is your everyday A4 paper easily available either online or in literally any stationery or office supply store.

● Origami Paper

Origami Paper is primarily used when toddlers are being taught the ancient Japanese art form construed out of paper – origami. This type of paper is available in comparatively smaller squares and is thinner than regular paper. There are various subtypes of origami paper – duo paper, foil paper and washi or chiyogami paper.

● Chart Paper

Chart Paper is available in large sized sheets and is mostly used for paper related arts and crafts activities that require making large patterns or diagrams and cutting them out. It is also available in a variety of colors.

● Scrapbook Paper

Scrapbook Paper is used for arts and crafts activities such as making a picture notebook, a journal; and it can also be cut into thin strips to make other objects out of it.

● Construction Paper

You must have come across cardstock paper, the thick paper out of which greeting cards and business cards are made. Construction paper is colloquially referred to as cardstock paper, and is used to make rigid and sturdy cards, designs, patterns or arts and crafts objects that require a rigid outline.

Let’s get virtual!

If you would like to know more about handmade paper, and an even more detailed guide to making it then here is a YouTube tutorial that might help you out.

“How to make handmade paper? | DIY Tutorial (Papercraft)”

In this YouTube tutorial, you will learn the basic procedure to be followed while making handmade paper with paper shreds, water, blender and a wooden frame.

Moreover, the YouTuber also adds small and trimmed flower petals to enhance the appeal of paper, and it looks both elegant and sophisticated. So go check it out for an easy glimpse into the world of paper making.

Fun Arts & Crafts Ideas with Paper for Toddlers

Ah! The moment that we have been waiting for so long. Arts and crafts with toddlers can be tricky with their early grasp of the external world.

They have tons of questions about which color to add where, and whether they can put a tail on a flower, and why they can not do that. Their innocence is almost always laughter inducing.

And so, to help you out with your kindergarten class work for tomorrow, or to engage your tiny companion at home with cognition enhancing activities, we have compiled a list of some interesting arts and crafts with paper ideas.

Each one is dedicated to a season, and will help toddlers enhance their creative skills.

● Spring

With the flowers blooming and birds chirping, what better day to engage in chirpy paper activities? Here is how you can make the best of it when it comes to paper related arts and crafts:

Ring around the Daisies

Here’s how you can make some paper daisies out of easily available materials at home:

Supplies:

● Circle Paper Punch (preferably extra large if this paper craft is being performed by a younger kid)
● Paper in different colors
● Yellow colored paper
● Stick glue
● Clear tape
● Green paper drinking straws

Let’s do this:

● Punch circles out of the yellow colored paper. Keep in mind that one circle is for one color.
● Take a different color of paper, of your choice, say blue and cut 1.5 cm wide strips out of it, 12 in total.
● We will start by sticking four strips of paper that are at an angle of 90 degrees from each other.
● Take one strip, apply glue on one of the extreme sides and stick it to the yellow circle. Now, apply glue to the other extreme side and make a loop by gluing it on top of the other side.
● Repeat the process with the other three strips.
● Now, glue four more strips in between these four strips, and four more in between the 8 strips.
● Glue the green drinking straw at the back.

Your paper arts and crafts daisy is ready to play with!

● Summer

Summer brings with it unbearable heat, and so arts and crafts becomes a good way of engaging in creative activities without having to step out of the house. Here is how you can make the best of it when it comes to paper related arts and crafts:

Roarin’ with the Lion

Here’s how you can make a paper rosette lion out of easily available materials at home:

Supplies:

● Colored pencils
● Yellow construction paper
● Black marker
● Googly eyes
● Scissors
● Glue
● String

Let’s do this:

● Take the yellow construction paper and fold it in half. Cut it into two along the crease.
● Make a rosette by folding the paper. You can do this by folding a thin strip of paper, turning the paper upside down, and folding the same width of paper on the other side till the entire paper is covered in vertical creases. It should look like one thin strip of paper.
● Do this with the other half of yellow construction paper. Now, you should have two pieces that look like paper fans.
● Take one of the fans and apply some glue along its edge.
● Stick the other fan to this fan through this glued edge.
● Fold it in half.
● Get a small piece of string and insert it through the loop obtained after folding the paper in half.
● Tie it around the paper and open up the fan.
● You will see a rosette circle.
● Make a lion’s face on another piece of paper, or print one out that is big enough to fit into the yellow rosette circle.
● Apply some glue and stick the lion’s face on the rosette circle.

Your paper arts and crafts lion rosette is ready to rawr!

● Fall

Fall is here with Halloween just around the corner? Don’t worry. Here is how you can make the best of it when it comes to paper related arts and crafts and halloween:

Halloween Pumpkin paper Craft

Supplies:

● Black, green and orange colored cardstock paper
● Circular object
● Circle puncher
● Hot glue
● Scissors
● Glue
● Pencil
● Black liner
● Ruler with circular shapes

Let’s do this:

● Draw a circle on the black cardstock paper using a circular object.
● Cut it out using scissors.
● Punch out at least six orange circles using the circle puncher.
● Fold five of these circles into half.
● Apply glue on either sides of these semicircles and stick them together to form the pumpkin.
● Glue this pumpkin on the last remaining circle.
● Use the ruler to cut out two googly eyes, or two different sized eyes.
● Use the black liner to draw eyeballs and other such details on the eyes. Stick them on the pumpkin.a circle at the center of the pumpkin to make its mouth. You can get creative here and make a spooky ‘O’ using the black liner.
● Cut a small green stem and glue it on top of the pumpkin, making its tuft.
● Attach this halloween pumpkin to the black cardstock paper circle.

Your paper arts and crafts halloween pumpkin is ready to woo the ghosts away!

● Winter

Winter comes with its cold world of wind, snowflakes and snowmen. It may be easy to make snowflakes and snowmen but what about paper hats?  Here is how you can make the best of it when it comes to paper related arts and crafts and halloween:

String of Winter Hats

Supplies:

• Printed template of a winter hat on paper (you can also draw one while looking at an easy sketch on the internet)
• Colors
• Cotton balls
• Glue
• Scissors
• String

Let’s do this:

• Using the crayons or colors, ask the little one to color the center portion of the hat as they please.
• Cut out the template.
• Use glue to apply cotton at the bottommost border.
• Cover the circular tuft at the back of the cap with cotton as well.
• Repeat the process with as many hats as you would like on your string.
• Glue the hats to the string.

Your paper arts and crafts hats on a string are ready to be hung!

FAQs

Conclusion

With this, we have come to the end of our article. Hope it helped you come across various unique ways to come up with new ideas when it comes to paper related arts and crafts for toddlers. And of course, there is no limit to creativity. So help your tiny little companion explore their own little world of bizarre thoughts and imaginative ideas.

Avni Deopura

Content Writer

An SEO Expert, a Prolific Content Writer, and a dreamer currently pursuing a postgraduate degree in Master of Science in Psychology from St. Joseph’s College of Arts and Science. She is working as a Content Producer and Social Media Analyst.

The End of — “Unique and Fun Arts & Crafts Ideas With Paper That Toddlers Will Love”