Plant collage fun holiday family craft. Take a wander in your garden or some outdoor space and collect some leaves and petals. Only collect what you know to be safe and wash your hands after collecting and then again after making the collage.
It’s a good rule of thumb to teach children that they must not eat plants from the garden. Don’t eat any plant or part of a plant…. unless it is at a meal and on your plate!
We collected leaves form our garden, a variety of shapes and colours and some rose petals and jasmine being careful to choose only leaves and flowers that we knew to be OK.
Once you have made your choice start to make your leaf collage using glue and sugar paper.
Above – the leaves and petals we collected. Below the collage on coloured sugar paper.
If you prefer to use edible plants only then herbs are a good choice. We used sage and basil with some rose leaves. (It’s still possible to have allergies to these plants but rare).
Plant collage fun holiday family craft ideas
Use bright or dark backgrounds. Before gluing in place the leaves on the paper to see which you prefer
Experiment with showing the front and back of the leaves. The veins will be more pronounced on the underside and will ad texture to the collage
Layer the petals
Fill the paper or leave lots of space
Note down the date and the plants you used
Be careful of plants you don’t know, don’t eat any, pick what you know is safe.
Wax resist pictures are fun and easy to create. All you need is some paper, wax crayons, watery paint and a paint brush. You can make patterns and pictures – it’s very easy and relatively mess free.
If you want to create a pattern then it’s fun to start with taking a crayon for a ‘walk’ around the paper. Create swirls and shapes. Then use bright wax colours to fill in some of the shapes you’ve created. You can use colour blocks, stripes, stars and circles – anything you like! Use white crayon on white paper to create some shapes. When you are happy with what you have made paint it all over with a thinned watery paint. I used blue ready mix paint that I watered down.
Let it dry and enjoy your wax resist picture!
You can also have fun making marks with a white wax crayon on white paper and painting over the colour wash.
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Use what you have to make a Christmas collage. There is so much for us to spend money on at Christmas that it’s a nice change to use what we already have have to make crafts.
I always keep Christmas cards as they have great pictures. And those bits of wrapping paper that aren’t quite big enough to wrap any of the gifts I’ve bought come in handy too.
If you have any paper punchers you can cut out shapes but if not just use scissors. Older children can doing the cutting out themselves.
Just use what you have – sweet wrappers, greeting cards, wrapping paper, pictures from magazines. Whatever you fancy!
Sometimes we do a ‘cover the paper’ challenge. The idea is to fill an A4 piece of paper with collage materials. It’s a lot of fun!
This year we have quite a lot of sequins left from other crafts so we’ll be adding those to the selection of materials that the children can choose from. I think that is part of the pleasure of making – choosing what to use.
Here’s a couple of my attempts – the children will no doubt do a better job than me!
A use what you have snow themed collage
These crafts would be great to make at home between Christmas and New Year. Keep your wrapping paper and cards and enjoy giving them a second life!
Here’s a Light Party Lantern that is easy to make and inexpensive too! It’s a lantern that will twinkle in the dark and remind children that Jesus is the light of the World. If you are planning to celebrate a light party as an alternative to Halloween or you are looking for something to make at home then this craft is a fun make.
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Begin by getting the tissue paper squares ready. Let children select the colours they would like to use. They can cut them smaller if they wish
Turn the plastic cup upside down and cover half with glue. Stick on the tissue paper. It’s ok for colours to overlap. Once you’re happy do the other half.
Turn the cup the right way up. Add the word strip. If the cup is tapered this need to go in the middle.
The pipe cleaners make a great handle. Lay one pipe cleaner down flat on the work surface. Secure the other pipe cleaner in two places about a cup’s width apart. You may need to adjust this a bit as you go on. Secure the first pipe cleaner to the cup’s rim – just wrap it around and twist the ends together. You should have a secure handle to carry the lantern or hang it up.
Place a battery operated tea light in the cup – and you have a lantern!
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A cup cake case flower wreath is a colourful craft to celebrate spring and summer. Paper cake cases are inexpensive and come in lots of colours. You can go for the really bright or the pastels or a mixture of the two. There’s two ways of going about making this – older children can have a go at making the flowers, selecting the colours they want to use and cutting the shapes themselves. Younger children can have fun choosing colour combinations and have an adult do the cutting for them (in a large group do this preparation ahead of time) Any age can glue the flowers onto the cardboard circle. The paper cases can be layered as in the photo above. Older children might like to shade the wreath. For example start with reds, then oranges and then yellows. Let them experiment first and then glue the finished piece.
To turn the cup cake cases into flowers you need to make a few folds and cut an arc – take a look at the gallery below to see how.. it’s easy..
Arrange the flowers any way you choose – if you have different sizes you can layer them. You can use plain colours or patterned cases. Here are some ideas.
Weaving craft is a great activity for an after school club for children aged 4-plus. It needs a bit of prep but is well worth the effort. We made these at our children’s club and everyone joined in; there was lots of concentration!
Try to have yarn of different colours so the children can make some choices. We used a double knitting weight for the centre of the flower and then changed to aran weight. But chunky or aran weight yarn for the whole flower would be great too. Just don’t use really fine yarn as it will take forever to complete. If you want to you can use ribbon which would look lovely (just make sure that it works and stays put – satin ribbon might be a bit slippery). It’s always a good idea to test out a craft activity and any materials you are hoping to use to double check that the craft is makeable.
All you need for the Weaving Craft
Paper plate (cut the petals – we have 11. It’s best to have an odd number as it makes the weaving easier. It’s always ‘over, under,with an odd number!’)
Yarn – we used Double Knitting for the inner circle and Aran for the outer circle. Look at the photo below to see the difference. It’s helpful to have the yarn in small amounts as this helps with the weaving.
Cellotape to secure the yarn at the back of the plate
Ribbon (optional)
How to make
Cut the petals – have a look at the photos to see how far to cut into the plate.
Thread the loom – use any colour but one that stands out will make a great contrast when you are weaving.
To start weaving knot the first colour of yarn at the centre and then start weaving alternating ‘over, under’.
Change colour as often as you like by knotting a new colour to the old colour.
Use the Aran weight yarn as the circle gets bigger.
I often buy yarn from Wool Warehouse – stylecraft DK comes in many colours and is very good. You can also find yarn in charity shops and ask friends and family for any small amounts they might have that you can use for crafts.
To make the eleven disciples make a paper chain of eleven men. To do this cut a long narrow strip from the A3 paper. Fold like a concertina into eleven sections. Draw a man outline on the first one. It’s important that the arms and legs go to the edges as these connect the men. Cut out carefully, making sure that the arms and legs stay connected. Then make the cloud from the A4 card. Stick on the Bible verse. Then on the A4 paper make a sky and a hill and then carefully add the eleven disciples and the cloud.
While you are making talk about the names of the fruit and vegetables, their colours and where they grow (in the ground, on trees etc). When you eat something that is on your picture you could add a smiley face 🙂
This is a craft and something to read and think about from the Bible. It’s an idea to help families to look at the Bible together. Enjoy!
You need a Bible, glue, paper/card, flower photos from catalogues/magazines, scissors (adult supervision required) and some time to do this together! If you want you can seperate this acitity into two halves – do the cutting out one day and the sticking on another.
To make – use photos from gardening catalogues
You will also need a blue piece of paper or card as your main piece of paper and a brown pece of paper (or any colour you like) for the flower pot. Cut out a flower pot shape that is as wide as your paper (or almost – you will be able to fit more flowers in)
Before you start sticking, place your flower pot on the paper and draw along the top with a pencil (you don’t have to do this but it will make things neater)
Then remove the flower pot and start arranging the flowers. You can stick them straight away or try out different arrangements. If you have drawn a pencil line then make sure that it is covered enough for there to not be a gap between the edge of the pot and the flowers.
Once you have glued the flowers in place add the pot. You can add a couple more flowers so that it looks like your palnts are tumbling over the edge.
The Sarah Raven catalogue had a beautiful photo of one flower
You could also have a go at covering the piece of paper – this can be quite a challenge for children
This is a great activity to talk about colours – name them, talk about favourite colours, what do we have at home that’s a similar colour.
It’s a good activity to practise skills – using a glue stick or glue spreader and for older children scissor skills.
Thinking spot – looking at the Bible together.
Read about how God made the plants from Genesis 1
And God said, ‘Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees yielding fruit in which is their seed…And God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:11,12b
God made the plants and the trees just by speaking. When a plant flowers it starts the process of producing seed!
When Jesus walked on the earth he did lots of things. He healed the sick, he spoke to people individually, he answered questions, he calmed the storm. He also taught his followers how to live and taught them about God. In Matthew’s Gospel we are told that Jesus went and sat down on the mountain and his disciples came and sat with him. Then he started to teach them.. one of the things he said was about the flowers..
Jesus taught his followers not to worry about what they should wear because of the flowers.
And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil or spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Matthew 6:28,29
Toil and spin are words that mean work. The flowers don’t work but they still look beautiful. Solomon was a great King. The flowers look even better than his expensive clothes. It is God that takes care of the flowers. Therefore Jesus doesn’t want his followers to spend time worrying because he is able to care for them and give them what they need.
Star Christmas decoration to make to hang on the tree! Lots of sequins are needed for this simple star shaped decoration for the Christmas Tree. It’s a fun craft to make and looks lovely as a special home made decoration. The printable banner, ‘Joy to the World’ is a reminder of the great news of the first Christmas.
Luke 2:10-11 And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.
Everything you need for the star decoration
Six lollipop/ popsicle sticks per star. (plus some spare in case of any mishaps!) Try to buy the coloured sticks. (Please consider purchasing through this link as the blog will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you!)
Sequins (different colours, shapes and sizes)
PVA glue and spreaders
A button and thread
‘Joy to the World’ mini banner (download available below)
Spring song to make and sing. This made up spring song is to a well known tune – always a safe combination. The tune is ‘the wheels on the bus’. At the bottom of the post there are pictures you can print out to colour and/or decorate.
The song is about these guys.
Spring song to make and sing
The owl in the garden goes twit, twit, twoo, twit, twit, twoo, twit, twit, twoo
‘The owl in the garden goes twit, twit, twoo all day long.
The snail in the garden goes slurp, slurp, munch, slurp, slurp, munch, slurp, slurp, munch
The snail in the garden goes slurp, slurp, munch, all day long.
The bee in the garden goes buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz
The bee in the garden goes buzz, buzz, buzz all day long.
The frog in the garden goes hop, hop, splash, hop, hop, splash, hop, hop, splash
The frog in the garden goes hop, hop, splash all day long.’
How to make the song puppets
Below are the pictures in PDF.
To make the song puppets –
print out the coloured PDF or the black and white PDF to decorate
laminate (or print onto card)
attach lolly pop sticks or similar so you can hold the pictures.
The children can do actions or buzz around like the bee, hop and crawl for the different verses.  🙂
You can also print the black and white pictures for children to colour/decorate as they like.
If you are feeling like you want a more involved craft for older children or something to make with a young child at home then have a go at a spring flower spiral.
Easter garden to make at home is a great way to celebrate Easter. The garden is a reminder of the Easter story and is also fun to make. Traditionally an Easter Garden would be made using soil, moss, flowers etc but this version is made entirely from paper and card – if you haven’t got easy access to soil and plants this is for you!
What I used to make the Easter Garden
paper plate (a piece of card would do too)
cereal box to make the cross (make two cross shapes and glue together so it will stand up)
paper ice cream tub for the tomb ( a roll of paper with card glued over an end would be fine)
a paper circle for the stone
tissue paper for the path and grass
pictures of flowers from magazines/garden catalogues.
To attach the cross add a fold and glue the tabAdd the tomb – this might need to be glued and then held in place till it has stuck. Make a fold on the edge of the circle for the tomb then glue the tab that you have made and glue down. If you want to add the words do that first.
These A4 Easter Egg designs can be coloured or made into collages. Whatever you feel like doing! I’ve used wax crayons (you can blend the colours!), felt tips, tissue paper and some sugar paper circles. Cut out the egg shape after you’ve decorated it. If you want to paint the eggs then maybe print the shape onto card. Enjoy!
Children of almost any age can decorate these simple egg shapes. We’ve used them at a toddler group, but they would be great for older children who would be able to do more intricate designs or pictures.
To make them you need to start with a salt dough. This is very easy. You need 2 cups plain flour, I cup of salt and I cup of water (add this gradually as you may not need it all). Kneed the dough on a floured surface and roll out to about 4mm thick. As you do this keep making sure it isn’t sticking to the work top. I used a template and cut around it. You could also use an egg shaped biscuit cutter. If you are making hanging decorations you need to make a hole for the thread about 1cm away from the edge.Smooth the edges of the eggs once you have cut them out. Then leave the shapes to dry. They will air dry, but it will take a long time (48 hours plus) or put them in a low oven, not more than 100C, for up to 4 hours. (They can burn so keep an eye on them). Once dry you can decorate with paint and/or felt pens.
We used felt tips to decorate but you could also glue coloured paper on to them and add glitter! A covering of PVA glue at the end will add a shine – but as you can see in the pictures the colours may run a bit.
Angels, Mary, Joseph, shepherds and the manger with the baby. Great for a nativity decoration and for telling the Christmas story.
Links to ‘how to make’ the characters (specifically the angels but the same basic idea is used for Mary, Joseph and the shepherds too) and the manger
The stable is a cardboard box covered in tissue paper. If you cover the inside of the box with yellow paint or tissue paper the characters will show up better. You can add battery powered tea lights too!
You could make this over several weeks in toddler group or Sunday School or make at home.
Sometimes I have cut out wreath shapes from paper plates but when you need to make 50 that can take a while! So when I found that Baker Ross were selling cardboard wreath shapes I was really keen to try them out. As you can see they are dark brown, obviously made of card and come with a hole and some string so they can be displayed at home. A big win! Here’s the link to Baker Ross with all the info about the craft wreaths.
The embellishments are from Hobbycraft (eggs and bunnies) Take the eggs out of the packaging well ahead as they really do smell! The paper hearts and circles are made with a paper punch and the confetti is the biodegradable kind. I cut the bird and ladybird from molliemakes magazine. The Easter greeting is on sugar paper and I did write happy Easter 50 times. Part way through I began to worry that I was spelling Easter incorrectly!
I will definitely be using the craft wreaths for other crafts. Really great find.
This is a craft where you get in a bit of a sticky mess – but it’s fun! The egg shape is polystyrene. (I bought them from Amazon) I covered it in PVA glue and added tissue paper layers. If you finish off with a layer of glue it’ll look shiny. Experiment with the decoration. I added some cut up feathers to one egg. Chocolate sweet wrappers would look great too. Leave the decorated eggs to dry on some clingfilm as they shouldn’t stick to the film!
This craft is suitable for all ages – you may have to vary how you decorate the shapes. I used air drying modelling clay to make flowers and eggs. These were cut using cookie cutters. The shapes need time to dry out – a couple of days.
We’ll be decorating flower shapes at Toddler Group. You could make these at home with your children and if you make a hole for string you could hang them on an Easter Tree.
Smooth the edges before the clay dries
Decorate using PVA glue, tissue paper and sequins
A few years ago I made a similar craft using salt dough – I must admit that the shop bought air drying modelling material (long name!) was easier and seems less brittle. The salt dough egg post is here
We made these last year and in a couple of weeks time will make them again at our Holiday Bible Club Christmas Special. The paper plate is cut to form a simple manger shape and then the plate is decorated using coloured tissue paper, a star and some shredded tissue paper. Once this is all done you fold the plate in half so it stands up! This is very simple to make and looks great.
Teach us to pray activity to go with the Bible story from Acts 12:1-19 – Peter in prison. The church met to pray for Peter and their prayers were answered. This take home craft is a reminder to pray. It would be great to use as a family too. Each person could pick a card from the bag and use it to say a short prayer.
Teach us to pray activity instructions
To make you will need – paper bags or envelopes, pens/pencils, scissors, print out of the four prayer prompts – praise, sorry, thank, please – and sticky label with ‘remember to pray’ printed on.
Talk about what the four prayer prompts mean – why we can praise God. How we can praise him for what he is like and the things he has done. Why do we need to say sorry to him? We have thought, said or done things against God’s law. What can we thank God for? food, clothes, friends. What can we ask for his help with – the please prayers. These can be for ourselves and for others. The children can write some of these ideas on the reverse of the cards. Encourage them to make the cards their own by adding ideas.
These paper plates were made as an aid to telling the Christmas story but they could easily be adapted to be crafts. I had a lot of fun making them 🙂 They would make a lovely family craft activity to make during advent and then display at Christmas. And if you want a family craft at a church group then there is lots for a child and adult to enjoy.
All you need – good quality paper plates (these were from waitrose!), wool, tissue paper, material, triangles for the body shapes, heart shapes for the angel wings, shredded tissue paper, cotton wool, cardboard tubes/rolls. And any art/collage supplies you fancy! For glue I used double sided tape for the cardboard tubes and glue sticks.
I so wanted to make something like this last year but just ran out of time. So this year I was determined to make a craft focusing on Christingle. This is not necessarily instead of making the real thing. This craft could be done as an extra activity or used for very young children that you would rather didn’t have a candle.
The basic shape is drawn on a paper plate (this needs to be sturdy) and then I used paint. I would have used red ribbon but it was being elusive! The ‘sweets’ are beads on pipe cleaners. Do this for young children or alongside them as the beads are small. I attached these with cellotape.
I found this decoration idea on Pinterest. Take a look at the original by Happy Hooligans here. It is so simple and easy to make but also looks great. There is no need for glue or paint either!
All you need are some glittery pipe cleaners, beads – I used circular and star shaped and a pencil to wrap the pipe cleaner around to make the spiral shape.
Make a ‘knot’ at the bottom of the spiral by twisting the pipe cleaner around a few times so that the beads don’t fall off.
Thread the beads on. I chose to leave spaces between groups of three. At the end of the pipe cleaner make a hook shape so it will hang from the Christmas tree.
I loved making this craft. It is so simple but looks fabulous! It is only suitable for children over 5 years old as the beads are a chocking hazard.
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