easter Craft Archives - Let their light shine!

Crepe paper printing craft

Crepe paper printing craft ideas. Crepe paper and water make for great craft. It’s not exactly mess free but almost. You will have lots of soggy crepe paper at the end so you do need to have some newspaper and a tray to put your used crepe paper out of the way. Paper towels and some wipes are useful too as hands can get dye on them. But don’t let any of that put you off this lovely creative activity that really is suitable for all ages.

All you need

Water and some spray bottles (that have only ever been used for plain water)
Crepe paper cut into strips
Sugar paper (2 sheets for each picture)
Cover your table with newspaper
Have something on hand to put the wet crepe paper in to
Wipes and paper towels for hands

To make –

Take a sheet of sugar paper
Lay on crepe paper – let the children choose the colours they would like. They can layer them if they wish. They don’t have to cover the paper.
Spay with water (you’ll see the colours start to run. Experiment with just how wet you want the picture to be – too dry isn’t great but neither is too wet!
Place the second sheet of paper on top (like making a paper sandwich with crepe filling)
Pat down
Peel apart
Take the crepe paper off and throw away

Crepe paper printing in pictures

This is a great craft for toddlers. It doesn’t matter if they can’t operate the water bottle as the main point is to experiment with the colours and see how they mix and change

You can also develop the basic craft into an Easter themed craft by using egg shaped paper.

Easter egg shape decorated with crepe paper printing

You can also add the symbol of the cross using black crepe paper.

Older children can experiment with how they want the colours to look – like in the picture above with rays of light coming from the centre of the cross.

Enjoy being creative with colour with this craft. The pictures will need some time to dry so keep that in mind. But it is really fun so have a go at some crepe paper printing craft!

Here’s another Easter craft idea with a free printable – you could make both!

I used this crepe paper from Amazon. (Affiliate link – when you click and make a purchase I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you)

Easter egg with cross symbol craft

Easter egg with cross symbol craft ideas for children of all ages! The basic printout of the symbol of the cross hidden in an egg shape can be used in several different ways. Very young children can decorate the egg with crayons and tissue paper. Older children (10 plus) can trace the picture onto tracing paper and use felt tips to create a beautiful stained glass effect. Just be careful of smudging. Tracing paper is a little more tricky to use. Important Note – you do need to be careful with Sharpies and other Permanent Markers because of the smell they give off – they aren’t suitable for young children. Check if there are rules about their use in your country before using with anyone under 18.

Easter egg with cross symbol craft ideas

Print out the egg and heart shapes (PDF below) Cut out the hearts and if you want to cut out the egg shape. (You can do this before or after decorating). Then use tissue paper strips, crayons, felt tips to decorate and add the red heart. We did this at Toddler Group and they had a lovely time (make extra hearts as toddlers like to add several!). We also made this at a Children’s after school club and they enjoyed it too.

Older children can colour the cross first and then layer strips of tissue paper across the egg shape. Then trim the tissue paper to fit and add the red heart

Egg with cross on tracing paper

This version of the Easter egg with cross symbol craft takes a while to complete – older children can add extra lines and shapes and then carefully colour the egg – bright colours are best! I made the outline of the cross and heart thicker so they would stand out. Once completed place in a window. I think this would be a great craft to try at home.

Easter-Egg-Pattern-with-Cross-A4-1 Download

Heart-shape-3×4-1 Download

If you can print the hearts on coloured paper.

Good Friday crafts to make

Good Friday crafts for children to make that use paper plates! One craft uses round paper plates (use cheap plates that can be folded easily) and the other crafts use black and green square plates. (These are available online – take a look here)

Good Friday crafts – round paper plate

Good Friday craft made with a paper plate

The above craft was made with a cheap paper plate folded a third of the way down. The sky is a mixture of blues and blacks (I used wax crayons as they blend well). The hill is some green and yellow crayon. Fold then colour the plate. Cut out the three crosses and then glue them on the blue, fold over the green and glue in place. I used pritt stick. PVA would work fine too.

An alternative to crayons is to use torn up sugar paper and tissue paper.

I really like the added texture of the torn paper plus if you have a large group this works well – it’s likely that you won’t have enough blue and green wax crayons for a large group to share!

Good Friday crafts – square paper plates

Good Friday stained glass window paper plate craft — Cut out centre of plate

To make

Cut out centre of plate. Use this to make the cross shape.
Use tacky back to cover the centre (sticky side needs to be same side as black rim)
Cover tacky back with brightly coloured tissue paper (try to stay within the square of tacky back)
Glue on the black paper cross

Good Friday craft – Easter Garden

I love Easter Gardens. There are several versions of this paper plate Easter Garden on the blog. No soil is needed (although I love Easter Gardens made with soil, moss, twigs and flowers too!)

All you need…

Square paper plate (green)
Flower stickers
Cup cake cases various sizes (trim to look like petals)
Brown paper path
Cross and stone for the tomb cut from card (give both shapes a flap to use to stick to plate)
A small pot for the tomb (Make sure it will stick)
A strip of brown paper to cover the tomb and help glue it to the plate
Green tissue paper to make a hill around the cross

Take a look here for some additional ideas for making an Easter Garden with a paper plate. There is a simplified version of an Easter Garden here.

Let’s Make a Paper Plate Basket!

Make a basket using a large paper plate! This is a great basket to make for an Easter Egg Hunt. See end of post for some other ideas too! Baskets are really useful!

All you need

Paper plate (9in/23cm diameter)
Scissors
Stapler
Hole Punch
Pipe cleaner (12in/30cm length)
Stickers to decorate
Tissue paper to put inside
Small Easter eggs/chocolates hidden – to find!

How to make the baskets

If making these with young children you may want to do several of the stages beforehand. Older children can cut the plate and use the stapler (with supervision – make sure they can use it safely). Punching the holes needs supervision just to make sure they aren’t punched too close to the edge of the plate. You want the pipe cleaner handle to hold!

Mark out where to cut the plate (picture 1)
Cut along the lines
Fold the small section inwards and bend round the two longer sides. Secure with a staple. Do this twice.
Punch holes
Add pipe cleaner handle (Twist around the punched hole to secure)
Decorate with stickers
Add tissue paper lining
Collect eggs!

The basic basket can be used as a craft for the story of Feeding the 5,000. Just add the five loaves and two fish. If you click on the link you’ll find a post with a Pdf with loaves and fish that you can print.

You could also make it to celebrate harvest. Add some pictures of fruit and veg to your basket.

If you leave out the pipe cleaner handle you could use the basket for a Baby Moses craft too! here’s another idea about Moses.

Once you have a basic craft idea it’s great to be able to adapt it for different age groups and Bible Stories and Seasonal crafts. I’m sure you can think of other ways to use a basic basket shape!

God Knows When I Feel Sad and When I Feel Happy

God knows when I feel sad and when I feel happy is a toddler friendly version of the Easter Story. We focus on how Jesus’ friends felt and how they were sad because he had died and then happy at the conclusion of the story. This is a suitable way to tell the Easter story to young children. There is no need to dwell on the physical suffering of the Lord Jesus but it is OK to use the word ‘died’ rather than euphemistically refer to Jesus ‘going away’. Adults go away all the time – we don’t want children to confuse these two separate experiences.

The Easter Story – from John 19:28-30; 20:1,11-18

To tell the story it is helpful to have a model of the tomb. We used a cardboard box.

God knows when I feel sad story idea

Mary was very sad (can you look sad?). Her friend Jesus had died. He hadn’t ever done anything wrong but some people were jealous and had wanted to get rid of Jesus. They had made sure that he died. It was an awful thing to have done.

Jesus’ body had been put in a tomb and a big stone had been put infront. But now the stone had been moved and the body was gone! Mary was so sad that she began to cry. She looked inside the tomb – the body of Jesus was gone but there were two angels sitting down. ‘Why are you crying?’ they asked. ‘The body of Jesus has gone,’ she replied.

Mary heard footsteps. She saw a man who she thought was the gardener. ‘Have you taken the body of Jesus? Can you tell me where it is?’ she asked.

He looked at Mary and he said one word – he said her name, ‘Mary’. And then she suddenly knew – it wasn’t the gardener, it was Jesus! He was standing right infront of her. ‘Go and tell the others’, Jesus said. And off she she went to find Jesus’ friends to tell them that Jesus was alive! Mary wasn’t sad anymore – she was happy! Jesus knows when I am happy too. He knows when you feel happy!

Easter craft Idea

What you need to make the stained glass effect paper plate Easter scene

Square paper plates – cut out the centre
Sticky back plastic to fill the centre – sticky side the same as black rim of plate
Tissue paper – torn into squares – to cover the sticky back plastic
A tomb and stone to glue on last

Black Square Paper Plates click the link to buy the paper plates used in this craft (affiliate link)

Here’s a link to a paper craft Easter garden to make

Easter Craft – a paper Easter Garden

Easter Craft – a paper Easter Garden that is easy to make. Easter Gardens are lovely but if you don’t have the time to make a garden with soil and real plants then this is a simple alternative. It is a great reminder of the Story of Easter.

To make the Easter Garden you need

picture of the empty tomb printed onto card (see file to download – there is a choice – one has the words ‘Jesus is alive!’)
pictures of flowers from garden catalogues or magazines
glue
pencils and crayons

Make the picture while the card is flat and then fold in half so the tomb and hills are vertical.

This craft is suitable for toddlers upwards. Older children can cut out the flower pictures and or draw their own. You can add stickers and tissue paper shapes too.

cross-empty-tomb-jesus-is-alive-2 Download

cross-empty-tomb-blank-3-1 Download

Here is another Easter Garden idea using a paper plate

My Easter Pinterest Board has lots of Easter themed craft ideas

Easter Decoration

How to make an Easter Door Wreath

You will need

A plain wreath shape – or cut out the centre of a paper plate and use the wide rim.
Doilie
Spring pictures – I used eggs and chicks but flowers would be fine too. See what you can find in magazines and catalogues.
Ribbon
A large cake case to use as a nest for chicks (If you only have flowers make it a vase)
Some shredded tissue paper
Tissue paper or paint to cover the wreath
Glue

To make – be as creative as you want – these are suggestions!

Start by covering the wreath with paint or paper
Add pictures of eggs, chicks and/or flowers
If your doilie is the right size cut out the plain centre and add the lace part to the wreath. If not just cut some of the lace part and add around the wreath.
Add the ribbon
Add the nest/ vase by glueing half the cake case to the wreath. Add the shredded tissue paper and then slightly stick both ends of the cup case to secure (it should be like a pocket).

Easter Stained Glass

How to make your own Easter Stained Glass picture

You will need

Black paper plate
Tacky back
Tissue paper in bright colours
Cross cut from the plate centre or black paper
Glue

To make

Cut out the centre of the plate (use this to make the cross)
Add the tacky back – you need the sticky side to be the same side as the black plate rim
Stick tissue paper all over the tacky back to make the stained glass effect
Add the cross on top of the tissue paper using glue.

Display in a window!

Easter Story Paper Plate Craft

Paper plates are just so great for craft ideas (and can be used as storytelling props too) This simple paper plate idea can be used as both. The craft is for a child and adult to make together while talking about the Easter Story.

You need – paper plate, tissue paper or similar in green and blue, white paper on which to draw the hill and the tomb, brown paper circle for the stone, brown paper strips for the cross, some crayons/pencils, glue and scissors. (Obviously if making with younger children use children’s safety scissors and make sure you keep a watchful eye. Scissors should always be used with care while sitting down).

Begin by covering the top half of the plate with blue paper and the bottom with green.

Draw two hills on the white paper. Colour one green. Make the other into the tomb by drawing the entrance and colour brown. Cut out and stick in the middle of the plate covering the sky/grass join.

Add the cross to the green hill and the stone infront of the tomb entrance to one side to show that the tomb is empty.

It would be great to make this while talking about the Easter story or reading the story together.

Easter Garden to make at home

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.

How to make a cross for an Easter Garden — To attach the cross add a fold and glue the tab

Instructions for making a paper plate Easter Garden — Add 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.

Here’s another Easter Garden idea that uses play dough and weetabix

Take a look at this telling of the Easter story for young children.

More Easter craft ideas..

Easter egg colouring printables

Easter egg colouring printables!

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!

easter-egg-happy-easter-a4 Download

easter-egg-jesus-is-alive-a4 Download

easter-egg-pattern-a4 Download

Salt dough egg decorations

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.

We’ve arrived at Easter!

We’ve arrived at Easter! We have traveled along the road to Jerusalem to reach the first Easter. Each week we’ve met different people that Jesus met on his journey and now we are at the end of our journey.

This weeks story is the Easter Story .. to tell it you need puppets or dolls to represent Peter, John and Mary and the paper plate visual (or something similar.) If you have been making the paper plates display all of them together and then add the one from this final story.

The Story from Luke 23 and 24

Bible truth for toddlers – Jesus died and came alive again

‘Our story has a sad beginning – can you look sad? Jesus died on the cross on the Friday. He was put in a tomb (cave) and a big stone was put over the entrance.

His friends were very sad and frightened. A whole day went by – that was Saturday.

The next day was Sunday. A woman called Mary went to the tomb very early in the morning. When she got there something had happened. The big stone had been moved. What could she do? Who would help her?

Mary knew someone who could help her – Peter! She went to find Peter and John and told them what had happened.

They listened. Then they started to run. They were running as fast as they could to the tomb. John got there first and looked inside. It was empty.

Then Peter got there. He didn’t just look inside. He walked right in to the tomb. It was empty!

Jesus wasn’t there anymore. The Bible tells us that that he had died and then come alive again. This is happy news for you and for me.’

Paper plates decorated to tell the story of Jesus' journey to Jerusalem at Easter — **The paper plates that have been used to show Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem can be displayed altogether!**

Here’s the link to the introductory post for this story series with links to the blog posts

Easter Craft Idea

Easter shapes craft using crepe paper printing. This is really fun! Have a look at this post for how to use crepe paper to print pictures.

Easter Wreath Decoration

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.

Easter with toddlers

Easter with toddlers! There are some lovely Easter Garden ideas in this post and if you read to the end an Easter Story video.

A simple Easter garden is a great way to introduce young children to Easter. You can use natural materials such as soil/compost and leaves or you can make a garden like the one here. The playdough will last a couple of weeks before it dries out – so this won’t keep for ever – but then next Easter the children can make another garden.

At the end of this post there is an idea for telling the Easter story using different faces – there is a PDF for you to use too.

To make an Easter Garden like this one each child needs

Green square paper plates (affiliate link)
paper ice cream cups (affiliate link)
Green playdough
Foam self adhesive flowers
Crumbled Weetabix
Brown paper cut into squares
Glue stick
Sticker/label with the words ‘Jesus is alive!’ printed on to them -here’s PDF of a sheet to print onto labels Jesus is alive! (label)

Make a garden yourself to show to give children and adults an idea of what they are aiming for.

If you click on the links above you will be taken to where I bought the plates, ice cream tubs and flowers. You could use different plates – just make sure they are the shiny coated type so the dough won’t soak through.

To prepare the craft cut a ‘stone’ out of ice cream tub and make the dough. You will need a lot of dough!

Playdough recipe

2 Cups plain flour (cheap flour is fine)

2 Cups water

Food colouring (add this to the water)

1 Tablespoon cooking oil

1 Teaspoon cream of tartar (don’t be tempted to leave this out)

1 Cup salt

Put everything in a large saucepan and mix over a medium heat till it comes together as a dough.

Take out of the pan and kneed on a lightly floured surface for a of minutes till smooth. It will be hot!

Store in an airtight container/bag in the fridge till you need it. Let it come to room temperature before the children use it.

This amount will make 5 square plate Easter Gardens if you cover the entire plate. You could cover less of the plate as in the picture above.

Enjoy making..

Have a look at an Easter garden I made to show the children at Toddler Group during story time.

Telling the Easter Story

This idea uses faces to explain the story – angry, sad, surprised and happy. As you tell how some people were angry with Jesus show the any face and ask everyone, ‘can you look angry?’When Jesus died his friends were very sad – show the sad face and ask everyone, ‘can you look sad?’ Then something amazing happened; Jesus came alive again. His friends were surprised! Ask everyone, ‘can you look surprised?’

Jesus is still alive today! Show the happy face and ask, ‘can you look happy?’ We can be happy because Jesus is alive!

Easter with toddlers paper plate faces to tell the story — Paper plate faces to help tell the Easter Story – see below for a telling of the story.

Here are the faces as printable PDF’s if you would like to use them

Angry & Sad Face Surprised & Happy Face

or plain circles to make your own – Circles for paper plates.

Easter chickens – paper plate craft

I found this via Pinterest – it’s originally from this website http://krokotak.com/ which is full of absolutely great ideas.
The idea for my simple chicken came from here http://krokotak.com/2012/11/cut-away-some-paper-animals/. My version is a bit simpler as I was cutting out quite a few for our toddler group.

If you wanted to you could place these on the breakfast table on Easter morning and hide a chocolate egg underneath!

Chicken+Plate – PDF file with simple template.

We decorated the chicks with feathers and tissue and crepe paper.

Jesus enters Jerusalem – Palm sunday

To make these pictures I started with a roll of paper from Ikea and drew a road. The buildings and trees were added. As you tell the story you can add all the things you need. The cloaks were cut from material, the donkey has pegs for legs.

The people were copied from this book Their God is so Big by Stephanie Carmichael. It’s on offer at the moment!

Legless+Donkey

Street+Scene

Palm+leaf+scene+parts

The donkey with pegs for legs would make a good craft. help yourself to the free printables.

Palm Sunday craft

Palm Sunday craft to make. A few ideas that are fun to make!

The story of Palm Sunday (or the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem) is from Luke 19, Mark 11, John 12 and Matthew 21. It is the beginning of the end of Jesus’ life on the earth.

In Mark’s gospel we read that, ‘they (Jesus and his disciples and followers) were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was going to happen to him saying, ‘See, we are going to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.’ Mark 10:32-34.

These must have been difficult things for Jesus to talk about. The disciples don’t appear to have really understood – James and John are bothered about where they will get to sit in heaven!

But despite the fact that Jesus knows he is going to Jerusalem to die he stops to help a man who is calling out to him. Bartimaeus is sitting by the roadside and shouting out for help. And Jesus stops and helps.

And then the group arrive at the outskirts of Jerusalem and Jesus sends two disciples to fetch a donkey. He rides into Jerusalem at a time when the place would have been packed with people there to celebrate Passover. They welcome him – laying clothes on the floor and waving palm branches calling Hosanna.

Ideas for telling the story to children

For young children it would be good to ask them to shout ‘Hosanna’ at the right time in the story and wave palm branches that they have made.

If you use a story bag include a toy/model donkey, a cloak to lay on the floor and a palm branch.

For older children make the connection with Old Testament prophecy as highlighted in Matthew’s account. It’s also useful for older children to have a timeline of the Easter events.

A short retelling of the story

Palm Sunday Craft

A couple of palm leaf crafts – a sun catcher and a collage. Both use paper plates. The sun catcher is a little more tricky and has tacky back and glitter! The palm leaf collage can be cut out and a pipe cleaner attached so it can be waved during the story.

Older children could design a sun catcher and cut out the shape and attach the tacky back etc.

Large+Palm+Leaf – PDF file

Small+Palm+Leaf – PDF file – template for palm leaf sun catcher

Palm Sunday Craft paper plate leaf sun catcher

Easter garden

We made an Easter Garden for our Toddler Group Story Time. A very simple but effective visual aid. Older children could make their own.

You need

Tray or baking tin (I used a baking tin)

Foil to cover the tray/tin

Potting compost

Moss (if you do this ahead you could plant seeds – I wasn’t that organised)

Small stones for the path

Twigs for trees (we didn’t add the crosses as the children are so young.But we did talk about them in the story)

Air drying clay for the tomb

Large stone to put by the tombs entrance

Air drying clay rolled into balls to stick the twigs into to secure them. Cover the balls of clay with compost.

This would be a great activity to do during the Easter holiday. You could have a competition to see who puts the most effort into making their garden.

Easter decorations – eggs and more eggs

Easter decorations – eggs and more eggs, some to decorate and some to eat!

It’s very straightforward to make salt dough eggs but you do need to do this ahead as the dough shapes need to dry out.

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
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. To make an egg shape 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. Then leave the shapes to dry. They will air dry, but it will take a long time (48 hours plus)
Alternatively, 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 paint them as I did or leave them plain for children to decorate.

Roll out the salt dough

Use a template or cutter to make egg shapes

Cut out

Pierce a hole about 1cm away from the edge

Leave to dry out – the shapes should be solid after 48 hours.

Paint using poster paint

Decorate and add yarn to make a loop

Children of almost any age can decorate these simple egg shapes. We used them at toddler group with pre-schoolers, but they would be great for older children who would be able to do more intricate designs or pictures.

I loved this craft and my own children had a really good time using up the left over eggs later on at home.

Lots of chocolate eggs to give as Easter gifts

Our Easter Story in toddler group focused on the people who saw Jesus alive again. We reviewed what we had learnt about our eyes first and then the story was told about Jesus dying but coming back to life again.

Links to these stories and other ideas for celebrating Easter –

Thank you God for our eyes – part of our ‘Thank you God’ series

The Easter Story