Crafts

Preschool Paper Plate Umbrella Craft

April 10, 2019 By Terri Thompson

Winter is winding down and spring is on it’s way.

It’s time for flowers, birds, and rain!

To celebrate this upcoming season, we decided to make a fun paper plate umbrella craft that is perfect for preschool and toddlers.

Preschoolers and toddlers will have so much fun making this simple paper plate umbrella craft that is perfect for a rainy day!

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

Supplies needed for your umbrella craft

Paper plate
Tape
Paint
Cotton Balls
Black Construction Paper

How to make your Paper Plate Umbrella craft

To prep your project you will need to cut a paper plate in half. Then, I gave one half to each girl.

I let each of my girl picks out a couple of colors of paint. I then poured a little bit of each color onto an old plastic lid. This makes it so much easier and neater than putting brushes into the little pots of paint.

But, for this project, we used cotton balls to paint with instead of the paint brushes. It’s always fun to paint with different things!

The girls got to work. My 2-year-old dabbed her paint while my 4-year-old decided to smear hers.

To finish the project, I used the black construction paper to cut out the handles. Once the paint was dry, we attached out handles to the back of our umbrellas with tape.

We then hung our paper plate umbrella craft in the window to remind us that the snow was going away and rain would come with the changing season.

My recommended craft resources

It’s so easy to have a successful craft time with your kids, if you keep some simple supplies on hand. Here are the supplies we used for this project, that you can also use for many other kids crafts.

Do you want to do more activities with your kids?

Join our fun Facebook community, Creative Family Fun for Busy Families, for daily activities that are great for kids and families. We’ll chat, share, and have fun. It’s a safe and private place to share ideas for family and kids activities.

I’d love for you to join me! Just click the link below, request to join, and answer the questions (they’re easy, I promise). Come join the fun! Join the Creative Family Fun for Busy Families community here.

Cardboard Tube Panda Craft

April 8, 2019 By Terri Thompson

We’ve made cardboard tube elephants. We’ve made tigers. And, now we’re making a fun cardboard tube panda craft.

These pandas are so cute that you’re going to want to make a whole family of them.

So, let’s grab our craft supplies and get started.

Supplies needed for your panda bear craft

Empty cardboard tube/toilet paper roll
White craft paint
Black craft paint
Black marker
Scissors
Black construction paper (just a scrap will work)
Glue
Googly eyes

How to make your Cardboard Tube Panda Craft

For the first step, grab your white paint and paint your entire cardboard tube white.

While you wait for the paint to dry, cut two small circles from your black construction paper for your ears. Your circles should be about the same size as a quarter. (Or about 1-inch in diameter.)

After your white paint is dry, grab your black paint to add the details.

You’ll want to paint two ovals tilted to the side for your eyes and a small circle between them for the nose.

Next, paint a black band under the face. The band circles your tube with it lower in the front and higher in the back.

Let the black paint dry for a few minutes.

Create a pretend play zoo and add this simple cardboard tube panda bear craft. It's a simple and fun craft for kids that makes use of recycled materials.

After all the paint it dry, add your final details.

Glue your ears to the inside of the top of your tube. Center an ear above each eye.

Glue your googly eyes inside your black eye ovals. They need to be near the top of the oval.

Create a pretend play zoo and add this simple cardboard tube panda craft. It's a simple and fun craft for kids that makes use of recycled materials.

Finally, use the black marker to make your mouth underneath the nose circle.

After the glue dries, it’s time to play! This panda bear craft makes a great DIY toy!

Yield: 1 panda

Cardboard Tube Panda Craft

Use a recycled paper tube and a few simple supplies to make one of these cute cardboard tube pandas.

Prep Time 5 minutes

Active Time 15 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

Difficulty Easy

Estimated Cost Under $5 (depending on the supplies you already have on hand)

Materials

Tools

Instructions

Use your white paint to paint your entire cardboard tube.
While the paint is drying, cut 2 small circles (about the size of a quarter) from your construction paper for your ears.
Once the white paint is dry, use your black paint to add details. Add a black collar, small black nose, and two tilted ovals for the eyes. Let the black paint dry.
Glue your ears to the inside of the top of your tube so that half of the circles sticks out from the top.
Glue your googly eyes to the top of your eye ovals.
Finally, use your black marker to draw a small mouth.

Notes

If you don't have an empty toilet paper roll tube, you can cut a paper towel roll to size.

Recommended Products

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My recommended supplies

If you want to make this cute cardboard tube panda, you’ll need a few simple craft supplies. First, make sure you save a couple of empty toilet paper rolls! The rest of the supplies are some that you should keep on hand to make many fun crafts for kids.

Do more activities with your family!

Egg Carton Easter Basket Craft

March 20, 2019 By Terri Thompson

I recently found myself staring at a pile of egg cartons and wondering how we could use them. Certainly there’s an Easter craft project we could try?

What could we do? After a few moments of creative thinking, I had an a-ha moment. They would be perfect for making a cute little Egg Carton Easter Basket or two.

Recycle your empty egg cartons into this simple and pretty Egg Carton Easter Basket craft for kids. It's so much fun to make!

This project takes very few supplies, it’s easy to prep, and it’s a lot of fun to make. In fact, you probably already have everything you need to get started on this easy egg carton Easter craft.

So, go grab your supplies and let’s get started crafting.

Disclosure: CraftProjectIdeas.com sent us some of the supplies we used in this craft. All ideas are our own. There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

Supplies needed for this Easter basket craft

Egg carton
Craft paint
Sharp pencil
2 pipe cleaners (fuzzy craft sticks) for each basket

How to make an Egg Carton Easter Basket

We divided an egg carton into sections of four cups apiece.

The egg cartons we have tear easily. If you don’t have the same type of carton, you may have to get out the scissors.

We each took a section of the egg carton and started painting.

I got out as many pretty pastel colors of paint as I had, but feel free to use any color.

Try stripes, polka dots, or just solid colors. Any pattern will look pretty on the baskets.

While waiting for the paint to dry, we twisted two different colors of pipe cleaner together.

Once they were twisted, we curved them into a u-shape to make a handle.

This next step needs to be done by an adult. If you’re working with a large group, you can do this step before painting.

Before we put in the handle, I used the sharp pencil to poke a hole in each side of the egg carton.

We then put the ends of the pipe cleaners into each hole, curving up the ends and twisting it around itself.

This simple Egg Carton Easter Basket craft for kids makes a fun and pretty little container to hold your plastic eggs or dyed Easter Eggs.

That’s it. You’ve finished your egg carton Easter basket!

This Easter basket craft was so simple and fun. We filled our baskets with plastic eggs and added them to our Easter decorations. They’re so pretty.

If you find yourself with a few extra egg cartons, turn them into Easter baskets!

Pair this craft with a great Easter book

It’s so much fun to pair a craft with a fun book. And, since you need to wait for your paint to dry, it’s the perfect time for a quick story time. Here are some great Easter books that would pair perfectly with this craft:

Do you want to do more activities with your kids?

Egg Carton Easter Crafts for Kids

March 19, 2019 By Terri Thompson

Did you buy extra eggs to dye for Easter? Yep, me too!

And now, after all the fun of dying Easter egg, I’ve got an extra egg carton (or two or three). So what should we do about those extras? How about making some fun egg carton Easter crafts.

Your kids will love making these cute and colorful Easter crafts with egg cartons this year!

Here are some great crafts you’ll love, from bunnies and baskets to chicks and flowers.

Which one is your favorite? I don’t know which one I like best. We may have to make them all!

What do you do with all those extra egg cartons? You can make some of these fun Egg Carton Easter Crafts. Choose from bunnies, baskets, chicks, and more.

Egg Carton Easter Crafts for Kids

Use a portion of an egg carton to make our simple Egg Carton Easter Basket that will hold four Easter eggs.

Or, you can use the entire egg carton to make a larger basket like this one from Fun-A-Day.

You can also make this other Easter basket version using single egg cups like these from Learning 4 Kids.

Cut up an egg carton to make these super-cute Egg Carton Chicken Egg Cups from Red Ted Art.

Make these colorful and cute Spring Chick Egg Carton Crafts from Typically Simple.

Use pompom chicks to create these Egg Carton Hatching Chicks from Crafty Morning.

These cute open and close Egg Carton Easter Bunnies from The Best Ideas for Kids can also hold a little bit of candy.

Or, you can make a cute Easter Bunny like this from Red Ted Art that can hold candy or an Easter egg.

Use a large portion of an egg to make a pretty Easter Cross from Teach-Me-Mommy.

Make a beautiful bouquet of Egg Carton flowers like these from Kitchen Counter Chronicles.

Or, use egg cartons and straws to make these cute flowers from I Heart Crafty Things.

Make beautiful bluebells out of egg cartons like these from Buggy and Buddy.

Which of these egg carton Easter crafts do you want to make with your kids?

Extend the fun with a great Easter book

We love to combine a craft with a book. So, when you’re making one of these awesome Easter crafts from egg cartons, choose one of these fun Easter books for a perfect craft afternoon.