I’ve always loved putting up my printable pinwheel crafts – here’s more spring pinwheels, which also includes a blank one if you want to decorate these yourself.

St. Patrick's Day Pinwheel Craft	Pot of Gold Pinwheel Craft
Puppy Leprechaun Pinwheel Craft	Shamrock Pattern Pinwheel Craft

More St. Patrick’s Day Printables

St. Patrick’s Day kids poems

St. Patrick’s Day coloring pages

St. Patrick’s Day activity sheets

Celtic designs coloring pages

Printable Dragon Paper Craft

How to Make this Paper Dragon

This craft is so easy that a toddler can do it – they aren’t going to color with fancy-schmancy colored pencils or stay within the lines of course… But they can certainly handle it.

Chinese Dragon Paper Puppet

You will need an additional piece of construction paper to create the accordion dragon body, plus wooden kebab skewers to make it into a ‘puppet’, like this.

Printable Dragon Paper Craft

Then simply click the above image to print out the dragon, color, and fold and glue as shown!

More Dragon Coloring Pages

Chinese Dragon Coloring Pages

Cartoon Dragon Coloring Pages

Celtic Dragon Coloring Pages

More Chinese New Year Printables

Printable Dragon Masks

Chinese Zodiac Coloring Pages

Printable Chinese Masks

I silently said to myself, “Seriously? Nesting paper dolls? I’m drawing nested paper dolls?!”.

I thought I would want to draw pretty farm scenes, or cute illustrations trying to be a Helen Dardik wannabe. Nope, I drew out paper dolls, put my markers away, and haven’t felt like drawing since. I don’t think I’ll ever have myself figured out.

So today I broke out my ancient copy of Adobe Illustrator and put these Santa nesting dolls together. I thought they were cute in the drawing, but I have to say I think they are pretty dang adorable once you put them together!

Christmas Paper Craft Santas

How to Make These Christmas Paper Craft Santas

These couldn’t be easier to make – print out one of each of the following 4 nesting dolls, then cut out each of them.

Santa Nesting Doll - X Large	Santa Nesting Doll - Large
Santa Nesting Doll - Medium	Santa Nesting Doll - Small

Nesting Santa Doll Tower

Then I’m going to recommend a step that you will probably be inclined to skip. Trust me on this, don’t skip the following step – it makes it SO MUCH EASIER to assemble them. So what is this mystery step?

Score your folds

You don’t need a fancy bone folder, I just used a pen with no ink and a small ruler (though I’ve decided I’m sticking this bone folder into my own Christmas stocking this year!). When you score these folds, your fold lines are effortlessly crisp and exact. I never thought the extra step was worth it, until I tried it. Now I never fold paper crafts without scoring first! And actually, it makes the folding easier and faster, so it doesn’t really seem like an ‘extra step’ at all.

Next, make all of your folds before you add any glue. And using a glue stick is the best route for this project – instant stickiness with no mess. Then when you go back to add glue to the white glue tabs, the whole nesting doll almost naturally assembles itself.

Do this to all of the dolls and get playing with them!

More Printable Christmas Crafts

You might also want to check out these printable Christmas pinwheels or these Christmas mandala coloring pages (print them on Shrinky Dink ink jet plastic!).

This idea for Turkey pinwheels came to me yesterday when I was out in the car running errands. Is it just me, or do you also get your best ideas at the most inconvenient times, too? Like in the shower – or while I’m cleaning and covered in grime… seriously.

For more Thanksgiving printables, check out these Thanksgiving masks, printable Thanksgiving placecards, and these turkey coloring pages!

Thanksgiving Pinwheel Paper Craft

Thanksgiving Paper Craft Pinwheels

Assembly instructions are on page 1 – they spin better if you can use heavier paper, btw!

Turkey Tail Feather Pinwheel	Turkey Tail Feather Pinwheel for Coloring
Turkey Pinwheel Center	Turkey Pinwheel Center for Coloring

Be sure to check out all of the Thanksgiving activities from the Woo! Jr. Network!

Fall Paper Crafts

I cut three fall snowflakes – one with owls and bats, one with acorns and maple leaves, and a third with pumpkins. The leaf doilies I got at my local dollar store (aren’t they purty?!). There’s a link here with a tutorial on how to make paper snowflakes, and for the most part, I cut out the shapes freehand.

For the owl in the top center I used this Fiskars Owl Squeeze Punch, but I shall warn you now that as awesome this paper punch is, it cannot get through six layers of origami paper at once. I ended up having to unfold the snowflake and punch the owl out of two layers of paper (three times) instead. I also used a regular hole punch for the small circles, and those were easy to cut though all the layers of paper at once.

I tried adding the snowflakes to a garland with fall colored ribbon and hanging it from my fireplace, too. But I liked the way they looked in our front window much better!

For more fall activities, try these fall pomanders, applesauce recipes, or these fall mad libs.

Thankfully I was browsing through some old files today and came across my cute Christmas pinwheel craft from last year, and it was a super-easy update to do more with a spring / summer theme – so here they are!

Color Mosaic Pinwheel	Color Your Own Pinwheel	Colorful Sunflower Pinwheel
Retro Orange Wallpaper Pinwheel	Retro Green Design Pinwheel	Polka Dot Pinwheel
Color Blocks Pinwheel	Camouflage Pinwheel	Pastel Sunburst Pinwheel
Pink Watercolor Pinwheel	Ocean Print Pinwheel	Candy Dots Pinwheel

Check out more paper crafts like these easy origami kites, tissue paper flowers, or even these Pokemon paper crafts and coloring pages!

Behold, the Tissue Paper Flower Topiary

I’m actually thinking of making myself a two-tiered one to put in my office. That seems so dorky when I say that out loud though…

What You Need to Make the Tissue Paper Flower Topiary

3 sheets of green tissue paper (ideally in three different shades of green)

3 sheets of pink tissue paper (again ideally in three different shades of pink, or whatever three colors you want)

I think the reason this turned out so well was because I was able to use different shades of green and pink tissue paper. Normal tissue paper packages don’t come so nicely shaded for paper flower crafts, but I swear by a huge package of tissue paper I am able to get at Hobby Lobby for $5 (inconveniently they don’t sell online, but CreateforLess has shades of green at $.89 a package).

A 3 inch styrofoam ball

A small cylinder or cube of floral foam to stick into the clay pot (You could also use play dough)
(I cut a triangle of styrofoam from some appliance packaging we had around the house)

A 3 inch (or so) mini clay plant pot

Plain straight pins

4 straight pins with pretty pearlescent ball on top for the main flowers

A 6″-7″ inch stick from your yard

How to Make the Tissue Paper Flower Topiary

First cut up the green tissue paper into approximately 2 inch squares. They are going to get crumpled up, so don’t worry about being precise or anything.

Start scrunching up the squares into loose little balls. I found it worked best if I rolled them between my hands as if it were clay I was trying to roll into a ball. Even on a tiny ball you will need a surprisingly large number of these, because you want them to be relatively close together.

Next just start pinning them to the styrofoam ball. Don’t put them too close together, because you will want to have room to put in the flowers. You can see in the second photo how close I put them together.

Now cut up your pink tissue paper into squares. For the largest flowers I used about 3 inch squares, the medium about two inch squares and the small about one inch squares. Again, this is approximate, because they are just going to get crumpled up again.

Add the largest flowers first, because they will be the most prominent and need to be placed somewhat evenly around the ball. I thought I was going to add a lot, but found that four was plenty. If you can find straight pins with the pretty pearl tops, use those to attach the largest flowers. If you have a lot of those, you can also use them for your smaller flowers too. I didn’t, so I just used regular straight pins everywhere else.

Then add the smaller flowers in between the green ‘leaves’ where you can still see the styrofoam.

Next, decide what part of the ball you want to be the top, and stuff the stick from your yard into the bottom. I didn’t take a picture of this part, because it’s pretty dang easy to do. Then shove the cylinder or dough into the flower post, and stuff the stick into the midde so that it is standing straight up.

Cover the foam base with green tissue like you did the top ball, but this time, don’t let the styrofoam peek through.

And ta – da, you are done!

Tissue Paper Flowers Book

But really, tissue paper flowers are so easy – they are the ultimate kids craft. You simply can’t mess them up. And the crumplier they are, the prettier they are!

Spring Tissue Paper Flowers

What you Need to Make Tissue Paper Flowers

• Tissue paper
• Green pipe cleaners (I just can’t get used to calling them ‘chenille stems’. Guess I’m old.)
• Scissors

I like to use shades of color that are somewhat similar and closer to nature, to make the flowers look more realistic. You can get tissue paper almost anywhere, but I found a ‘jumbo pack’ at my local Hobby Lobby for $5, and it gives you 20+ colors to use.

How to Make Tissue Paper Flowers

Tissue Paper Flowers Step 1

For these particular flowers, I used two shades of light blue and a light yellow. You can also add green ‘leaves’ if you want. I cut three pieces of each of the blue petals, and 4 or 5 of the yellow petals. I didn’t use a pattern to cut them out, and you can tell the petals are rather lopsided and ugly. It doesnt’ matter! It makes it look more natural when you’re done! For the yellow circles, I also made cuts towards the center of the circle (you can see them better in the next photo).

Tissue Paper Flowers Step 2

Stick the flowers onto the end of the pipe cleaner, largest first, smallest last. If you wanted to put the green leaves on yours, put them on before you put on the petal pieces. I put them on one at a time and made sure the petals didn’t line up with each other, that way the lopsidedness of the cutting magically evens itself out. Bend the top of the pipe cleaner to prevent them from coming off the end.

Tissue Paper Flowers Step 3

Next is my daughter’s favorite part – crumple it up! in fact, I like to crumple mine, uncrumple them, and recrumple them up again to make sure they are, erm, well crumpled.

Photo of Finished Tissue Paper Flowers

Uncrumple yours and enjoy!

You may also like our easy paper kites or this printable bunny mask from our sister site Animal Jr.

Easy Kids Craft: Origami Kites

These kites are super-easy to make, even 3 and 4 year olds can make them with a little help. And you can probably make them with whatever you have in your house right now.

What you Need to Make These Easy Origami Kites

1 Sheet of origami paper, or 6″ x 6″ piece of wrapping paper, patterned scrapbook paper, or even plain paper your child has colored

1 Toothpick

2 2′-3′ Pieces of raffia, embroidery floss, yarn or ribbon, plus 4 pieces about 6″ long

4 Pieces of scrap fabric, cut into 1/2″ by 3″ pieces (tissue paper could be substituted here, too)

Transparent tape

How to Make Easy Origami Kites

Easy Origami Kite Step 1

First, fold the paper as shown. Then tape one of the ends of your raffia, ribbon, or whatever you’re using, into the crease at the bottom of the kite.

Easy Origami Kites Step 2

Next, fold the kite back up, and tape a toothpick to the back flap of the paper. Now fold it down flat and tape the toothpick to the other flap. It will look like this when you’re done:

Easy Origami Kites Step 3

After you’ve taped both flaps to the toothpick, tie your second piece of raffia around the toothpick. Trim off the short end so that it tucks neatly inside the kite.

Easy Origami Kites Step 4

You’re almost done! Grab your fabric scraps and your extra raffia pieces. Get ready to tie them onto your kite tail.

Easy Origami Kites Step 5

Now all you have to do is tie them on to the tail! Raffia holds knots well, so I was able to keep these in place with little tying. But if you’re using ribbon, tie them on a little tighter. Do this three more times and space them out to make them relatively even on your kite tail. But don’t worry if they are uneven, that just adds to the charm. Snip off the ends of the short pieces of raffia, and viola! You have a kite!

Easy Origami Kite