To make a balloon jack-o-lantern, you need:

• Orange tissue paper
• White glue (watered down)
• Paintbrush
• Black or yellow construction paper
• Green ribbon (not pictured)

This is a pretty easy Halloween craft for kids, too.

Start by ripping your tissue paper into small, irregular pieces, no bigger than about 2" x 2". As you can see, even the baby is "helping" with this one!

Affix the tissue paper pieces to the balloon by brushing on a layer of watered-down glue, pressing the paper on, and then covering with another layer of glue. Overlap the paper to cover all of the balloon.

Since our balloon was a pretty dark color, we did about three layers of tissue paper to make our jack-o-lantern nice and orange.

Cut the jack-o-lantern face out of construction paper and glue to your pumpkin.

Hang the craft up using green ribbon, and curl some to fall around the top like pumpkin vines.

I’ve been holding onto this craft for a few days, and I’ve decided I can hold onto it no longer. It’s my new favorite craft on this site, and I think it would be a perfect thing to do with kids for a Mother’s Day craft (though I think the plant marker garden craft come in a close second on that).

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!

Enjoy your own rain shower without getting wet when you make this kid's craft.

I am so thrilled that spring is here, and we celebrated its arrival by making a rainstick.  Everything we needed for this craft was already around the house, and some of it was even recycled.  How’s that for getting into the spirit of April?  Not only have we covered the whole “April showers” thing, but we kind of hit on Earth Day, as well.

Once your rainstick craft is done, you can turn it from end to end and hear it “rain” as the rice inside slides from one end to the other.  I find that turning it slowly makes for a more realistic rain effect.

Related Pages: Recycled box aliens, 12 More Recycled Crafts for Kids

To make a rainstick, you will need:

• An empty paper towel roll
• Left over tissue paper
• Scissors
• White glue
• Paint brush
• Rubber bands
• Wax paper
• Aluminum foil
• Rice/Popcorn kernels (if I made another one, I would just stick with the rice because I think it sounds more like rain)

The materials for an April showers rainstick craft.

Start with a sheet of aluminum foil about 25" long.

Roll the aluminum foil into a long tube to make the interior of the rainstick craft. I wrapped ours around a dowel.

Curl the foil into a spring. Again, I used the dowel.

You'll want the final coil to be just about the length of your paper towel roll. It then gets placed inside the rainstick.

Wrap wax paper around one end of your rainstick craft, and affix it with a rubber band. I then cut off the excess.

Have your kiddo help you pour in rice, popcorn kernels, or whatever you've decided to use to make your sound effects.

Seal up the other end of your rainstick craft with wax paper and a rubber band.

Cut your tissue paper into small pieces (about an inch or so). We recycled tissue from presents we've received.

Mix white glue with a little water and use your paint brush to decoupage the tissue paper on to your rainstick.

I decoupaged the tissue paper right over the wax paper to make it less likely to come loose and fall off.

What I Learned the Hard Way: I originally had cut out wax paper circles to put over the ends, but I found them really hard to work with, so I ended up just using a bigger chunk of wax paper and cutting it after I put the rubber band on.  Also, the popcorn doesn’t sound nearly as good as the rice.

President George Washington is immortalized on our refrigerator this Presidents Day

I thought Presidents Day offered a great opportunity to start introducing Dot to some of the best lessons of American history.  I was looking for something to teach her about either George Washington or Abraham Lincoln, as they’re the two most often recognized on this holiday in February.  The angle I went with, however is probably actually only a myth and never really happened.  Oh, well.  I think “don’t lie” is a good lesson, so I’m willing to perpetuate the myth if it gets the moral across.

First I told Dot about how George Washington owned up to his behavior.  Then I realized she doesn’t get what a “lie” is.  We’ve been working on it all day, and I’m not entirely sure that I didn’t just teach her how to be dishonest.  Time will tell.  ;-)

To make this tissue paper cherry tree, you will need:

• Construction paper
• Crayons
• Tissue paper
• White glue
• Scissors
• Pencil

I recycled tissue paper from birthday presents.

Cut the tissue paper into small squares.  (Mine were not exact.)

You need lots of green and just a bit of red.

Draw the outline of a tree on your construction paper.

Wrap a tissue square around the eraser end of your pencil and dip it in glue.

Stick the green tissue paper where the leaves would go.

Occasionally use a red square as the cherries on your tree.

Fill in the entire space. I added "I cannot tell a lie" as a reminder of the lesson.

What I Learned the Hard Way: The squares I cut were pretty small, and Dot just couldn’t hold them around the end of the pencil to affix them to the tree.  So, we did an easier version for her, where I spread some glue around on the top of the tree, and she just added tissue paper squares.  Here’s the preschool version:

I cannot tell a lie, the original project was too hard for my three-year-old.

Related Pages: Fall Paper Crafts, Tissue Paper Flower Topiary, Pumpkin Decorating Ideas

Fall Wreath Craft

Fall Wreath Materials List

Black, green, yellow, orange and brown tissue paper

Wide ribbon (I used a green organza I got on Christmas clearance last year)

Floral or beading wire

Glue

8 inch grapevine wreath

Optional: Feather butterfly decoration (I got mine at the dollar store!).

Fall Wreath Craft Materials

How to Make this Fall Wreath Craft

You’re going to start by making 1 tissue paper tiger lily and 3 tissue paper black-eyed susan flowers.

Tissue Paper Tiger Lily Flower

Paper Tiger Lily Flower Parts

For the tiger lily, cut out two five-petal pieces of orange tissue paper, a 1.25 inch piece of brown tissue paper (or a brown paper bag works), a 1 inch piece of black tissue paper, and a 12 inch strip of green tissue paper.

Crumple and then uncrumple (a few times) the two small circles so that they look more natural.

Twist the strip of green tissue paper into a string-like appearance as shown. Break it into two pieces, they don’t need to be exactly the same length, but close.

Curl the petals of the orange flower very lightly as you would curling ribbon with scissors. Do this to both pieces, though only one is shown that way (so you can see the shape).

Now, score each orange petal with a fingernail or bone folder as shown – this gives it a remarkably tricky realistic appearance!

Making Paper Tiger Lily Petals

Layer the pieces as shown below, poking holes with your floral wire. You will need about 8-9 inches per flower.

Assembling the Tissue Paper Tiger Lily

Twist the wire like a twist tie on the back and this one is done!

Tissue Paper Black-Eyed Susan Flowers

Paper Black Eyed Susan Flower Parts

I know there isn’t any green stuff in the middle of a black-eyed susan. I just though it looked more polished this way!

For this tissue paper flower, cut three yellow circles about 2.5 inches in diameter, and tear off a 3 inch or so square of green and black tissue paper. Crumple up the black one tightly and the green one very loosely.

Clip the petals as shown into the three yellow circles (you can do this on all three at once, just make sure to rotate them when you assemble the flower to give it variation).

Layer the three yellow pieces and green piece together and attach them with another 8-9: piece of wire as you did with the tiger lily.

Assembling the Paper Flowers with Thin Wire

Leave off the black crumpled piece of tissue paper because it would be too hard to get the wire through it. Assemble it all, and then glue the black piece into the center instead.

Tissue Paper Black Eyed Susan Flower

Make two more for three total.

Attach the Tissue Paper Flowers

Attaching the Tissue Paper Flowers to the Wreath

Take the wire on the back of the flowers and attach them to the bottom of the grapevine wreath form. This is just like using a twist-tie (which also means you can reuse these parts in something else if you want to!). Put the tiger lily on one side and the three black-eyed susans next to it, tucking the wire ends into the grapevines so that they don’t poke out and hurt someone.

Fall Flower Wreaths Closeup

Add the Hanging Ribbon

Since my organza ribbon was too sheer to see with one layer, I double wrapped it around the top of the wreath. This was about a 7 or 8 foot length of ribbon.

Fall Wreath Bow Step 1

I then cut another 2.5 foot or so piece of ribbon and tied it in a bow around the top, gathering the ends of the longer piece.

Fall Wreath Bow Step 2

I had a little orange feather butterfly hanging around that seemed like the perfect addition to the top of the bow, so I just hot glued it in place. Plus it works well to cover up any bow-tying imperfections!

Fall Wreath Bow with Feather Butterfly Decoration

All done! Just go hang it somewhere where you can enjoy it!

More Fall Kids Crafts

Indian Corn Craft

Cute Yarn Apples

Splatter Paint Fall Tree

Fall Corn Color by Number

Tissue Paper Flower Crafts

Tissue Paper Flower Topiary	Basic Tissue Paper Flowers	Flower Pillbox Hat	Embellished Tissue Paper Flowers

Preschool Flower Crafts

Preschool Paper Flower Garden	Cupcake Liner Flowers	Handprint and Footprint Flowers	Pipe Cleaner Flowers

Flower Printables

Summer Flower Coloring Pages	Spring Flower Coloring Pages	Printable Flowers and Baskets	Printable Flower Letters

Flower Desserts and Treats

Flower Cupcakes	Flower Cookie Pops	Flower Cupcake Toppers	Flower Basket Cupcakes

More Flower Crafts for Kids

Origami Flowers	Dried Flower Crafts	Flower Fairy Crafts	Paper Mache Flowers

Check out more spring crafts and summer crafts, too!

Until I come up with a cool tissue paper saving system, I figured I should do something with the scraps right away, because, you know, it’s not really the right week to throw things away like that! So I had already set aside my kids’ raisin boxes and Jello boxes, and I needed a craft to post on Space Jr. because I haven’t done any there yet, so making aliens was the logical solution!

You can totally make these cardboard box aliens without tissue paper scraps and without the mess of decoupage. Just use paint instead.

What You Need to Make this Easy Alien Craft for Kids

• Jello, raisin, or other small empty carboard boxes
• Pipe cleaners for the antennae and legs
• Googly eyes
• Tissue paper scraps
• Wire cutters
• Decoupage glue
• Glitter glue (optional)

How to Make this Easy Alien Craft for Kids

First cover the boxes with the glue and tissue paper. Lay down a thin layer of glue with a paint brush, then lay down the tissue paper, then cover it with another layer of glue. The silver alien used scraps of silver tissue paper, which is very opaque compared to regular tissue paper so I only needed one layer of it. With the purple monster, I had to use about 4 layers of purple tissue paper to ensure you couldn’t see the artwork on the food boxes.

I then added some cut circle scraps from this decoupage project for the eyes, and found some other colored triangles or rectangles to make the mouths. These I glued on just like the rest of the tissue paper.

After the decoupage is dry, use a razor blade to cut four tiny x’s into the bottom of the box, and two tiny x’s in the top as shown. This is where you will insert the antennae and legs.

Cut two pieces of pipe cleaner for the antennae, and three to four for the legs. It was a bit easier to make them stand up on their own with more legs.

To make the spiral antennae, wrap the pipe cleaners around a pencil or paint brush, then pull it off.

Make tiny feet by simply bending the pip cleaners into an oval on the ends.

Then simply stick the ends of the pipe cleaners into the tiny slits you cut with the razor blade.

All that’s left to do is glue on your googly eyes. This is optional too, because you could just as easily decoupage or paint on the eyes. I wanted to use glitter glue to make them, well, more alien-y. I also used two different sized eyes, because I thought it was cuter that way!

If you’re really into aliens & monsters, you’d probably also like these robot alien coloring pages and these fuzzy monster coloring pages, too!

As I ate lunch from the freezer last week, I was left with a little black plastic tray that I would normally toss in the trash. But I had a feeling I could turn it into something cool, so I washed it out and held onto it until inspiration hit me – and it did when I saw my grandmother’s pillbox hat:

Since it’s Earth Day this week, this is the first in a series of recycled crafts. Woot!

Check out all Woo! Jr. Network Earth Day crafts, printables and coloring pages here.

What You Need to Make this Pillbox Hat Recycled Craft

Here’s my rather simple materials list  (not everything is pictured above)

• A black single serving microwave dinner tray (washed!)
• Green ribbon (I bought this green ribbon from the scrap heap at my local craft store for less than $1). I prefer wired ribbon for this project so that the bow (pictured below) holds its shape.
• A 14″ inch square of black tulle (you could get uber-recyclely geeky and use the netting from a produce bag instead, but I didn’t have any in black)
• A thin and stretchy elastic hair headband (for the full head, not a pony tail holder)
• A safety pin
• Tissue paper and pipe cleaners to make your tissue paper flowers
• Wire cutters
• Glue gun

How to Make this Pillbox Hat Recycled Craft

First you need to make your flowers (tissue paper flowers instructions here). I made mostly small flowers with some larger flowers as accent pieces. As pictured in the materials section, I made:

• 8 mini pink flowers from 1 inch squares of tissue paper
• 7 small yellow flowers from 1 1/2 inch squares of tissue paper
• 3 small accent flowers from darker colored multi-colored tissue paper (and the brown pipe cleaner centers on these made them look really striking!)
• 2 medium multi-colored flowers using yellow and white tissue paper, varying from 1 inch to three inches
• 1 large ‘centerpiece’ flower using 4 inch pieces of tissue paper. I spent a bit more time and creativity on this flower, using extra ribbon as additional leaves and cutting more intricate petals out of the tissue paper

Your microwave dinner tray may vary in size from mine, so you may need more or less flowers than this.

Also, make your accent bow with about 15 inches of ribbon and one of the small accent flowers. Simply tie the bow like you would tie your shoes, make it symmetrical and pretty, and then snip off the ends with a diagonal cut. Then I just used the pipe cleaner end of the flower to wrap it around the center of the bow and secure it into place.

Make the Hat Veil 2

Make the Hat Veil 3

Tissue Paper Flower Arrangement

To make the veil, grab the left corner of the square of tulle and bring it up to the top corner. Do the same with the right corner, and then you’ll have two ‘flaps’ (seen on the far left of the first photo) sticking out. Bring those two flaps in to the top corner so that all the visible corners of the tulle square are together (see picture two). Safety pin the corners together. Now, cut off the last corner in a rounded fashion like in the last photo.

At this point I highly recommend doing a ‘trial run’ and arranging your flowers on top of the hat to determine where you want them before you glue them. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve done some craft ‘on the fly’ and then wished I hadn’t glued everything in place.

Once you know where you want your flowers, you can rev up your glue gun and start gluing! Glue down a layer of ribbon to act as a base for the flowers. It looks prettier and helps to add interest while covering up the top of the plastic tray.

Add your flowers to the outside rim first, then add the second inner circle of flowers next. Try to strategically cover up the pipe cleaner stems as you glue down the second circle.

Leave the center open so that we can add the veil and the centerpiece flower.

In the center spot, glue the veil in place. Make sure that it covers the part that you want to be the front of the hat. Now glue your large centerpiece flower on top of the veil to cover up the rest of the open space and top of the veil.

At this point you can attach the accent bow to the back of the hat (seen peeking out above). And lastly, put a big glob of glue on the center of the inside tray and attach elastic headband. It’s done! My daughter went *crazy* over it! Especially because she isn’t allowed to touch my grandmother’s hat, much to her dismay. Now she has one of her own.

Now that’s both creative crafting and smart parenting, eh??

If you liked this craft, you might also like this tissue paper flower topiary, too!

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.