Creating your Own Paper and Make Origami Paper Crafts

Creating your own paper crafts have been around for many years. As kids we made paper Mache out of newspapers and made all sorts of animals by soaking the paper in water and using a blown up balloon and gluing layers of paper on top of each other until you had enough, and creating the required shape. Then it was allowed to dry and painted to represent the animal. These were often used for money boxes.

It didn’t stop there. People used their creativity and started to make their own patterned paper to create cards, invitations and many other beautiful things. Paper crafts are a great activity for the whole family to have fun making things together.

You can use a variety of assorted papers to make you beautiful papers. Some of these are:

• Newspapers for grey smoky colored paper
• Toilet paper
• Egg cartons
• Typing paper
• Old napkins
• Paper bags

Things you need to make your papers

• Plastic dish big enough to lay your frame in
• 2 Pieces of felt for blotting your paper
• Blender to pulp the paper up
• Choice of different colored papers to tear up
• A Piece of screen the size of your paper
• 2 teaspoons starch (if want to use as writing paper)
• Spare newspapers to soak up moisture
• Bottle or rolling pin

Method for making paper

Tear the pieces of paper into small pieces, and half fill blender. Fill the blender with some warm water and run the blender slowly then increase speed as the pulp looks smooth. Make sure there are no lumps. If using starch add it now and stir.

Place the screen in the bottom of the flat dish and pour pulp in. Move it around to get the pulp evenly on the screen. Lift out the screen and keeping it level let it drain. Place the screen on a piece of felt and place other piece of felt on top, these will act as blotters. You could put extra newspapers under and on top of this to soak up moisture.

Now use rolling pin or similar to press out any excess water. Remove the newspapers Turn over the blotter and screen without moving the pulp.

Lay it carefully on a shelf to dry for twenty four hours. If you made too much pulp then make another sheet of paper adding different colors to make it look different.

 Sun Prints are a very easy thing for any child to make

This is so simple.  You can use anything from combs, buttons, and scissors, anything that will block the light and create a shadow, which in actual fact fades the paper around the articles.

You will need

Colored pieces of paper

Assorted items like suggested above

I have used a doily, button, comb and a stencil.  Just lay out on the ground or on a table and leave in the sun for several hours.

This can be used as an experiment for the children to explain just how hot the sun is and why they need to put on their sunscreen.  When you have the desired effect, the kids could even color them in which will give them something else to keep them occupied and have fun too.

This is another craft that has been around for centuries. As paper disintegrates there is no guaranteed proof as to where it originated from. Although some believe it was the Japanese, Chinese and then others suggest that the Spanish folded paper before the twelfth century.

People have folded paper as gifts to their gods

Paper Planes

I think nearly every child at sometime would have made one of these at school. There are some simple plans for planes this or more involved ones this site shows how to fold the paper for some of these.

Birds

You can also make a variety of different birds like Eagles, Cranes, bird of Paradise, Flamingos and many others

Fish

You can encourage you children to even make some fish and hang them from their bedroom ceilings. Some of these are Angel, Kissy, Goldfish, and many other paper crafts.

If you love making things with paper then I hope you enjoy making some from this site which shows you how to fold heaps of different things. You name it and I think you will find it there.

Origami: the Art of Paper Folding Plans