Cardboard crafts - 122 ideas of what can be made from colored paper for children

What can you make from cardboard?

First of all, about the easiest crafts. The purpose of such work is to introduce young masters into the world of creativity, to arouse interest and a desire to see the results of their work and efforts.

Finger toys

Models of fairy-tale or cartoon characters are useful when theatricalizing scenes. They are prepared from thin raw materials by twisting a narrow strip into a tube the size of a finger and fastening it with a stapler or glue.

For this purpose, they also use toilet paper rolls, which can be cut into small cylinders with a knife. Pictures of the characters are available on the Internet. They can be drawn or printed on a printer.

This activity can be done with children 2-3 years old, where the task boils down to copying, painting a picture and gluing it to a cylinder.

Stable figures

You can come up with models of animals, cars, houses or use found templates for this. Fold the blank in half and transfer a copy of the drawing onto this base so that the shapes are connected along the fold line. Cut the product along the contour. It will be quite stable. The size is arbitrary.

Glue the windows and doors to the house.
Add highlighted elements of windows and doors to the car, and paint the wheels.
Glue fruits onto the tree - apples, pears.
Draw eyes, ears, and nose for the sheep.
Color the bird motley, adding beak, eyes, wings.

The activity is suitable for children 3 - 4 years old. The main thing is to use your imagination.

Note!

What can be made from a box at home for kindergarten: the best craft ideas + video master class
How to make flowers from napkins quickly and easily: 15 ways to create bouquets of roses, carnations, peonies
How to make flowers from corrugated paper with your own hands: step-by-step instructions for creating voluminous bouquets

Cheerful family

From the blanks you can create a whole family of chickens with their mother.

Cut a narrow strip about 12 cm long from a green cardboard sheet, making “herbal” cuts on top.
Connect the edges into a roll.
From yellow, cut out a model of a hen. Eyes, comb, beak, wings - attach everything. Place chicken on rack.
Prepare stands for small chickens in the same way.
Paint the children and place them next to their mother.

Decor and candlesticks

Cardboard is an indispensable assistant in decorating a room for any holiday . Carved candlesticks look beautiful.

Important! It is better to use battery-powered electric candles near cardboard decorations.

For this decor, you can use any boxes (pizza, shoes or household appliances), but the finished items will have to be painted - with acrylic or spray paints.

Related article: 7 chandeliers “from the future” in high-tech style

Bird feeders

Use a sharp knife to cut out large enough windows. Leave a bottom where bird food will be poured. Hang from a tree branch by attaching wire or string to the top of the feeder. All that remains is to add grain or other fertilizers and wait for the arrival of winter guests.

Watching them is a fascinating activity.

Tea boxes will become cases for glasses, quite beautiful if they are decorated with paints, stones, and ribbons.

But what else can you make from colored paper? Such raw materials are an excellent alternative to breakable, fragile New Year's toys.

Cardboard box

Detailed master classes will tell you how to make crafts from cardboard. An original idea is a gift box. It is suitable when you want to present a gift beautifully. Boxes are often created for small items.

To complete such a craft, you will need a special diagram. It clearly shows how to properly make a box, as well as a lid for it.
It is important to maintain the exact dimensions so that the box and lid fit perfectly together.
The shape of the box may vary. It is important to use cardboard of sufficient density to ensure the packaging is secure.
When performing work, it is important to strictly adhere to the proposed technology.
The finished box should be additionally decorated.

Various elements are suitable for decoration. These can be ribbons, beautiful lace, elements cut out of colored paper and much more.

Receiving a gift in such magnificent packaging will be doubly pleasant.

Angel

It is made from 2 paper rectangles (2 cm x 3 cm) and 1 rectangle (3 cm x 5 cm).
Fold them lengthwise like an accordion. Glue them together (the big one is in the middle), and assemble them on top.
Cut out wings and a head with a halo from a white durable sheet. Decorate the face and attach it to the assembled part of the angel figurine.
Thread a thread from above to hang the toy on the spruce.
Decorate with beads and sequins.

You can cook it at home. Matryoshka dolls are made in a similar way, using bright colors. Even first-graders can do this.

And here is the craft technology for grade 2:

Volumetric paper decorations (master classes)

New Year's decor always looks more interesting if the decorations are voluminous. Making them is more difficult than flat toys, snowflakes or garlands, but everyone can do it. For creativity, they use paper of different colors, additional decor, bright ribbons, laces, shiny threads.

Volumetric crafts - stars, snowflakes, balls, garlands - are hung on the Christmas tree or on the ceiling. With a little imagination and patience, you can create original toys, elegant and voluminous New Year's decorations with your own hands from paper.

Volumetric pointed balls

This interesting decoration made from white paper is quite simple to make. To make a craft you need sheets, glue, a pencil, scissors, a small saucer, a coin, beads (rhinestones, sparkles), and fishing line.

How to make balls:

Place the saucer on the paper, circle 4 blanks.
Draw the outline of a coin in the center of each circle.
Cut out paper circles (don't touch the middle yet).
On each circle, draw eight lines with a pencil, not reaching the central circle.
Insert a pencil into each sector, fold the edges, and glue them together.
For each ball you need 4 blanks, they are allowed to dry.
The elements are connected with the inner sides, a hole is made with a needle, and a fishing line is pulled through. The original New Year's decoration looks beautiful on the Christmas tree and in the garland.

3D star

A popular Christmas tree decoration is the pointed star. It crowns the top of the tree and gives the decoration a complete look. To make the product look more realistic, you can make a three-dimensional 3D star from colored paper.

Completing of the work:

Cut out two identical squares - arbitrary size and color.
The blanks are folded in half twice, and diagonally two more times.
Unfold a fragment of the toy – the fold lines are clearly visible.
Each corner is folded inwards towards the fold (like a children's airplane).
The edges of the corners are glued together according to the principle of paper bags for volume.
The second fragment of the toy is performed similarly.
Connect the blanks with the inner part to each other crosswise and glue them together.

Related article: How to decorate a Christmas tree for the New Year 2021: ideas and creativity
The result is a voluminous star with pointed rays. A ribbon or cord is attached to it and the toy is hung on the Christmas tree. To simplify the work, the loop can be placed between the star fragments before gluing.

In the video: a three-dimensional star made of paper.

Volumetric snowflakes

White snowflakes are used to decorate windows and decorate the area near the fireplace. If you stretch a silver thread through the products, you can hang garlands of snowflakes in the room. New Year's decorations made of white paper look interesting when the snowflakes are of different sizes with unequal patterns. To make snowflakes with a voluminous middle, you will need white paper, a pencil, and scissors.

Operating procedure:

A sheet of A4 format is folded in half and cut into 2 parts.
Each piece is folded diagonally and the excess is cut off.
The resulting squares are again folded in half and diagonally.
The core of a snowflake is made from the blanks by making two cuts.
The cuts are made from edge to corner, without cutting the workpiece to the end.
A shaped cutout is made in the upper part to create petals.
The product is unfolded, the inner petals are glued to the center.

The second part of the snowflake is performed in the same way. After this, the parts are glued crosswise together. The result will be a double-sided volumetric snowfield, with a flower in the center on one and the other side.

Head of Santa Claus

Take a pink circle with a diameter of 6 cm - the head of Santa Claus. Next, make a hat: a red triangle, a circle on top, and a wide white stripe at the bottom of the triangle. Attach it to the pink circle.
The beard is made from a white sheet cut into fringes. They twist it around a pencil to make it curly and glue it to the head.
They use felt-tip pens and paints to draw a face.
Attach a loop and hang the toy.

These paper crafts for children are easy to prepare. Therefore, you can prepare them yourself at home.

New Year's decorations made of colored paper (master classes)

You can make beautiful and unusual New Year's decorations from colored paper with your own hands in advance of the holiday. Such bright crafts are used to decorate a room and hang on the New Year tree. Even a small child can make a simple chain garland.

You need to prepare scissors, glue, several sets of colored paper for crafts, and optionally choose beautiful beads, beads, rhinestones, sparkles, and colored ribbons. Simple New Year's decorations made with your own hands from paper turn out to be interesting and relevant.

Simple garlands

The simplest New Year's garland is a chain. For it, paper of different colors is chosen in order to alternate links with each other. Blanks of any length and thickness are cut, then all the strips are glued together - first, make the first link, thread a paper strip into it, glue it again and repeat the steps until you get a garland of the required length.

Article on the topic: Original table decoration for the New Year 2019 (MK +95 photos)

Another interesting decoration option is a chain of colored hearts, and connecting the elements is much easier with a stapler. By analogy with the previous master class, the required number of narrow strips are cut from colored paper. Take the first two strips, fasten them with a stapler, turn them inside out (as if opening them), connect the two free edges, add two new strips to them and then fix them with a staple. The result is an unusual decoration that looks elegant in the decor of the room.

Garland of paper balls

A more complex decoration is a voluminous garland made up of multi-colored paper balls. Additionally, to make a craft you need a sewing machine, but if you don’t have one, you can do the work manually.

How to make a garland from paper balls:

Cut out 6 circles of the same size in different colors from colored paper.
Prepare several sets of circles along the length of the garland.
Sew a stack of blanks on a machine, then the next one and until the end.
Carefully wrap the fragments at the seam, forming bright balls.

For crafts, you can use crumpled or non-plain paper - the craft will be more fun. Garlands are hung from the diagonal corners of the room, decorated with them on the Christmas tree, walls, and ceiling.

Garland of flags

A popular New Year's decoration for the home is a garland of colorful multi-colored paper flags. On colored paper, draw the shape of a flag with a fold line in the middle and cut it out. You should get a double-sided element. Flags of a different color are prepared in the same way. Each flag is opened, glue is applied to the fold line and a strong thread is glued until the required number of paper parts for the garland is collected.

Alternatively, the flags can be made in a triangular shape by gluing the free corners of the products. Sometimes scraps of colored fabric are used for such decoration. After the New Year, you can hang garlands with flags to decorate a children's party.

Christmas trees

What's New Year without a Christmas tree? You can decorate this festive beauty with your own crafts made from colored paper. To make a three-dimensional hanging decoration, you need to take paper, scissors, cardboard, glue and tape.

We make the Christmas tree in this order:

1. Cut multi-colored narrow identical strips and make a cone out of paper.

2. Glue the edges of each strip together like a loop.

3. Glue the blanks to the cone starting from the bottom using tape or glue.

4. Decorate the top of the Christmas tree and the loops with any decor; you can also hang decorations on the Christmas tree.

As an option, an interesting garland is assembled from paper Christmas trees - the figures are sewn to a bright ribbon or secured above and below (chaotically) on a colored cord.

Christmas balls

One of the most popular Christmas tree decorations is balls. Colorful, bright, shiny toys make the Christmas tree more beautiful and fun. New Year's balls can be made from colored paper.

From paper strips

To make a simple ball, cut out thin paper strips (at least 18 pieces, more stripes, a more beautiful toy) and two small circles. Select a large bead, insert a thread into it, and thread both ends of the thread into the eye of the needle.

After this, a paper circle and all the prepared strips are threaded onto a needle along one edge. The next step is to string the second edge of each strip, the second circle and another bead in order, and draw out a loop. If you loosen the thread, you get a beautiful ball-shaped toy that can be further decorated.

From circles

This option is even simpler:

Cut out many circles of the same size from colored paper.
Stack the circles and draw a fold line in the middle.
Along this line, fasten the circles with staplers or sew them together.
Place a drop of glue between each pair of circles, either from above or from below.
Glue the toy pointwise to make the ball voluminous.

Woven paper balls

You can use ready-made patterns for New Year’s decorations to make balls and make them out of paper with your own hands or weave complex toys. Curly stripes and a small circle are cut out using the templates. Lay out the parts in the shape of a flower and glue a circle in the center. Next, the strips need to be woven like a braid from many strands.

To prevent the structure from falling apart and to make it convenient to work, the strips are fixed with ordinary clothespins. By the end of the weaving, a ball will be formed, the edges of the figured strips are again fastened with a circle and a loop of shiny thread is threaded.

Option 1 Option 2 Option 3

In the video: New Year's ball made of colored paper.

Magic lamps

Lanterns made of colored paper look unusual and original on the Christmas tree. Decorations are easy to make, even children can handle the job. The lamps symbolize warmth, wealth, prosperity and good luck. There are several simple master classes on how to make Christmas decorations with your own hands from paper in the form of lanterns for a Christmas tree.

The most popular option: take two sheets of different colors, glue a tube from one - the middle of the lantern, and fold the second sheet in half, step back 1 cm from the edge, draw a line. Then cuts are made from the fold to the drawn line. The cut sheet needs to be opened, wrapped around the cylinder tube, glued the edges and made a loop-handle at the top of the flashlight.

Lantern made of stripes

To make a beautiful toy, you need to cut many thin strips of colored paper - all the details of the decoration should be the same in size, approximately 15 cm long. The strips are folded edge to edge, each piece is pierced in this place with a needle, pulling a lace or thread through them.

Related article: How to stylishly decorate your home for the New Year: current ideas

The free edge of the lace is pulled through the hole on the other edge of the strip and gently pulled to form an arc - an elongated loop. The upper part of the lantern (where the edges of the strips) are glued with a thin strip of paper in a circle, and the rounded loops will hang freely, forming a pear-shaped lantern from thin strips.

Chinese lantern

The Chinese are the inventors of paper, they learned how to make interesting decorative items from it. A Chinese New Year lantern will decorate the holiday tree. To work, use a diagram; you can draw the segments of the flashlight yourself. The size of one part is on average 10 cm; according to the diagram, there are circles at the top and bottom of each segment for attaching a flashlight.

How to make a decoration:

Transfer the drawing onto colored paper.
The flashlight is made of six segments.
Cut out the workpiece and glue the edges.
Form the top and bottom of the flashlight.
Sew the lower circles with thread, then the upper ones.
Make fastenings and a loop. A cute Chinese lantern is ready.

Use this template to cut out the lantern segments

sky lattern

The decoration will be made on the principle of a flying lantern, but there is no need to launch it into the sky. The decoration is made from bright colored paper. You need to prepare a large sheet - 24 by 60 cm. It is folded in half, and then in the shape of an accordion. Next, the sheet is unfolded and triangular creases are made in the center (along the fold line). The same creases are made at the top and bottom. A figurative triangular cylinder is glued from the blank, and a bright loop is glued.

Ded Moroz and Snegurochka

The New Year is unthinkable without the main characters of the holiday - Father Frost and Snow Maiden. They are quite simple to make, using colored paper of blue (dark blue), red, white, yellow to cut out the elements of the New Year's figures yourself.

A circle is cut out of blue paper for the Snow Maiden, and from red paper for Santa Claus. The circles are cut to the middle, rolled into a cone and glued together to form the bases of the figures. Separately, a flat kokoshnik is cut out for the Snow Maiden, small slits are made on the cone and the resulting element is inserted into them. First, the figure’s face, drawn on a white oval, is glued onto the kokoshnik, and a yellow braid is glued to the back. For greater realism, you can make small cone-shaped hands and decorate the bottom of the Snow Maiden’s coat with white fringe.

Santa Claus' face is drawn and glued to the base cone. Then a small red cone is cut out. A mandatory element of decoration is a thick beard; if desired, you can make a bag with gifts.

To make the figures of the main New Year's characters more durable and voluminous, you can use colored cardboard instead of paper. To make a fringe or beard, white paper is cut into thin strips, each strip is wound around a pen or pencil - the result will be three-dimensional. You can decorate the finished figures at your discretion with snowflakes, stars, and pieces of cotton wool.

New Year's wreath

New Year's decorations use a wreath to symbolize prosperity, longevity, hope and happiness. The wreath serves as a kind of amulet for the family hearth from various troubles. Traditionally, the decoration is hung above the front door. To make a very simple construction paper wreath, you need more green sheets. The child must be involved in the creative process.

Master class on making New Year's door decor:

Choose a large plate, trace its outline on a sheet of colored cardboard (the wreath will be stronger) - this is the base.
In the center of the large circle, a smaller circle is cut out under the saucer, resulting in a wreath ring resembling a donut.
On green paper, trace the child’s palms with a pencil and cut out many fragments - the more, the prettier the decoration.
The “palms” are glued onto the ring, partially overlapping each other. It’s okay if it turns out messy – it’s more interesting that way.
Bright decorations are glued to the top of the “palms” - bells, bows, ribbons.

Balls

You can construct balls from brightly colored cardboard strips.

Prepare pieces about 10 cm long and 0.5 cm wide.
Connect their ends to form a circle.
Take 6 - 8 of these connected strips for one ball, form a shape in the form of a ball, putting one circle on top of another.
Glue the circles together at the intersection points.
Decorate your work with shiny things.

Striped flowers

Paper ribbons of the same length can be connected to form a flower. Take approximately 30 blanks.

Connect the edges of each ribbon with the back sides. Then glue the tapes one after another, as if forming the middle of the flower. It would be good to alternate shades.

At the end, connect the first to the last. You will get a beautiful children's paper craft that can be used both as a Christmas tree decoration and as a garland.

Cardboard feeder

To take care of the birds, you can make a feeder for them.

Detailed instructions will tell you how to make a craft from cardboard:

It is better to use fairly thick cardboard.
Initially, the details are prepared. It is necessary to provide four walls, a bottom and a roof.
It should be convenient for the birds to use the feeder.
It is better to find special diagrams on the Internet that show exactly how the feeder is made.
Additionally, it is worth considering what the feeder will be hung on.
If desired, the feeder is further decorated. You can make attractive drawings using felt-tip pens.

Postcards

To please their loved ones, the guys come up with and create original greeting cards. Let it be for March 8, for the New Year or for Valentine's Day. With the help of colors, interesting elements and nuances you can create a real masterpiece.

The application in grades 1 - 2 is simple. Children are not yet ready to create something super complex. For example, small cardboard squares of the appropriate tone are glued onto a drawn flower, or finished parts of the composition are glued.

Schoolchildren in grades 3 - 4 can make an applique from torn small pieces of paper or round lumps of corrugation. In this case, the pieces should fit tightly, leaving no gaps.

Older children can do quilling and three-dimensional collages that require a creative approach.

Develop and encourage children to want to create. After all, this activity can become a real hobby for them. Let creating cardboard crafts bring pleasure and joy to your home.

Wreath

A beautiful DIY cardboard craft is a wreath. It will be an excellent decoration for the interior.

How it's done:

A circle is cut out of cardboard. Then the middle is cut out.
Next, the circle should be decorated. Various materials will work.
These could be, for example, paper flowers.
A good solution would be decorative ribbons.
You can also use artificial flowers and much more.
Additionally, you will need ribbon so that the wreath can be hung.

Such decoration will immediately lift your spirits.

Cardboard crafts: photo examples of creative ideas

Please repost