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Paper Plate Craft Ideas for Kids
Paper plates aren't just for party food, they're also great to use as the base for many different children's craft projects too.
Blue plates are great for sea themed crafts, brown ones for reindeer crafts, white ones for Easter bunny crafts..... The list goes on.
It would be impossible to cover all paper plate craft ideas on this page but we hope that the suggestions below will give you some inspiration.
Paper Plates
You could use any size and colour paper plates for your paper craft projects. You could start with the plates you have and work projects around the colour or size of these - waste not, want not!
Generally you will find that different plates suit different craft purposes. If you want kids to be able to use pens and crayons you will find lighter coloured ones will work best, whereas acrylic paints will work on most colours. Small plates may suit some projects but in most cases larger (approximately 18-20cm) plates work best - they give a larger end product, they are easier for kids to work with and they have more space to work on too.
Some patterned paper plates can work well, especially on collage style cards.
All of our paper plates are listed in our party shop - we have a great range in all colours, sizes and designs.
Convert Your Plates to a Calendar!
If you are completing your paper plate craft towards the end of the year you could convert these to a calendar by adding a calendar pad to the base.
This will make the crafts into a keepsake that will be looked at all year and making them ideal gifts for Nans and other relatives.
Hanging Your Finished Paper Plate
Obviously you will need to do something with your finished craft project.
These are normally hung up with either a section of ribbon or a self-adhesive hanging hook.
If they are not too heavy you could add a magnet to the back, so that they can be attached to a fridge or other metal surface.
Fish Paper Plate Craft Idea
You don't need to use paper plates in their original round form, you can cut bits out and add bits on too, as we have in this example.
This fish is made using a yellow plate but any bright colour would be good. Tissue paper for scales is added and craft foam for a tail plus a 25mm googly eye. Then you just need some PVA glue and you're ready to go.
This is a lovely simple project but extremely effective, especially when using bright coloured craft supplies.
You could vary this to make a dolphin or an octopus. You could also add foil, metallic or glitter embellishments for a more shimmery look.
Smiley Horse Craft
With the fish craft, the plate is the background of the craft, whereas with this horse or pony craft idea the plate makes up for foreground and the project is built around it.
A white paper plate has been used, which has been embellished with acrylic paint and black pen.
Brown foam sheets have been added to the reverse with double sided tape, which have then been embellished with black pen and sections of fluffy black feathers.
This would be great for a horse themed craft activity, a cowboy or wild west craft project or could easily be adpated to be a unicorn.
Pirate Collage on a Plate
A pale blue paper plate has been used as the base for this project. This collage gives you an idea of how to use paper plates for freestyle crafts. You can just supply some themed craft items and then let the crafters use their imagination.
This project has been embellished with various different acrylic paints and foam peel and stick shapes.
There are many, many different ways that you can use paper plates for your Christmas craft projects.
White for snowmen, brown for reindeer and robins and even green for Christmas trees.....
Just add some craft foam, craft felt, pom poms and jingle bells and the reindeer filled skies are the limit!
If using plain plates, then acrylic paints really do work best, although poster paints are fine but take longer to dry - the big benefit of poster paint is that it's cheaper than acrylic paint.
Other Seasons Too....
You can use these plates for other seasons too.
Orange, black and lime green paper plates for pumpkins, spiders and witches at Halloween.
Or yellow and white paper plates at Easter for chicks, lambs and bunnies.
Why not use a pink plate for Mother's Day with big foam hands at the side for a big hug for Mum?
Do You Have Any Craft Ideas?
If you would like to share your craft ideas with others, please just let us know and we will include them on this or other pages for you - giving you full credit of course!
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