Tag Archives: Paper crafts
Panama: Molas
The Kuna Indians of Panama make beautiful designs in fabric by layering and cutting away the cloth to reveal the colors underneath. These fabric designs, called “molas,” were traditionally sewn into blouses, but have now gained worldwide recognition as a … Continue reading
1000 Cranes for Peace
In response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, students at my small, private school resolved to make 1000 paper cranes to commemorate the innocent lives lost and to honor all those who rescued, served, and helped. Many students wrote … Continue reading
Art Nouveau – Cut Paper Design
Students could choose to create a high contrast design by cutting and pasting paper. Amazingly, this student cut out her design in one piece!!
Handmade Paper
Our basic materials for papermaking included a blender, two dishpans, two 8″ x 10″ stretcher frames covered with fine nylon screen, paper that we salvaged from various recycling bins around our school, sponges, towels, and newspapers. Before starting this unit, … Continue reading
Torn Paper Portraits
As a short-term project, students created torn paper self-portraits. A picture was taken of each student and it was abstracted in Photoshop using the cut-out filter. This filter breaks the image down into specific values and students chose the number … Continue reading
Light-Capturing Cut Paper Designs
Students practiced cutting and folding pre-printed motif designs before coming up with interesting designs of their own. They worked on medium-weight white drawing paper which they divided into at least five 2-inch boxes. They left a border around the outer … Continue reading
Paper Pulp Painting
Denise Fleming, a children’s book author and illustrator, creates many of her illustrations by “painting” with colorful paper pulp. Her work was the inspiration for students who were eager to apply skills they’d learned in a previous unit on basic … Continue reading
Paper Making, Casting & Embossing
Paper Making: While papermaking “recipes” vary, we used 1-1/2 to 2 sheets of shredded 8.5 x 11 paper (added gradually) to 3-4 cups of water in a blender to produce one sheet of handmade paper. The paper and water were … Continue reading