What We Made Today-(Or Yesterday)

Paper birds, to hang from the ceiling in our playroom. I came across some small birds made of pretty oriental papers, somewhere along the line, and decided that The Toddler and I could make something similar, but with a more personalized approach.

We started with a large sheet of watercolor paper. Stiff, but thin enough that it could still be easily bent. You could just use construction paper or whatever you have hanging around the house. We then used crayons, pens and watercolor paper to give our birds some color.

Thor "helping". Or, trying to swipe the paintbrushes.

When the paper was dry, we made outlines of bird bodies, and corresponsing rectangles(which would become wings) with pens, then cut the shapes out, folded the rectangles accordion style, made a slit on each bird body and slid the folded up rectangles through each slit. Voila! Paper birds!



 We punched a small hole at the top of each bird and hung them from the ceiling. Flying birds!

The kid is still small, so we kept the project on the easy and simple side, using crayons and watercolors, but you could easily use fancier papers and paints, maybe add some lace, buttons beads or other trims, and create even more interesting and complex versions of these birds with older children. Or yourself!

I am actually considering making some embroidered paper birds to use/sell as Christmas ornaments this holiday season. How cool would that be?

I never cease to be amazed by how inspiring to my own creativity, projects with my child can be. There is just something magical about seeing the world from a much simpler(and more easily impressed :D) perspective.

Not to mention the stress relief! And who could do with having less stress?

*raises hand*