Paper, Glue and Scissors Crafts

As a home educator I try to attempt one type of creative activity each day, especially for my 7yo who is still exploring the world. At this age they can still be quite occupied with the process of 'doing' as opposed to the project's final outcome...something I had to learn to be content with. Therefore, open ended projects can be more satisfying at this age. But that doesn't mean we don't attempt something that has a final purpose as in this project we did together today.

Supplies are simple. You can use whatever you have on hand:

two sheets of paper
glue or glue stick
scissors
pen or pencil

Take the sheet of paper that you wish the name to end up on and fold it in half lengthwise.

Placing the fold at the bottom, lightly trace or have your child write their name. Cursive provides a more interesting final project but printing will work. I have an example of each method here. Should you have a name with a trailing letter, just bump it above the line as we did here with the final 'y'. Unfortunately my pencil marks do not show up well in these photos.

The next step is to create dimension from the letters by tracing along the outside of the letter to create a block-style writing. There is no need to be exact here and the side with the pencil marks will be glued down in the end.

Using scissors cut around the outside of the letters being sure to leave a continuous fold of paper along the bottom. This is more difficult if you are using printed letters. Just keep a small strip of paper intact between the individual letters. If you are using cursive letters, you may cut out the interior of hollow letters as well. Anything goes here.

Unfold the paper and lay it face down with the pencil marks underneath. It will look absolutely fascinating, and I guarantee your kids will ooh and ahh. Using a glue stick or glue, adhere it to the second piece of paper and then it can be embellished with glitter, stickers, markers, or even turned into a totem pole or alien as my 7yo decided to do.



Older children will enjoy this as well as they can appreciate the symmetry and the final flow of the project. It is definitely unique depending on each child's name and their style of writing. Enjoy for awhile on your refrig and then mail off to relatives who will in turn enjoy this unique paper, glue and scissor craft.