Top cutting and sticking crafts for kids

Some lovely craft ideas for kids that involve cutting and gluing. Lots of wonderful pictures to make for children.

Use tiny pieces of scrunched up tissue to make colourful pictures.

You can make any design you like. Let your imaginations flow.

Here we show you how to make super pretty spring blossom branches.

How to make scrunched tissue blossom tree pictures

- Gather some twigs on a walk and take a pile of tissue paper (pink, red or white works well for these spring blossom pictures)
- Arrange and then glue your twigs to a piece of paper.
- Tear pieces of tissue paper and scrunch them up. Glue them to the twigs so they look like blossom on a tree.
- Carry on until you are happy with your beautiful spring tree in blossom.

You can make any picture you like using this method of sticking on scrunched tissue paper. Why not draw a fish and make it's scales using lines of scrunched tissue? Or make hearts and cover with red or pink tissue. Let your children come up with their own ideas and have lots of fun.

Trees that are as cute as a button.

A great craft for kids that will while away a quiet afternoon.

How to make button trees

- Paint the whole piece of paper in the colour/s of your choice. For a special picture you could paint on a canvas. Otherwise a piece of card works well.
- Paint the tree trunk and branches.
- Gather all your buttons and start gluing them in place, mixing up the colours and sizes as you go along. You could use little bits of scrunched up tissue instead of buttons (these look lovely as spring blossom) or finger prints look lovely too.
- When it is finished this makes a really beautiful picture - one for framing or even giving as a special gift.

You can buy packs of buttons quite cheaply from craft shops.

Cut scraps of magazines and stick them together to make collage pictures.

An absorbing craft for kids that will fill in a quiet afternoon and great craft for older kids and teens.

How to make collage portrait pictures

- Draw a face and body outline on your piece of paper or card. This is just a rough guide so it doesn't need to be perfect as it will be covered up later.
- Cut little pieces form magazines - faces and hair from photos are really useful to cut out for this picture. Also cut out some pinks and reds for the lips and some bright patterns and coloured pieces for the clothes.
- Start gluing on the tiny pieces you have cut out, overlapping each one so there are no gaps. Carry on until the whole face and body is covered and you are happy with your portrait.
- We love these collage portraits and have popped ours in a fancy frame!

Of course you can make any picture you want using this mosaic technique. Let your children think of what pictures they would like to create.

This is a lovely project to make a keepsake for your child's bedroom or to give away as presents.

Make cute as a button initials.

How to make your button initial pictures

- Draw your initial onto a piece of pretty paper with pencil. We have drawn ours dark so you can see but when you do it use a light pencil line that can later either be covered with buttons or rubbed out.
- Start sticking on your buttons - starting with the biggest ones first.
- Keep sticking on buttons, gathering together lots and lots of tiny buttons at the edges until you are happy with your initial.
- These pictures look lovely in a box frame (which you can buy cheaply on line) or simply framed.

A brilliant threading project for little ones to develop fine motor skills.

These remind us of Hawaiian garlands and inject a bit of summer into a dull afternoon.

How to make the necklace

- Cut some flower shapes (or circles) from tissue paper and cut plastic drinking straws into lengths of 3cm or so.
- Gather a pile of tissue shapes, a pile of cut straws and some buttons and cut a length of wool or string long enough to go around your child's neck.
- Thread the wool onto a large eyed embroidery needle (these are not very sharp so even little ones can use them quite safely). Tie a large knot at one end and thread on a button. This makes it easier once your child starts threading their necklace, making sure nothing falls off the end of the wool.
- Then your child can begin threading - adding straws, tissue shapes and buttons in any pattern they like.

You can also make pretty necklaces using dried penne pasta, which you can paint first.

Use fabric scraps to make beautiful collage pictures.

You can make any design you like. Here we show you how to make a wise old owl.

How to make wise owl fabric scraps collage pictures

- Draw your basic owl shape on a piece of card and cut round the outline.
- Use this as a template to cut the fabric for the owl's body. Then cut out wing shapes, eyes, beak and feet from fabric or felt scraps.
- Glue all your pieces into place using PVA glue.
- We cut out a branch from brown felt for our wise old owl to perch on to finish our picture.

These make lovely homemade cards too. Let your children decide what their pictures will be and have lots of fun making different pictures.

Cute spring lambs leaping in the field.

A perfect craft for little ones.

How to make the cotton wool sheep pictures

- To make the grass in the field cut a rectangle of card and dip the edge into green paint.
- Print all over the background of your paper to make a grassy field.
- Tease out a cotton wool ball to make your sheep's body and glue to the background.
- Paint on the legs, head and ears to finish.

This is just one idea for using cotton wool - perhaps your children could use it in a collage picture to make snowmen, clouds, steam, a polar bear? Let their imaginations flow.

These lolly stick animals make great puppets for imaginative play and also work well as bookmarks - perhaps to give away as home made gifts?

How to make lolly stick animals

- Paint the lolly sticks.
- Add patterns (spots and stripes) with paint.
- Glue on googly eyes and cut out other details from felt or fabric scraps.
- Then glue on all the details. Why not make a whole collections of animal friends?

Make tissue paper suncatchers and hang in the window to watch the light dance through the colours.

How to make your suncatchers

- Cut tissue paper into squares. Take a plastic freezer bag and stick your tissue squares to it, making sure the pieces of tissue overlap and that you coat them all well with glue. You can use a watered down mix of PVA glue and water for this craft.
- Leave your tissue paper to dry overnight (if you have impatient kids you can speed this part up by using a hairdryer to make it dry more quickly). Then cut your heart shape out of the bag with scissors.
- Carefully peel away the tissue from the bag - this is quite easy to do once it is completely dry.
- Then stick your suncatchers to the window with scotch tape or blue tac and watch as they catch the sunlight.

You could also make handmade cards using this method. Cut a heart shaped hole in the card and tape your tissue hearts to the back for a lovely effect.

For more crafty fun ideas on Netmums try:

- Top modelling ideas
- Put together your own children's craft box
- Ideas for junk modelling
- More arts and craft ideas