Kids Crafts Thursday - Lillies and Daffodils

To celebrate spring, I thought we would make a nice bouquet of paper lilies and daffodils. I got the ideas for these crafts from two different sources. The handprint lilies are from Family Fun and the daffodils are from Busy Bee Kids Crafts. I modified the daffodils sightly. Here is what you will need:

Lilies:
-Card Stock - white and green
-Green Straws
-Yellow Pipe Cleaners
-Scissors
-Kids Safety Scissors
-Tape
-Hole Punch
-Pencil

Daffodils:
-Card Stock - yellow
-Green Straws
-Scissors
-Kids Safety Scissors
-Glue
-Pencil
-Stapler

Pre-Project Prep:
For the lilies:
1. Fold the green card stock in half and draw a leaf shape on one side.
2. Cut out the leaf shape through both layers, so when you unfold the paper, you get a double-sided leaf, like this:

3. Punch a hole in the center of your double-sided leaf.

For the daffodils:

1. Draw some star shapes on the yellow card stock. Cookie cutters work well for templates.

2. For younger crafters, cut the star shapes out. Older crafters can do this part by themselves.

Now...let the crafting begin! First we made the lilies.

1. Trace your child's hand(s) onto the white card stock.

2. For younger crafters, cut the hand shapes out for them. Older crafters can cut out their own hand shapes.

3. Curl the fingers by wrapping them around the pencil.

4. Wrap the hand shape around a green straw and secure it with tape.

5. Slide the other end of the straw through the hole you made in your double-sided leaf. Secure with tape.

6. Cut about a 4-5" piece of the yellow pipe cleaner. Fold it in half and then turn the ends down.

7. Stick the folded end of the pipe cleaner into the end of the straw.

8. Now you have a beautiful handprint lily to enjoy! And it doesn't even require water! :)

Daffodils:

1. If you haven't already - have your child cut out the star shapes as well as a rectangle (one for each daffodil you intend to make) measuring approximately 2"x 4".

2. Make small cuts along one edge of each rectangle.

3. And then glue the 2 short ends of the rectangle together, making a circle.

4. Staple the star shape to the end of a green straw.

5. Cut randomly place slits along the bottom edge of the center of your flower and fold them outwards.

6. Put glue on the bottoms of these 'tabs' and then attach it to the center of the star shape.

Here is my beautiful bouquet of flowers!!!

Project Review:

Once again...this was a great project for Ryleigh (4.5). She was able to do her own cutting, taping, gluing, etc. However, it was too involved for Isaac(2.5) and I quickly lost his interest and ended up doing the project for him. I'm having a hard time finding projects to satisfy both of my kids. Their skill levels are so far apart that it makes it hard to find something that Isaac can actually do that isn't a complete bore to Ryleigh.

Also, I would recommend choosing one type of flower or the other to complete at one time. It ended up being a pretty long project and Ryleigh was even starting to lose interest by the time we got to the end of the daffodils. If you want to have a beautiful bouquet like mine - do one type of flower one day and the type the next day.