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One of the most fun winter activities you can do as a family is to set aside some time to do some crafts with kids. And a great craft idea is to make some Christmas crafts with kids with which you can decorate your home for the holidays.
This poinsettia flower craft is an elegant idea that is easy and fun to create with kids, and one they'll love sharing and proudly putting up on display, either as individual flowers or as part of a poinsettia wreath.
To make poinsettia flowers, you will need the following:
- 5 sheets of 8 1/2" x 11" red card stock paper
- 5 sheets of 8 1/2" x 11" whitecard stock paper
- 3 sheets of 8 1/2" x 11" green card stock paper
- colored reinforcements (shiny if available)
- brass fasteners
- hole puncher
- pen/pencil
- scissors
- glue
- red ribbon (optional--for hanging poinsettias)
NOTE: If you only want to make one color of poinsettias--either just white or just red--then skip the color you don't want. Follow directions for only one color poinsettias in the following steps.
Fold your white card stock paper.
To begin, make a 1 1/2-inch fold in the card stock paper.
Draw your leaf.
Draw a small leaf, approximately 2 inches long and 1/2 inch wide at its widest point. Once you have the leaf shape you want, cut it out and use it to trace more leaves.
Draw a large leaf.
Once you have made about 20 small leaves, draw your large leaf, about 3 inches long and about 3/4" at its widest point. Again, use the leaf shape you like most to trace the other large leaves.
Cut out your leaves.
At this point, you should have 20 small leaves and 20 large leaves. (Each flower is made with 5 leaves, so if you want more flowers, cut out additional leaves.)
Begin cutting out your leaves. Younger children will need help with this part but older children can do it themselves. Remember: the leaves do not have to be perfect. After all, in nature, leaves are unique and different from one another. When they are put together, it will look lovely, imperfections and all.
Lay out your leaves.
Starting with the small flowers, lay out your leaves in a circle in preparation for gluing. You'll want at least 5 small petals and 5 large petals for each poinsettia flower.
Begin gluing your poinsettia leaves.
Place small dots of glue at the fatter bottom of the poinsettia leaves and begin gluing them together. Older children should be able to do this part on their own, but younger children will need your help.
You should have equal numbers of large leaves and small leaves.
At this point, you should have the same numbers of small and large leaves glued together. Each poinsettia will be made with one large set of leaves and one small set of leaves.
Leave the flowers to dry completely.
Next, begin your red poinsettia flowers.
If you are making red poinsettias, take your red card stock and repeat the process for making poinsettia leaves, just as you did with the white poinsettias. Start by folding the paper along the edge.
Glue the red poinsettia leaves.
Using your large and small leaves from the white poinsettias, trace out the outlines for the red poinsettia flowers. Cut out the large and small leaves.
You should have a set of small poinsettia leaves and large leaves.
Working first with the smaller leaves, begin gluing your red poinsettia leaves together, just as you did with the white leaves.
Once the smaller leaves are all assembled, work on the larger red poinsettia leaves. Let dry completely.
Punch a hole in each glued poinsettia leaves.
At this point, you should have an equal number of small poinsettia leaves and large poinsettia leaves, glued together and ready for assembly, just as you did with the white leaves.
Put the colorful reinforcement on the small set of leaves.
Once the leaves are completely dry, take your hole puncher and make a hole in each small and large set of glued poinsettia leaves.
To get as close to the center as possible, you may need to fold over some of the leaves (they already have folds down the middle, so this won't affect the leaves' appearance).
Kids may have a hard time positioning the hole puncher or pressing firmly enough to make the hold, so parents may want to do this step.
Insert the brass fasteners and join the large and small leaves.
Once you have made holes in the small and large poinsettia leaf sets, put a colorful reinforcement ring on the small set of leaves only. I chose to put red reinforcements on the white poinsettias and chose green reinforcement rings for the red poinsettia flowers, to give it a holiday look and provide a background for the brass fasteners, which will be inserted into the holes.
Here's what the assembled poinsettia will look like--beautiful!
Next, take your brass fasteners and join the small leaves with the large leaves, with the small leaves going on top of the large ones.
This step is fun and easy, and even young kids can help! Just make sure you teach them not to press down on the pointy part of the fasteners so that they don't prick their fingers. (With very small children, you may want to have them insert the fasteners and have older kids or adults actually do the fastening.)
And here is the white poinsettia.
And voila! A lovely and elegant (and relatively easy) poinsettia you and your kids will be very proud of!
Make some leaves.
Here is the white version of the poinsettia, equally gorgeous and elegant!
Glue on the green leaves.
Of course, every flower needs a few leaves. Even just having two leaves can somehow create a more "real-looking" flower, and lend it a more, well, flowery look.
Take one of your large leaf originals (or make a new large leaf) and trace it out on green card stock paper. Make at least two leaves for each flower.
Ta da! A beautiful array of red and white poinsettias.
See what I mean? The green leaves really bring out the flowers and give your poinsettias dimension and an oomph. Glue at least two green leaves to the back of each poinsettia flower and let dry completely.
And there you have it: a beautiful array of red and white poinsettias that can be turned into a wreath or individually glued on to presents for an elegant gift. You can even put them on the holiday table for an extra-festive look!
Your child will be proud to show off his work, and you can even share your poinsettias and poinsettia wreaths with friends and family. They make a wonderful holiday gift!
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