Crafts For kids: Last Year's Tissue Paper Project!

  In an attempt to give you at least two ideas for nice craft projects to do with the kids, either before or during Tisha B'Av, I've decided to re-post a project from last year. Some of you may remember it, but most of you haven't been with me quite that long, and may not have gone through the archives, right? 

A Corkboard + Tissue Paper Mural The Kids Can Do Themselves!

Looking for a craft project to keep your kids busy and happy? Here's a really great mural project that they can almost do by themselves. I cut out the pieces, and my youngest children ages 4, 5 1/2 and 7 did the rest (older children will be able to do the entire project).  After they were dry, I arranged the pieces on the cork board and my little artists couldn't believe what they had created! A joyful addition to our home, and a reminder that crafts are a great way to build actual skills as well as self confidence.

You'll Need:

• A corkboard or emtpy wall
• Thin cardboard, I used cereal boxes
• Cardboard tubes
• Tissue paper (or crepe paper, or any colored paper for that matter!)
• White glue
• A concept for your mural (i.e. Jerusalem, our city, our backyard, our house.....)

Show children how to crumple small balls of tissue paper and apply to shape
How To:

1. Draw basic shapes on cardboard and cut out. (Mom will need to do this for younger children)
2. Apply glue to shapes with a brush or finger
3. Add tissue paper to shapes, either small crumpled pieces or flat pieces, or some combination of the two
4. Cover tubes entirely with tissue paper, and cut in half after dry to use as tree trunks
5. Set pieces aside to dry
6. Assemble mural!

Applying flat pieces of tissue paper to glue-coated sha
The idea I've shown you here can be used in so many ways in addition to a mural! Children can decorate both sides of each shape and make a mobile, one could punch a hole at the top of each shape and hang individually as Succah decorations.
Additionally, tissue paper gives the most colorful results, but if you don't happen to have any around the house and would like to do this project anyway, why not try doing collages of different types of paper (or materials) on each shape. Give the children an array of craft materials to glue on (yarn, sticks, stickers, pompoms, etc.) and watch them create mini works of art!
This is the type of project that could keep children busy for hours, though you might want to print the picture of what we've done for inspiration. I think if my kids had known what the results would be, they may have had more energy to do even more. Give it a try and let me know how it goes!