Hand Crafts

Sweet corn is a lasting symbol of the Thanksgiving holiday. Make your own corn on the cob to celebrate the harvest season!

What you'll need:

• 8”x 10” piece of green craft foam
• 4-5 cotton balls
• Yellow acrylic craft paint
• Scissors
• White craft glue
• Paintbrush

How to make it:

1. Cut a corn cob shape out of the green craft foam.
2. Line center of the craft foam with white craft glue.
3. Pull small pieces off of the cotton balls and roll into balls with your fingers.
4. Place the rolled balls onto the craft glue. Continue this step until entire center of green foam is filled with “corn kernels.”
5. Dip paintbrush into yellow paint. Paintbrush should be full, but not dripping.
6. Using a dabbing motion, add paint to the cotton until mostly covered (see image). Allow to dry for about two hours.
7. After paint has had a chance to dry, add more yellow paint where needed.
8. Let dry completely.

Tips:

• To make this project into Indian corn, use tan craft foam instead of green and add touches of burgundy, orange and brown paint through the corn kernels.
• Make several of these and use as place markers for your Thanksgiving table. Simply write family members’ names across the green foam with a black marker.
• This makes a fun classroom wall project. Have each child create a corn cob and build a cork wall with rows of corn.

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This cute kids' paper bag pumpkin craft is perfect for table decorations or, if filled with candy, a great party treat bag. They are easy to make with simple supplies for a fun Halloween craft for kids.

What you'll need:

• 1 brown paper lunch bag
• Acrylic paint: orange and leaf green
• Paintbrush
• ¼ sheet brown construction paper
• 6- 12” pieces of green raffia
• Scissors

How to make it:

1. Paint the outside of the lunch bag with orange paint.
2. Paint the inside, top portion of the bag with leaf green paint. (See photo.)
3. Paint a second coat of orange paint on the bag, only this time, paint the top outside portion with the leaf green-colored paint.
4. When paint is completely dry, fringe the green section of the bag with your scissors, strips should be approximately ½” – 1” wide.
5. Fill bag with crumpled newspaper (if using as a decoration) or candy and treats.
6. Gather top of bag with your hand and tie a piece of raffia around it, just below the green section.
7. Continue tying pieces of green raffia around the neck of the bag until all of it has been used.
8. Cut a 1.5” wide strip of brown construction paper and roll up into a tube. Insert the tube of paper into the center of the green portion of the bag as the stem. If these bags are used as decoration, you can glue the stem in place.

Tips:

• To reuse these decorations at Halloween, add faces as jack-o'-lanterns by gluing on yellow construction paper facial features.
• If using these as party bags, you may want to grab all raffia pieces together and tie them into one knot to make them easier to remove rather than ripping the bag open.
• To give the bags some weight, especially if they will be displayed outside, add a cup of sand or clean cat litter to the bottom of the bag before adding the crumpled newspaper.

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With fall comes an abundance of apples. Make these cute little candy apples, caramel apples and apples from the orchard with felt foam balls.

What you'll need:

• 3- 2” polystyrene (aka- "Styrofoam") balls
• Felt: red, tan, burgundy, and green
• 2 regular craft sticks
• 1 miniature craft stick
• Brown craft paint
• Scissors
• White craft glue
• Pattern

How to make it:

1. From tan, burgundy, and red felt, cut out the pattern.
2. Place polystyrene ball in the center of the felt cross and glue in place. (See photo.)
3. Glue left and right side up onto the ball first, the ends should meet at the top of the ball.
4. Glue the remaining two strips of the cross up the side of the ball, tucking in any felt that may be sticking out.
5. For the caramel apple, insert a craft stick down the center of the tan ball.
6. For the candy apple, insert a craft stick down the center of the burgundy ball.
7. For the orchard apple, first paint the top half of the miniature craft stick with brown paint.
8. When dry, insert the unpainted end of the miniature craft stick down the center of the red ball.
9. Cut two small leaf shapes from the green felt and glue to the top of the apple near the stem.

Tips:

• These will make very cute gifts for your new teacher!
• Felt is inexpensive and fun to use, be sure to have plenty on hand for impromptu projects.
• For a fun twist, use 3-D brown fabric paint to add “chocolate” drizzle to the caramel apple!

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This paper cornucopia craft would make a lovely addition to your Thanksgiving table. Although it looks impressive, it's super-easy to make!

What you'll need:

• 3 sheets of 12" x 18" art paper or 6 sheets of construction paper
• Clear tape
• Brown paper lunch bags
• Green, brown or black chenille stems
• Acrylic paint: red, purple, goldenrod, orange
• Newspaper
• 1 sheet yellow tissue paper
• 2 sprigs of plastic fall flowers and plants (wheat, seed pods, etc)
• Raffia
• Paintbrush
• Scissors

How to make it:

1. Crumple up a piece of newspaper. Open a brown paper bag and put the crumpled newspaper inside. Depending on the size you want your vegetables and fruits, add more crumpled newspaper. To form a ball shape, like an apple or a pumpkin, put the crumpled paper into one corner of the bottom of the bag.
2. Twist the remainder of the bag to create a stem and wrap a piece of chenille around out to keep it tight. Trim off the excess bag (see image).
3. To create an eggplant, follow step one above, except to make this shape elongated, add more paper above the existing crumpled paper, and then twist closed.
4. To create carrots, take any remaining bag that was cut off as excess and roll it up, tape it closed (see image).
5. Paint your vegetables and fruits, one coat will do and they do not need to be perfect (see image).
6. While the paint is drying, create your cone. Line of all three pieces of art paper next to each other to create one large piece (36"x18"). If using construction paper, line two pieces up next to each other to create a 12x18 piece. Repeat two more times, then follow instructions above. Tape the seams to seal everything together (see image).
7. Roll this into a cone shape, making sure to leave an opening large enough for your harvest. Tape closed and trim opening of cone if needed.
8. Fill cone halfway with raffia (see image).
9. Place harvest vegetables and fruits into the cone.
10. Insert floral and wheat sprigs in randomly around your harvest.
11. Roll up tissue paper and wrap gently around your cone and tie in a knot. Dot some glue on to hold it in place.

Tips:

1. We did not glue any of the contents of our cornucopia. However, if you prefer, you can glue your items in using white craft glue, or for a faster solution, an adult can glue them in place.
2. If you have enough time, you can glue the art paper or construction paper together and allow it to dry. This way you will not have the taped seams.
3. Ideas for your bounty include: purple eggplant, orange carrots, red apples, orange pumpkins, and yellow squash.

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This is a great project to keep younger kids busy as guests arrive for Thanksgiving dinner. Put the kids in charge of collecting an "I am thankful for" messages on each petal, and then have them glue on to the paper plate to create the flower.

What you'll need:

• 9" paper plate
• 3-4 sheets of yellow construction paper
• Brown acrylic paint
• Black marker
• Scissors
• White craft glue

How to make it:

1. Place paper plate, right side up, on work surface.
2. Paint the center circle of the plate with brown paint (see image). 
3. Fold yellow construction paper like a business letter to achieve three equal sized pieces.
4. With paper still folded, draw a simple petal onto the paper (see image). 
5. Holding the paper, still folded, cut through all three layers and cut out the petal. You should have three petals. Repeat this for as many petals as you need.
6. As guests arrive, have them write their names at the top and a short description of what they are thankful for on the petal. Also have family members living in the house fill out their own as well (see image).
7. Glue each petal onto the paper plate, lining up the bottom of the petal with the brown center circle on the plate.
8. Hang the flower where all your guests can see it.

Tips:

1. Our sunflower holds 10 petals. Be sure to paint enough plates to account for however many guests that will be at the party. If you are having a smaller crowd, fold the construction paper in half instead of thirds, to make larger petals.
2. If you only have a few extra guests, but not enough for another flower, make leaves from green construction paper instead. Attach a piece of green yarn to the back of the flower, and then attach the leaves to the yarn.
3. To hang your flower, you can attach a magnet to the back for metal surfaces, roll a few pieces of sturdy tape and stick on the back, or attach a piece of yarn to hang from a nail or thumbtack. You may need to tape some of the upper petals to the wall to keep them from drooping over.

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This charming centerpiece will be the talk of your holiday dinner table. If you have a small gathering, use a smaller branch, if you need more room, make more than one!

What you'll need:

• Twig with branches
• Heavy vase, container or basket with rocks
• Floral foam
• Silk leaves
• White card stock
• Black marker
• Hot glue gun
• American moss

How to make it:

1. Fill container (we used an urn) with floral foam. Pack it in tight so that it doesn’t move around.
2. Insert twig into the floral foam until secure.
3. Hot glue one silk leaf for each member of your family that will be attending the holiday celebration onto the end of each branch.
4. Write each family member’s name on pieces of card stock. Hot glue one name below each leaf.
5. Arrange American moss over the top of the pot and hot glue in place.
6. Place on the holiday table.

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Children will enjoy tracing their hands and feet to create this one-of-a-kind paper turkey craft for Thanksgiving.

What you'll need:

How to make it:

1. Find a place to work, and protect it with a large sheet of paper.
2. Gather all your materials.
3. Read all the directions.

Making Your Hands-and-Feet Turkey

Step 1 - Trace the child's hands and feet

1. Trace two feet (with shoes on) on brown construction paper.
2. Trace two hands on tan construction paper.
3. Trace two hands on red construction paper.
4. Trace two hands on orange construction paper.
5. Trace one hand on yellow construction paper.

Step 2 - Cut out all the pieces

 Cut out all the hands and feet tracings.

Put the two feet tracings together to make the turkey body and head, placing the heels together one on top of another, and spreading the bottoms apart as in the illustration. Glue.

Cut two feet out of the orange scraps, then cut a diamond shape for the beak. Draw the eyes on white paper and cut them out, or use wiggle eyes. Make the wattle out of red construction paper. Glue each piece onto the body as shown.

Step 4 - Attach the tail

Glue the red, orange, and yellow construction paper hands behind the brown body to make the tail.

Position the two tan hands on either side of the body to make the turkey's wings and glue them in place.

You're Done!

Enjoy your decoration. Be sure to put the date on the back, so that in future years you'll be able to know when it was made.

Have fun making a whole flock of turkeys—or enjoy making a turkey each year to chart how much your child has grown.

Tips:

Young children may need help tracing their hands and feet.

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