Monday, January 18, 2016

Paper Plate Masks

Since Lucky was born, ChemKnits has evolved to include more than knitting, crochet, spinning and dyeing type projects.  I am doing so many other types of crafts as I plan out cute photoshoots or parties for my children.  At almost two, Lucky is finally able to start participating in some crafts.  I know that over the years to come his involvement will only increase, so I'll have to start planning these activities and letting go of some control to allow him to actively, and creatively, assist me.


We asked guests to come in costume to Lucky's 2nd Halloween Birthday Party, but I'm sure that some people may not have gotten the memo.  I thought it would be fun to have some paper plate masks around so others could participate in the costume atmosphere with minimal expense in acquiring additional costumes.  In this post I will share a bunch of different paper plate masks that both Lucky, and I, created.  Enjoy!

Materials used in most projects - There is some variation with the embellishments but the following items are super helpful for you to create a number of paper plate masks.

  • Paper plates 
  • scissors to cut the plates into shape
  • Wood Craft Sticks (Jumbo Size, 6 x 3/4) to create hand held masks or Beading cord elastic to create wearable masks (not shown here since I didn't have any on hand.)  
  • Construction paper in multiple colors
  • Clothespins (to hold gluing parts together until they dry)

Lamb and Lion Mask Tutorial -
Materials needed: paper plate, scissors, cotton balls, construction paper, yarn, craft glue, wooden craft sticks

Before Lucky's nap, I glued some craft sticks onto the back of the paper plates (so the right side curved up).
I also cut and glued the ears onto the masks myself.  I wanted all of these parts to dry so I could give Lucky a chance to get creative adding cotton balls or yarn pieces to the masks.  I cut multiple 2" piece of yarn in brown, orange and yellow (left over from Lucky's and Indy's Lion costumes).  Now I just need Lucky to wake up to help me get crafting!


23 months old may still be a little young for gluing projects.  I ended up doing about 90% of the lamb myself.  Lucky didn't really realize what he was supposed to do, and kept trying to put the cotton balls back in the container.  The lamb was so heavy that I glued a second paper plate to the back to help keep it from collapsing under the weight of the cotton balls.


Lucky got a lot more into creating the lion.  I started sprinkling yarn over the plate and he quickly joined in.  He helped sprinkle the yarn around on the glue and was very sad to stop once all of the cut pieces were on the plate.  After it had dried surprisingly most of the yarn stayed on!  It was not securely attached, however, so I added some more glue on top and tried to secure things a bit more.


Are the masks how I would have done them if I were working on them by myself?  No.  But I am quite proud of the fact that I relinquished some creative control to let Lucky "help" make these.  I cannot wait until he is ready to be a more active participant in our crafts.  


It took a bit of effort to convince Lucky that he should play with the masks with the fun side OUT so other people could see them.  



Unfortunately he still likes to pull things off of the dry plates, but we had a blast playing with the masks.



Flower Mask Tutorial (My creation)
Materials needed: paper plate, scissors, 2 pieces of construction paper (shown in purple and pink), wooden craft stick or elastic cord depending on how you want to put the mask on.

After making a few other paper plate masks I started to get some ideas for masks of my own... including a cute little flower.  I cut the center out of the paper plate and glued the craft stick to the back of the plate such that the Right side would curve up.  I folded one piece of pink and one piece of purple construction paper in half lengthwise and cut a number of long skinny petals.


I glued the pink petals on first and then overlapped them with the purple petals.


To have a toddler assist with this mask, I might recommend doing petals in one color (using two sheets of construction paper), or even a bunch of colors.


I had hoped to follow a second Lion Mask Tutorial (with Construction Paper), but never got around to it.  Maybe next year!  We haven't tried gluing together for a few months so I'm ready to give it another try as Lucky has been doing many glue projects in preschool.