13 Easy Construction-Paper Crafts That Any Kid Will Love

Easy construction-paper crafts are an excellent, affordable, and fun way for kids of all temperaments to channel their creative energies. Paper crafts for kids are also an easy indoor activity for friends and family of all ages, and they can double as visual aids for teaching younger kids about elementary topics such as animals, colors, shapes, and foods. Whether your kids are excited about making a 3D rabbit with a cotton-ball tail or working together on a mile-long rainbow paper chain, easy construction-paper crafts are the rare activity that suits every interest and every age, while honing kids’ motor and artistic skills.

The possibilities are endless when it comes to creating art with construction-paper crafts, but these easy-to-follow DIY projects require only a few materials, most of which you’ll likely already have around the house, and can be as quick as a construction paper twirl snake or as involved as a multi-tiered rainbow heart mobile.

1. Paper Ice Cream Cones

What you’ll need:

1. Foam balls
2. Paint
3. Paintbrush
4. Baking rack
5. Brown construction paper
6. Pencil
7. Scissors
8. Tape
9. Cone stencil

Instructions:

1. Paint the foam balls and place on a baking rack to dry
2. Trace the cone stencil onto the brown paper. Two cones will fit on each sheet.
3. Cut out the cone shapes
4. Roll the paper into a cone shape, fitting to the bottom half of your foam ball. Tape the inside and outside to secure.

2. Construction-Paper Twirl Snake

What you’ll need:

1. Red construction paper, in addition to other colors of your choosing
2. Googly eyes
3. Markers
4. Glue
5. Scissors

Instructions:

1. Cut a vertical strip from your sheet of paper (around an inch-and-a-half wide)
2. Cut a pointed edge on one end. On the other end, do the same thing, but leaving it with a flat edge instead of pointed.
3. Decorate the strip
4. Cut the red paper into a V-shaped tongue
5. Glue the tongue to the bottom of the flat edge
6. Wrap the snake around a pen or pencil to give it its twirl. The smaller the pen, the tighter the twirl.

3. Swirling Twirling Construction-Paper Ladybugs

What you’ll need:

1. Construction paper
2. Pencil
3. Something round for tracing
4. Scissors
5. Small spouncer (a round foam paintbrush)
6. Paintbrush
7. Black craft paint
8. String
9. White craft glue
10. 8 large googly eyes

Instructions:

1. Cut construction paper into 4.5-inch squares. Stack two squares on top of each other and trace around something round to cut out your circles.
2. With the two circles still stacked on top of each other, cut a slit from one edge of the circles to the middle
3. Repeat this process four times with a variety of different colors
4. Place one of the circles on top of a piece of scratch paper. Paint a section for the ladybug’s head, overlapping the paint brush onto the scrap paper. This will serve as a size guide for the remaining circles.
5. Paint a head at the opposite end of each pair of circles. For example, one circle will have the head painted above the slit, while the other is painted at the bottom of the slit.
6. Use the small spouncer, dipped in black paint, to add the ladybug’s spots. Let them dry before repeating this process on the other side.
7. Once you’re done with one pair, stack them on top of each other. Line up the slits and insert them into each other.
8. Glue googly eyes onto the painted black heads, on each side
9. Run a thin line of glue into the slit to connect both sides together. Cut a piece of string to glue into the slit, leaving a few inches, or more, of string hanging out of the top.

4. Handprint Paper Butterflies

What you need:

1. Colored construction paper
2. Googly eyes
3. Black marker
4. Scissors
5. Glue stick
6. Pencil
7. 1.5″ circle punch (optional)
8. half-inch circle punch (optional)
9. quarter-inch circle punch (optional)

Instructions:

1. Use a pencil to trace your kid’s hand twice on two separate pieces of construction paper to end up with four handprints
2. Use a 1.5″ circle punch to cut out a circle from green construction paper to use as the butterfly’s head
3. Cut out one long oval shape for the butterfly’s body, making sure it extends to the bottom of the handprint
4. Cut out two small ovals from green construction paper to use as the butterfly’s antennae
5. Position two handprints of the same color on a flat surface, so the fingers are fanning out to either side and the thumb is at the top. Do the same for the second colored pair of handprints, except this time fanning the fingers downward. These will be the butterfly’s wings.
6. Glue the handprints on the left side (two separate colors) where they overlap. Do the same for the handprints on the right side.
7. Glue both sets of handprints together, where they overlap at the bottom of the hands.
8. To assemble the butterfly body, glue the antennae to the back of the circle-shaped head. Glue the completed head to the oval-shaped, green body.
9. Glue the completed body in the middle of the handprint wings.
10. Glue the googly eyes to the head and draw on any desired facial features, like a smiley face.
11. If you have the supplies, use the larger circle punches to cut out circles to decorate on the wings

5. Dinosaur Hat Construction-Paper Craft

What you’ll need:

1. 3 sheets of green construction paper
2. Glue stick
3. Scissors
4. Tape

Instructions:

1. Cut 4 vertical strips, 1-inch each, out of one sheet. Two of these strips will be the headband, and the other two will be crosspieces that you will attach your spikes to.
2. Using your other two sheets of paper, cut out horizontal 5 strips, 2 inches each. These will become your spikes.
3. Fold each of your spike pieces in half. Use a pencil to roughly sketch a diamond “spike” shape, with the point is on the open edge. Cut out the spike so that when you open up the folded piece, each opposite side is pointed.
4. Glue the spikes in a row on top of the two vertical pieces that are your crosspieces.
5. Now, take your two headband pieces and measure it to fit your kid’s head. Use tape to secure it.
6. Going back to the spikes, flip the crosspiece over so the spikes are on the bottom. Fold each of the spikes up to get a good crease.
7. Bring both sides of each spike together, on either side of the crosspiece, to glue them together. Use paperclips to hold them together while the glue dries.
8. Tape the crosspiece

6. Paper Rainbow Chain

What you’ll need:

1. Colored construction paper
2. Glue stick or sticky tape
3. Scissors

Instructions:

1. Cut your paper into strips, around 2 cm by 20 cm. They don’t need to be precise.
2. Take one strip of paper and curl around so the two length ends meet. Glue one end to the other, and hold together for several seconds to dry.
3. Feed your next strip through the middle of the first chain link, once again gluing the long ends together to make a loop.
4. Repeat with as many colors of your choice until you’ve reached your desired length.

7. Spinning Heart Construction-Paper Mobile

What you’ll need:

1. Construction paper of every color
2. Scissors
3. String
4. Glue
5. Stapler
6. Clothes pin

Instructions:

1. Start cutting out both vertical and horizontal strips from your colored paper, running across the length or width of the paper. You need one of each size for each color.
2. Layer each of the strips on top of each other, in rainbow order. The color on the bottom will be the outer layer of the heart.
3. Trim off the colors that hang over the bottom of the outer color. You should be trimming off a little orange, and more yellow, and so on until the color purple has been trimmed the most.
4. Starting with the smallest strip (purple), create a teardrop shape by bringing each length end together
5. Then, fold over each of the remaining colors on top of each other in teardrop shapes. The outer layer should be red. Secure the rainbow teardrop by stapling the ends together at the bottom.
6. Lay your teardrops down with the prong side of the staples facing up. Add a line of glue up the side of the outer piece of each teardrop, and lay your string down the center. Bring both teardrops together to create a heart shape, securing them with clothespin or paperclips while waiting for the glue to dry.

8. Paper-Strip Rainbows

What you’ll need:

1. Construction paper of every color of the rainbow
2. White card stock
3. Cotton balls
4. Glue
5. Scissors

Instructions:

1. Sketch out a cloud shape on the card stock, filling up almost the entire piece of paper. Cut it out.
2. Cut out strips from the purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red paper
3. Glue the colored stripes of paper to the back of the cloud, so they hang down
4. Pull cotton balls apart and glue fluff on top of the cloud to add texture

9. Construction-Paper Weaving Craft

What you’ll need:

1. Two pieces of colored construction paper
2. Scissors
3. Pencil
4. Ruler

Instructions:

1. Fold one piece of paper, which will serve as the base, so the short ends meet (hotdog style)
2. With the folded end at the top, use your ruler to draw one horizontal line across the top, one inch from the top of the paper.
3. Now, draw straight lines vertically across the base paper, all one inch apart.
4. Starting from the bottom, cut along the vertical lines. Stop at the top-most cross line. You don’t want to cut the paper all the way through since this will serve as the base paper that holds the weaving. Once you’re done, it should look like an accordion.
5. Now, take your second piece of construction paper, which will serve as the weaving paper. Fold the weaving paper the same way you folded the base paper, with the short ends coming together.
6. Draw vertical lines across, just as you did on the base paper. No need for a horizontal line at the top this time.
7. Cut the paper along the lines, creating strips.
8. Starting at the bottom, weave one strip over and under through the base paper.
9. The second strip will then be weaved the opposite direction, first under and then over. Continue up the paper, alternating directions.
10. Once the weaving is complete, you can either trim off the remaining paper or fold them over and tape them to the back.

10. Simple 3D Paper Flowers

What you’ll need:

1. Colored construction paper
2. Scissors
3. Glue or sticky tape

Instructions:

1. Cut vertical strips out of your construction paper. Each flower will consist of four strips, so cut out as many as you need depending on many flowers you make. They don’t need to be precise.
2. Lay down one strip of construction paper vertically on the table. Add a dot of glue in the middle.
3. Lay a second strip horizontally across, and add another dot of glue in the middle of this newly added layer. Continue with all the strips.
4. After adding one final dot of glue to the topmost layer, fold in all the strips so they meet in the middle. Hold and press for several seconds to secure them.
5. Cut out a small circle out of yellow construction paper (or any color) and glue it in the middle, where the strips meet.

11. Construction-Paper Lanterns

What you’ll need:

1. Construction paper
2. Scissors
3. Stapler

Instructions:

1. Cut a 2cm strip from the short end of a piece of construction paper. You’ll use this for the handle at the end.
2. Fold the rest of the paper in half lengthwise.
3. Cut vertical, fringe-style incisions across the paper, from one short end to the other. The incisions should stop 2cms from the edge of the paper.
4. Fold it so the two short ends come together. Staple them together.
5. Staple the strip you made at the beginning to either side of the top of the lantern, making a handle.

12. Paper-Strip Rainbows

What you’ll need:

1. Construction paper of every color of the rainbow
2. Scissors
3. Stapler
4. Cotton balls

Instructions:

1. Cut a one-inch, horizontal strip from a piece of construction paper, from one short end to the other.
2. Do the same for all pieces of construction paper, so you have strips of every color of the rainbow.
3. Place them in order, based on color. Then, trim each colored strip so they are all one inch shorter than the one above it. Red should be the longest, purple the shortest.
4. Place the strips on top of each other, with the shortest piece at the top. The bottoms should be lined up.
5. Staple all the pieces together, about a 1/4 inch from the bottom.
6. On the side that’s not stapled together, use your hands to line up the ends of each strip. Start with the two shortest colors (purple and blue) and work your way up.
7. Now, staple this side together about a 1/4 inch from the bottom just as you did with the other side. The finished product should look like the arch of a rainbow.
8. To make the clouds, pull apart cotton balls to make them into cloud shapes. Staple one on each side of the arch.

13. Handprint Paper Bunnies

What you’ll need:

1. Pink construction paper
2. Pink marker
3. Black gel pen scissors

Instructions:

1. Trace your kid’s hand on the construction paper, making it a little bit fatter than their actual hands.
2. Cut out the handprint, making sure that there’s a pointed V-shape between each finger.
3. Cut a small slit between the pinky finger and pointer finger, so that the V lines up with the slit by the thumb.
4. Fold the pinky finger down to make one of the bunny arms.
5. Fold down the thumb to make the other arm, and overlap them to touch in the middle.
6. Cut off the middle finger, so the two remaining fingers can serve as the ears.
7. Use a pink marker to draw in the pink parts of the ears. Draw a small oval for the nose.
8. Use a black marker to draw in additional details, such as eyes, whiskers, and mouth.