Story Inspired Craft Kit: The Very Busy Spider

Ever since I started this blog, I'm very fortunate that lots of friends have supported me by telling me they like the paper crafts I designed. They share my blog and Facebook page with others, which make me feel confident and proud of what I do with Big E and Little E.

One month ago, I was chatting with a mommy friend about the idea of starting my own business - teaching a paper craft class or making craft kits as party favors. Although it was just a random chat and a preliminary idea, she jumped right in asking me to make her little boy's 4th birthday party favors. How lucky am I!!!

I prepared a paper craft inspired by Eric Carle's storybook "The Very Busy Spider". The little guests who receive it as a party favor can simply look at the complete project photo in the front to finish the project independently or with parents' help.

I cut out the pieces for making a spider and use googly eyes and craft pipe cleaners for legs. 

Kids can color/cut/glue the animals showing up in the story on the appropriate line.

 Little E made this project at home first.Here is the complete look of the project!

I hope the little guests will enjoy this paper craft as much as we do.

Artist Inspired Craft Kit - The You I See

After the kids were done with the colorful silhouette project, I showed the picture of Yayoi Kusama's original artwork - One Thousand Eyes to Big E today. 

He starred at it for a while and wowed by the amount of faces there are. He said, "It must take the artist a long long time to finish this art project!" I told him it takes not only talent but also hard work and patience to make a good piece of artwork.

Then Big E and I decided we could try a project like this, too!

Big E started by drawing an irregular loop on half piece of white printing paper. 

I asked Big E to imagine this is a journey for his silhouette.

Which direction is he going? What is he going to see?  

We put another half piece of white printing paper on top of the loop.

Big E started tracing the silhouette cut-out using a pencil and moving it along the loop he drew earlier.

Big E was very focused! At times, he was a bit confused which direction the silhouette needed to turn.

It took quite some time for him to trace the silhouettes with a thin black marker afterwards.

Here is the finished work!

 I asked Big E, "Where do you think the silhouettes are going? What are they going to see?"

He thought about it for a second, 

"That's for them to decide. It's not up to us. You know, Mama, they might see you!"

I was speechless. Then I named this artwork - The You I see

Artist Inspired Craft Kit - The Me I See

I got caught in Yayoi Kusama's art work - One Thousand Eyes (silk screen on canvas) at her exhibition in Shanghai.

Standing in front of the empty faces, I felt surprisingly content among this unfamiliar crowd - no need to do anything, not trying to get anywhere. My once in a blue moon solitude was surrounded by a thousand unseen eyes and yet, not even slightly stirred.



Today I found a couple of kids' photos that I used to make their silhouette 2 years ago. (They were 2 and 5 at that time!) Then I came up with this artist inspired craft idea for Big E and Little E to try.

I printed the photos out and made the silhouette pattern.

The kids trace the silhouette cut-out on 2 pieces of origami paper of their choice.

Big E did a good job tracing and cutting. Little E needed a bit more help cutting the silhouette out.

They used the silhouette cut-outs to make a pattern and glued them on another piece of yellow paper.

Here are their finished artwork. 

I love the vibrant color and the pattern of their choices!

 Little E said " Wow, there are a lot of me on the paper!" 

Therefore, I named this project - The Me I see!

Story Inspired Craft Kit: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

It's Little E's 4th birthday tomorrow. We have decided to bring cupcakes to her preschool and celebrate with her teachers and friends.

Little E helped me bake 24 strawberry cupcakes last night. On the other hand, I have been brainstorming about what to pack as party favors for her classmates. When Big E or Little E went to a friend's birthday party, we always got a goodie bag filled with small toys and candies. I would like to do something different this time!

I prepared a paper craft kit inspired by Eric Carle's storybook "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". Little E's friends can simply look at the complete project picture and put it together with or without parents's help.

I cut out the parts needed to make the very hungry caterpillar using origami paper. And I drew all the fruit eaten by the caterpillar on another piece of white paper.

Little E's friends can glue all the parts together to make the caterpillar. Then color/cut/glue the different fruit on the appropriate blank line according to the story. Here is the complete look of the project!

Little E is definitely excited to have this craft kit as her party favor for friends. I hope the kids will have a good time making this project at home, too!

Artist Inspired Craft Kit - Volcano Under Moonlight

Unlike his mom, Big E always has an interest in science - nature, space, electricity...etc. When I was browsing through Kusama Yayoi's artwork online, Big E glanced at her work on Mt. Fuji. He was excited and asked if he could see the "volcano" more clearly. Here are the four pieces of artwork on Mt. Fuji by Kusama Yayoi:

I chose the one with the blue night sky and 4 moons as my fourth tribute project - "Volcano Under Moonlight".

I prepared the cut-outs for most the elements shown on the original artwork - volcano, grass, trees, road and houses, a piece of black construction paper, some round color labels, and a black marker and a yellow marker.

1. Draw small black triangles on the volcano and yellow ones on the clouds.
2. Glue the houses, trees, and grass on at the bottom of the volcano.
3. Glue the volcano on the black construction paper and the clouds on both sides.
4. Glue the red looped-road and houses on the meadow.
5. Use quartered color labels to decorate the the meadow and the sky.
6. Use yellow round labels to create the 4 moons.

Here is Big E's finished project.
We had so much fun looking at his project right next to the original artwork!

Artist Inspired Craft Kit - Snail Under Moonlight

This is a copy of the original artwork - Snail by Kusama Yayoi.

The artist is known for her dot paintings, sculptures and installations. I found this artwork "Snail" a great introduction of colors and shapes to children.

This is my third tribute project with the little artists - "Snail Under Moonlight".



I drew a more simplified version of a snail and cut it out for the little artists. Other materials needed are shown below: red construction paper, purple origami paper, some round color labels, markers, school glue and scissor.

This morning, Little E and I were ready to do this project at a friend's house. The little artists seems to like the idea of making a little slug!
1. Cover the body of the the snail with purple and yellow dots using markers. Draw eyes. (It's so cute that they drew a smiley mouth, too!)
2. Peel and stick the quartered label on the shell - one green swirl, one red swirl.
3. Dot the green swirl with purple marker. Dot the red swirl with pink marker.
4. Glue the snail on the red construction paper.
5. Shred the purple origami paper by hand into small piece and glue under the snail to make ground.
6. Stick the yellow round labels on to make 3 moons.

The little artist were very patient and focused! Here are their artwork!

Artist Inspired Craft Kit - Polka Dots Mushroom

This is copy of the original artwork of Kusama Yayoi.

The artist is known for her dot paintings, sculptures, and installations. I found her dot collection a great introduction of colors and shapes to children.

This is my second tribute project with little artists - "Polka Dots Mushroom".





I drew the parts of the mushroom using Japanese origami paper and cut them out. Then I used hold-puncher to make some white dots for the mushroom cap. I also cut some red round labels into 4 equal sections.

 This afternoon, Little E and her friend met at the waiting area by an indoor pool since their older siblings are taking swimming lessons. 30 minutes are plenty of time for these two little artists to finish this simple project.

1. Glue the three parts of the mushroom on one by one.

2. Glue the white dots on the cap.

3. Draw lines under the cap and black dots on the stem.

4. Peel and stick the quartered red labels on the black paper as background.

Here are their artwork.

 They followed instructions step by step and made a marvelous project!

Artist Inspired Craft Kit: Polka Dots Pumpkins

This is a copy of the original artwork of Kusama Yayoi.

The artist is known for her signature dot paintings, sculptures and installations. I found her dot collection a great introduction of colors and shapes to young children.

This is my first tribute project with little artists -"Polka Dots Pumpkins".



I drew and cut out three pumpkins using construction paper and prepared some store-bought round labels last night. Since it's my first tribute project, I planned to keep it simple and fun for my 3 year-old artists.

This morning, Little E and 2 of her friends met at the park bench to start the fun!

1. Pick the pumpkin you would like to have.

2. If the dot sticker is the same color as your pumpkin, put it on the black paper. 

3. Put the rest of the dot stickers on the pumpkin anyway you want. 

Here are their artwork!

Here is the combination of their artwork on another piece of black paper.

I'm so proud of the little artists today! They all did a fabulous job!