Paper crafts animals from scrap materials: step-by-step photo instructions for creating animal figurines

DIY paper animals
Here is a selection of models for lovers of paper crafts. Do you want to learn how to make paper animals with your own hands ? Here are some examples with step-by-step photos of origami animals and simple crafts that can be folded in different ways. In the article you will find:

1. How to make a paper bear
2. Origami panda
3. How to make a paper deer
4. How to make a tiger out of paper
5. DIY paper cow
6. Paper pig
7. DIY paper giraffe

Types of crafts

We have arranged the techniques in order from simple to complex, so that you and your child can increase their level of applied skill:

• Simple applications
• Applications with three-dimensional details
• Simple volumetric figures
• Quilling
• Origami
• Cardboard figures in 3D
• Papier mache.

Useful creativity

Adults will understand their children better and teach them patience, attentiveness and beauty. You can choose any technique: modeling, appliqué, quilling, beading, knitting, origami, etc.

You will need experience and perseverance to make animal crafts from beads; this is an activity for elementary school girls. Any activity develops a child’s motor skills and creative thinking.

Applications from up to 3 years

The application is done quickly, children will not have time to get tired or lose interest.

Pet crafts will work well with small children. Children know the main representatives from books and toys: a cat, a dog, piglets, a cockerel, hens and chicks, a cow, a horse.

Draw or copy, if you don't know how to draw, an image from any children's book. Choose the most schematic design.

Break the picture down into simple geometric shapes. The body is an oval or a rounded square, the head and eyes are a circle, the paws and tail are rectangles and ovals of varying degrees of elongation, the ears are triangles or semicircles.

Transfer to colored paper and cut out.

Based on the sample picture, together with the baby, assemble a “constructor” from parts from large to small. Add easily recognizable features to your pet: for a rooster - a red beard and a motley tail, for a pig - a snout and a ring tail (twist a thin strip of paper with scissors), for a cow - brown spots.

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Believe me, children will forgive you for being sketchy and simple, but they will be delighted that they made the animals with their own hands.

Invite the children to make a paper mosaic. Draw a pet on cardboard. Now you need to cover its parts with the correct matching colors.

Tear small pieces of multi-colored paper (10x10 mm). Apply PVA to the base, sprinkle the resulting confetti and let dry. The picture is ready! Kids love magic tricks.

These are simple paper animal crafts for 2 year olds. For older children, we advise you to complicate the task and expand your arsenal of creative techniques.

Penguin applique master class

Children love not only animals from hot countries or pets, but also residents of the north. Children in the middle groups of kindergartens will enjoy the master class on making a paper penguin. Here are the step-by-step instructions:

• cut out a black oval for the body;
• cut out a smaller white oval for the tummy;
• cut out black triangular wings, brown triangular flippers and a yellow triangular beak;
• Glue all the parts onto the base.

The cheerful little penguin is ready.

Animal appliqué develops children's creative abilities and perseverance. There are a lot of photos and templates on the Internet on the topic of children's applications with animals.

Applications with volumetric details from 2 to 3 years

Adding three-dimensional details to a flat picture

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1. Glue circles of ever smaller diameter on top of each other. Use thick double-sided tape, then the volume will be even more noticeable. In this design, plump bellies, shells of turtles and snails, fluffy thick tails of squirrels or foxes look impressive.
2. Volumetric details from scrap materials: you can depict wool from crumpled wrapping paper or knitting threads, eyes from buttons, imitate feathers, thorns or wool with plastic tubes.

Applications on a volumetric base

On the finished base: a roll of toilet paper or kitchen towels. The scheme of work is the same as with a flat applique, only use a bushing as the body and attach the elements of the “constructor” to it. Pre-wrap the sleeve itself with colored paper or cover it with paint.

IDEA: Use paper coffee cups. They are often sealed with bright colors and designs. You can make funny little bellied animals from cups with your own hands - just stick a few paper parts (paws, wings, tail or ears) on the sides and draw eyes. Ideas for execution: penguin, owl, frog, elephant.

Glue the base yourself. A squat cone made of yellow or brown cardboard is a great base for a chicken craft, and a narrow, tall cone is a great base for a funny giraffe. Simply cut out a head from cardboard, draw eyes with markers and attach to the top of the cone.

Piglets made from large plastic bottles

This is an excellent decoration for a garden plot; it is resistant to bad weather and is not afraid of pets. Let's look at animal-themed crafts.

It is better to take a large 5 liter bottle, but any plastic bottle will do. You need to paint it with waterproof pink paint to imitate a little pig.

Where the lid is the muzzle, large eyes (blue, lilac or green eyes on a white background) with black eyelashes are required.

The lid is a piglet's snout, draw 2 dark spots.

At the top of the bottle, the bottle must be cut symmetrically on both sides in order to insert large pointed ears (from another container).

It’s better to make a small flowerbed out of pig, so you need to cut plastic in the shape of a rectangle (square) in the center of the bottle. Pour soil inside and plant flowers.

It is better to make an animal corner on the site, for example, 3 funny pigs, next to a swing or a bench.

Pets in kindergarten

As a theme of creativity, they are also popular. If you make crafts with your child before kindergarten, his crafting skills will come in handy.

Accordion base

Instead of a body there is a strip of thick paper folded into a small accordion. Glue flat, stable legs on the bottom, and a head with characteristic details on top to identify the animal.

This way you can make jumping animals: a bunny, a frog, a mischievous monkey with a long tail. Kids will not only be interested in making animal figures with their own hands, but also play with them.

Finger Theater

Glue together 5 small multi-colored truncated cones from cardboard the size of an adult finger. On each one you need to stick the head of an animal (even a primitively depicted one, most importantly, recognizable).

With such simple props, you can perform a home performance with your child, for example, “Teremok”, “Who Says What?” or “My favorite animal.”

Crafts for kindergarten

We put it out as a separate item for your convenience. In the garden they love nature themes such as “Golden Autumn” or “Spring has come!”, so forest animals that you have made before at home or in additional classes will be useful for you and your child.

IDEA! Advice for busy parents: assemble the finished figures into a composition on a thick sheet of paper, add seasonal attributes (yellow leaves, pine cones, flowers, twigs, cotton wool snow, etc.) and the standard masterpiece for the garden is ready.

Tools for work

Before you start creating masterpieces, you need to stock up on all the tools necessary for this work. All of them can be easily bought at the same office supply store, so there should be no problems with this.

To create a beautiful animal figurine you will need:

• regular or curly scissors;
• paper cutting knife;
• ruler (wooden or metal);
• figured hole punches;
• regular tape;
• PVA glue or glue stick;
• brush.

In addition to the basic tools, you can use other additional items to create a cute animal, such as pencils, felt-tip pens, beads, etc.

Quilling

The technology refers to a variety of applications, but of increased complexity. The work is small and painstaking, so it is suitable for preschoolers and primary schoolchildren.

The essence of quilling: you need to cover a graphic image of an animal on a base sheet with “curls” of thin ribbons. Quilling paper is sold in office supply stores.

The method is interesting because it very successfully imitates the texture of wool or feathers, if you take on animal crafts.

Cotton wool applications

Cotton wool is a very convenient material for application. First you need to give the children the base - the outline of the animal drawn on a piece of paper. Pieces of cotton wool need to be glued to the “shaggy” parts of the animal: the body, the head. And cut out the remaining parts from paper and glue them. The results are very cute and life-like animals.

The cotton wool can be glued simply in pieces, or in rolled balls. For example, a lamb looks natural when the wool is glued on it with balls. The picture looks three-dimensional. You can even paint the cotton wool with paints, and then you will get a real children's masterpiece.

Origami

How to make paper animals with your own hands without glue or tape?

Origami is a technique of folding shapes. The complexity ranges from the primitive “frog” to infinity. Even an older child will need help if he decides to master origami.

The main thing is to stock up on double-sided colored paper and patience. Step-by-step origami instructions can be found in special manuals.

Origami is an oriental technique that often features wild animals and mythical creatures: crocodile, lion, tiger, cobra, dragon.

Materials for children's activities

For classes in a kindergarten group, materials must be prepared in advance. For the application you will need:

• colored paper;
• glue;
• templates;
• scissors.

Templates depicting animal figures must be prepared in advance. For kids you need to choose simpler figures, for older groups - more complex ones.

Modular origami compositions

A module is one assembly unit of a composition. From different sheets you fold triangles and connect them, getting a head, torso, limbs, etc. It is clear that crafts are becoming much more complex and realistic.

What animals can be made from paper in the style of modular origami is up to you. Even a huge dragon, where each scale is a separate module. Preparing modules is a boring routine, so not many people are ready to work on complex figures, especially children.

Applications from other available materials

Sometimes the most unexpected materials are suitable for applique animals. For example, to imitate the wool of a lamb, you can stick pasta “horns” on paper, and it will look like it’s alive. Rabbit skin can be made from white or gray threads. You just need to choose thicker threads, for example wool.

To make an applique of a hedgehog, it is appropriate to make its body from buckwheat glued to paper. And the body of a chicken or a bear is made of millet.

A very convenient material for applique animals is plasticine. It is easy to process, painted in different colors, and it is also a favorite material for children for various crafts. Small pieces of plasticine are simply kneaded in your hands and applied to the base drawing for applique until the entire picture of the animal is painted in the desired color. This results in a 3D effect.

DIY cardboard paper animals

With children who have mastered independent drawing, try making three-dimensional figures from corrugated cardboard.

Let's look at the example of a cat. To begin, roughly depict the animal in several projections: from the side, front and back. You will get several flat parts: a head (front view), a torso with a neck (attach the head, side view), two pairs of paws (front view), a tail (rear view).

We cut out the parts separately, in each we make grooves with which they will be attached to adjacent elements at right angles. The main thing is the stability of the structure. Such DIY cardboard animals1 develop engineering thinking in a child and will greatly simplify drawing lessons in the future.

Of course, there is an option not to rack your brains with spatial imagination and buy ready-made patterns.

Factors influencing the integrity of the craft

Crafts on the theme “animals” can and should be done taking into account:

1. Climatic zone (tropics, subtropics, permafrost, temperate climate);
2. Terrains (islands in the ocean, oasis in the desert, taiga or tundra);
3. Habitats (in the air or under water, in the mountains or in a swamp);
4. Relationships in the animal environment (a wolf and a hare are not friends; sharks attack smaller fish; birds eat worms - these are the laws of nature);
5. Time period (for example, vampires and werewolves in animal form are considered to belong to the Middle Ages, and sphinxes are animals of antiquity, imprinted today in stone);
6. Habits and habits (cats like to sleep curled up in a ball, a baby kangaroo sits in its mother’s pouch and only sticks out its head, a cuckoo doesn’t start its own nest, etc.).

Only by applying all the knowledge about a particular animal will a craft dedicated to it acquire a complete and believable appearance.

Papier mache

Formally, these are not paper crafts, but rather a sculptural form. Papier-mâché is a method of creating sculptures from paper pulp, and the working material is torn pieces of newspaper. To depict a papier-mâché animal, you need to mold it from plasticine and cover it with newspaper scraps in several layers.

After drying, cut the figure, take out the plasticine, connect the halves and paint. If at a school competition you present a papier-mâché product among the usual appliqués and origami, this will at least ensure you the attention of the public.

We hope that the article was useful and we convinced you that paper animal crafts are exciting and entertaining. Create your own and teach children freedom of expression!

Other options

Making felt animals is a cute and fun activity. Making a toy using this method is very easy and quick. It is not at all necessary to have a lot of material, special skills and great perseverance - you can interrupt and return to the work you started at any time.

Crafts made from wool are so original, they are beautiful and unusual, they attract attention and you want to buy them. Wool is a soft, delicate material that is pleasant to touch; you can sculpt or create any animal from it, whatever your imagination dictates.

Paper crafts animals: photo ideas for crafts with children

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