One of the things I love about designing kids crafts is that I have to be in the constant practice of looking at things the way that my daughter and students do. Kids have this amazing ability to turn everyday items into anything that fits the stories they imagine and play out, like paper into sprinkles, a box into a boat, or a table into a castle. I’ve seen people do so pretty neat crafts with cupcake liners and wanted to try to add to the list, so here is our craft of cupcake liners turned beach umbrellas!

Materials

Directions

1. Cut a cupcake liner in half.
2. Fold one part in half two or three times.

3. Cut in a straight, curved, or scalloped line on the wider end of the folded liner. This will create a pattern when you open it up.

4. When you open it up, cut off one or two of the triangular sections to give it more of an umbrella shape.

5. Use markers or crayons to create designs on the umbrellas.

6. Cut out a strip of blue paper and glue against another sheet of paper. This will be the ocean.

7. Tear a strip of beige or light brown paper that is thinner than the blue strip. This will be the sand. Place it over the blue paper, but don’t glue it down just yet!

8. Glue the umbrella tops onto one end of the popsicle sticks. Then, place the bottom of the umbrellas behind the sand paper to see where you would like to position them. Once you like where they are, glue the umbrellas down first and then the beige paper on top.

9. Add any other details you’d like to the picture, like beach towels, animals, or buckets!

This is a fun one to hang up on the fridge and make up stories for what is going on in the scene. I imagine you could also make it into a neat card!

I hope you and your kiddos have fun with this one! Happy crafting and music making!

-Hannah