Australian crafts are fun all year round but at this time of year, during the lead up to Australia Day, I get especially inspired to celebrate all things Aussie.
Here is a collection of Australian-themed crafts and printables for kids we’ve made over the years.
You might also like these Summer crafts and activities
What does the word ‘Australia’ make you think of?
The media tells us to think of zinc-covered noses, lamington cakes, meat pies and cricket. I don’t like cricket (that’s very un-Australian, I know), I haven’t worn zinc on my nose since the 80’s and if I buy a meat pie it has to be tandoori-chicken flavoured. I will, however, happily eat up all the lamington cakes!
What do I think of? The smell of sunscreen and salt at the beach, bushwalking through national parks, rust-coloured sandstone cliffs lit up like fire in the sunset, summer evenings filled with noisy cicadas shrilling and gum leaves crunching under my feet. And, of course, all of the unique animals that inhabit this country.
The problem with Australia Day is that it’s right at the end of the Summer holidays, so I’ve usually been spending time with my family rather than craft blogging. But, we still have lots of fun ideas from our archives to share with you if you’re in the mood for a bit of Aussie crafting.
20+ Australian crafts and activities
- Use cotton buds and sponge stamps to create a wattle flower artwork
- These frilled neck lizards are made from recycled cardboard tubes
- Don’t just collect cicada shells, paint and decorate them too
- This mother and baby koala card was designed with Mothers Day in mind, but it’s a sweet card idea for any occasion
- Print and make some cute Aussie koala masks – free template available. A plain grey one and a colour-your-own version is also included
- Upcycle a plastic lid into a gum leaf mosaic dreamcatcher
- Make some realistic paper chain pythons based on species from Tropical North Queensland. There is the Green Tree python, the Jungle carpet python and a blank one so you can design your own snake pattern
- Nothing is more Australian than possums crashing onto your roof in the middle of the night (or worse, setting up their home in there!). Make a paper plate ringtail possum with our printable template
- Upcycle tin cans into cockatoo pencil tins
- Make a paper green tree frog using our printable template
- We were lucky enough to see a few wild cassowaries when we visited the Daintree rainforest two years ago. It was so inspiring I made this paper plate cassowary!
- Create a gumnut baby costume based on the blossom characters from Snugglepot and Cuddlepie
- Turn an egg carton into a sugar glider – he can even stretch out his legs to glide!
- Make a decorative Australian animal-themed succulent garden. This can be a small world to inspire imaginary play or just a fun gardening project you can make with your kids
- These neon cicada shells look so cool, see how we made them here
- We made these painted gum leaves as a Christmas decoration, but you could make them for Australia day too
You can get all of these paper plate Australian animals in our paper plate Australian animal ebook. It includes the printable templates, finished examples, craft instructions and facts about each animal.
I hope you all have a great Australia Day!
You might also like
- Here are 27 ways to make art with nature
- Check out our paper plate ocean animal collection
- This paper roll fish craft is so easy to make
- You’ll love our DIY nature craft construction set
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