Paper fish craft

Check out these super cute paper fish we made using a tutorial from Easy Paper Projects – the new book by Maggy Woodly of Red Ted Art fame. We were gifted this copy to review and share with our readers.

When I had a look through the book I found the projects inside are all so fun it was difficult to choose one to feature!

Kids and screens, right? I have two huge youtube fans in my house aged 9 and 11. They are often attracted to craft ideas they see online which is great because it inspires them to do something off the screen.

The only problem is that it’s frequently a project which takes hours of time and an adult’s precision and skill to make. I find a lot of online video tutorials can be deceiving in how easy they make the projects look, can you relate?

For example, my tween daughter was absolutely dying to make this eye-poppingly amazing stationary organiser she came across. You have to admit it looks pretty cool. So intent was she on making it that my husband decided to help her with the project.

Unfortunately it was just way too tricky. He spent hours of his time cutting out cardboard rectangles to specific measurements with a scalpel and metal ruler (which is obviously not safe for kids to use). Then, when my daughter’s own hot-gluing attempts ended in tears and frustration, I spent hours hot-gluing the pieces together for her. Think 30+ pieces of cardboard in a pile to be glued together in a specific order.

I thought “Well, at least she can paint and decorate it herself”. I was wrong again, after painting a quarter of the project she’d had enough and gave up completely.

Our partially finished stationary organiser (somewhat more wonky than the one in the tutorial we followed) now sits in the garage gathering dust. The whole experience was like a crazy form of parent torture.

That’s why it’s good to have a you tuber like Maggy.

Maggy is renowned on Youtube and her blog for making crafts which really are appealing, easy and achievable for kids to make.

I love that she always uses simple and affordable materials that most people with kids would have at home already. Stuff like paper, glue, markers and scissors.

Her new book is a combination of popular and new projects kids can make using paper.It includes some seasonal content like Christmas, Fall, and Easter crafts as well as stuff you can make all year round.

After flipping through the book I decided to make these fish. They took me less than 10 minutes each to make, and they turned out so cute.

The girls started fighting over who got to keep each one – I told them to make their own, ha!

It’s easy to customise and add to the activity to give it your own creative flair too. After making two fish the same as in the book I decided to try a goldfish with a bit more sparkle, adding a few gem stickers. He’s already good friends with our egg carton goldfish.

Here’s a quick flip through the book so you can see some more of the projects.

Easy Paper Projects would make a fun birthday or Christmas gift for crafty kids along with a stack of coloured paper to go with it.

If you know a kid who would love a copy can order one here.

More ocean animal crafts kids will love:

• Make a paper roll fish using our squish and cut technique
• This seahorse is another fold and squish paper roll craft
• Here are 14 paper plate marine animals complete with fascinating facts on each one
• Create an adorable jellyfish softie with our free printable template
• These egg carton goldfish are so cute!