You can probably tell from the activities on this site that we LOVE anything that can be recycled & turned into something new! We found some old plates the other day & wanted to transform them into something for Christmas using only recycled materials. So we made these designer plates using magazines. A simple & fun activity great for developing scissor skills.
For our decorative Christmas plates we used:
Copies of free Christmas promotional magazines from supermarkets (Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda etc)
Old plates which we picked up from a Charity Shop
PVA glue,
Chinky paintbrushes & scissors.
Minnie (3yrs) started by flicking through the magazine pages to choose the images she liked & together we cut some out. There were plenty of Christmassy pics to choose from & lots of images were being selected! She is pretty skilful with scissors now & it's great to observe how her cutting technique has developed. (The great thing about this part of the craft is that images don't need to be cut, they can also be ripped or torn out, which some children may find easier.)
Once she had her selection of images she spread the PVA glue on to the back of each magazine cutout & stuck them to the plate. (You'll need to make sure there are no air bubbles/bumps in the paper, otherwise, the images may wrinkle slightly when the varnish is applied later.)
She continued until she was happy with her design.
To create a gloss varnish Minnie painted on a layer of PVA glue over her design.
We left to dry overnight & our designer plate was ready.
Such a cute, frugal, eco-friendly activity for the holidays!
For some of our other magazine crafts check out