Under the Sea ~ Paper Plate Crafts

Winter is here and the school holidays are upon us once again. I have to admit, I actually quite like the school holidays (even though Sebastian isn’t at school yet) because it’s a break from our usual activities. It’s a time for cruisier mornings and slower days. We tend to take each day as it comes; however, that being said, I like to have a bit of a plan up my sleeve of activities we can do. In particular, inside activities and those which can hold the attention of an active nearly three year old.

Sebastian has a real thing at the moment for under the sea and just loves talking about all the different sea creatures. This, coupled with the fact it is the school holidays, plus his recent love of crafting made for the perfect winter school holiday activity.

We (Sebastian and I) created these under the sea paper plate crafts inspired by the recent release of ‘Finding Dory’. Now, paper plate crafts are nothing new by any stretch of the imagination (search the internet and you will find heaps of ideas ranging from flowers to animals to masks), but they were new to us and our interpretation of some of the ‘Finding Dory’ characters.

In order to make / create our under the sea paper plate crafts, a trip to our local Warehouse Stationery was in order – after all we were in need of supplies to help build our ever-growing craft collection.

To make these Under the Sea – Paper Plate Crafts, you will need:

• Paper plates of various sizes
• Paint / crayons / felt tip pens
• Glitter
• Glue and cellotape
• Paint brushes or sponge brushes
• Paint Tray / paper plate for painting
• Sponge for painting
• Coloured card of various colours
• Scissors
• Lever punch
• Newspaper / drop cloth for painting on
• Paint jacket for your little artist
• Black marker pen
• Googly eyes of various sizes

Start by painting your paper plates. We used these Crayola Washable Neon Kids Paints. I like the fact they are in manageable pottles and come in a variety of colours, plus they are WASHABLE – a huge plus for a Mum. Also, for the first time ever, I tried using foam brushes and they worked really well. I found they were easier for Sebastian to use when painting a large area and wanting the whole thing covered. Leave the plates to completely dry.

Once dry, paint on additional features. This is where we added the stripes to our Nemo fish, the darker purple to our Dory and the lighter green to our Turtle. We used a sponge, again this was really easy for Sebastian to use. I really like how it added extra texture to our creations and was fun in the process. Again, leave to completely dry.

Finally, add on all the extra bits – fins, flippers and tails, eyes, glitter and turtle shell decorations. For the turtle shell I cut out circles using a 17mm lever punch. I actually got all the accessories ready during quiet time so that we could just get on with it and left Sebastian to be in charge of gluing and sticking. We used a combination of craft glue and sticky tape to attach all of our bits and pieces. Finally, leave to dry one last time.

I was really pleased with how they turned out and think they would look really cool hung with fishing line (or just stuck on the wall). What I love most about this activity is that we were able to stop and start it as and when we felt like it. We actually left it set up at one end of our dining table and worked on them over a few days in between playing outside in between showers and puddle jumping.

Warehouse Stationery is definitely my preferred one stop shop for craft supplies. They have everything you need – kids craft supplies from paint to glitter to googly eyes and painting jackets; modeling clay to coloured card, paints and brushes, crayons to washi tape, even scrapbooking supplies.

These school holidays Warehouse Stationery has gone one step better, with the launch of their very first ‘Create Month’. A month about anything and everything creative including the launch of their Arts & Crafts Club the Inspiration Station.

Warehouse Stationery is definitely a one stop shop school holiday destination – with heaps of in-store inspiration, deals on craft supplies and take home activities for kids; you definitely need to add a trip there to your to-do list.

There is heaps happening in-store too – from the ‘Cool Cover Comp’ for all the kids who love sport and getting creative; to a $5000 travel voucher that is up for grabs with the ‘Faber Castell Inspiration Drawing Competition’; and a $500 Crayola Prize Pack to be won with the purchase of any Finding Dory Products; plenty to keep your kids entertained while you shop up a storm with all the in-store deals and amazing prices happening these school holidays.

** Thanks to Warehouse Stationery for teaming up with me on this post.**