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Paper Bag Activities for Kids

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Here’s another one of those fun made up holidays: July 12 is Paper Bag Day for reasons unknown. But if your household is like mine, you probably have everything you need to celebrate this holiday every day. I think I bought a bag of paper lunch bags when my daughter was in preschool and we still have some (she’s about to turn 14!).

The first thing you probably think of to do with paper bags is to make puppets (we actually had a craft kit once that was all paper bag crafts, but you can design your own too). Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Another thing I liked to do was to make little books out of paper bags. There are instructions at Kitchen Table Classroom for how to do it. You can cover the “pages” with scrapbook paper or construction paper and kids can draw, journal, collage or whatever they want, and the ends of the bags are still open so they can slide little things into them, too.

Paper bag kites are another fun and easy craft to make with kids, because they’re fun to decorate with paint, stickers, drawings or whatever the kid wants to do. Check out the instructions at Somewhat Simple.

Make a whole little town of paper bag houses and buildings with this cute idea from In the Bag Kids Crafts.

And if you’re looking for an activity that goes a little beyond crafts, this guess the scent activity is low prep and lots of fun. Check it out at Raising Lifelong Learners.

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Sweet Accessories to Stitch for a Little One

This set of patterns from Lion Brand isn’t necessarily meant to be a set, but I like the look of them all together and a couple of them would make a cute gift for a little one in your life.

The Birthday Pullover is sized for a 12 month, 18 month or two year old child, and the sweet pastel stripes of their Ice Cream yarn makes this sweater simple to knit and fun to wear. The pattern by Amy Gaines includes the option of working surface chain stitch to make it a true birthday sweater, or you can add the child’s name or another word if you’re making it for a different occasion, or no occasion at all.

If you have yarn left over or grab an extra ball you can also make these cute embroidered gift bags, perfect for stashing some sweet little gifts. They also use the Ice Cream yarn, and because the bags are so small you can make about six of them with one ball of yarn. Add embroidery if you like — the pattern suggests a candle, gift box or party hat but doesn’t include images to follow, so you could also do a monogram, the number of the birthday being celebrated, or anything else you like.

Both of these patterns are rated easy, and a baby sweater is a great place to start if you’ve never made a garment before.

This last pattern doesn’t actually go with the other two because it uses different yarn, but I still think it would be cute with the sweater so I’m including it. The Garter Stitch Bonnet is another easy pattern, this time using Feels Like Butta yarn for super softness that’s also machine washable. This pattern has four sizes ranging from newborn to 2 years, so you could make it to go with the sweater or on its own.

It is shown in two colors but you could make it solid if you’d rather. Any or all of these would be so cute to make for your favorite little one.

[Photo: Lion Brand]