This is a fun little craft you can do to make your house a little more festive this season! It’s quick and easy and great to make with kids who like to paint. I had the idea to do festive doors as you see so many lovely doors at Christmas-time all dressed up with wreaths and garlands and even the doors themselves are lovely and ornate and have beautiful little details to replicate in a painted garland.

The best part of this craft is it is also low-waste as you can use any old cardboard envelopes or thin cardboard boxes (the thicker ones are a bit tricky to cut the shapes) and many people have an abundance of these coming in at this time of year.

I will include a printable outline for the door shape you can cut out and trace onto card in both large (about 8 inches tall) size and mini (about 5 inches).

Making the festive door garland

what you will need

• Recycled cardboard or brown Kraft paper cardstock
• White gouache paint
• Thin and medium thickness paintbrushes
• Festive ribbon or twine
• Antique-look bells or other trimmings

MethoD

1. Print out door template (if using), trace onto cardboard, and cut out.
2. Find some inspiration for festive-looking doors either in your neighbourhood or by searching online! Make some quick sketches so you have a few ideas to work with. You can reuse similar elements and mix and match to make your doors unique.
3. Using white gouache paint and thin to medium paint brushes, start to paint designs on your door shapes.
4. When all your doors are painted and dried, add holes to the top, string some festive ribbon or twine through and add bells or other embellishments as you please! I thought it would be nice to add some greenery around each door but didn’t get to it this time.

click on the image below to download pdf template

This is a very simple craft to do with kids to teach about Remembrance Day. Using just an egg carton, some pipe cleaners (chenille stems) and a little paint, you can make a lovely poppy to display for Remembrance Day or make a few to put in a vase if you just love poppies (as I do!).

Teachers – if you’re using this for your class to make a poppy wreath, 1 egg carton will make 4 poppies (each poppy takes 3 ‘egg cups’), so for 30 students you will need 8 egg cartons all together ( I’m sure you could have worked that out on your own!)

how to make a simple egg carton poppy craft

what you will need

• Egg carton – use 3 ‘cups’ to make one poppy
• Green chenille stems (2 per poppy) or thick floral wire
• Green cardstock or construction paper (if not using egg carton top for leaves)
• Acrylic paint + brush
• Something to poke a hole such as an awl or big needle
• Glue (optional)

Egg carton poppy tutorial

Cut out 3 egg cups by cutting along the dividing line between the cups. (At the bottom left you can see how the cups will fit together once cut).

Cut around the top of one of the cups so you’ve cut the jagged bits off.

Cut 4 ‘V’ cuts to create ‘petals’ and round off the edges of each petal.

Do the same to the second egg cup, but cut the petals slightly smaller than the first.

With the third egg cup, cut off most of the top of the cup leaving just a small edge around the bottom – this will be the centre of the poppy.

Slightly push in the edges of this cup – this will help it fit inside the rest of the flower.

This is how it will all fit together once painted.

Cut out a leaf shape from your green cardstock (if using). You can also make the leaves using the top of the egg carton. Just cut a portion from the top of the carton and cut into a simple leaf shape.

For your poppy, you should have two cut leaves, a chenille stem (or 2 – I found it best to twist them together for strength to hold up the head of the poppy), and the 3 cut egg cups.

Now it’s time to paint! I mixed a tiny bit of black with the red paint to make a deeper red.

Paint each of the cups with the red paint. Don’t forget the paint the backs of the petals too!

If using the egg carton for the leaves, paint those too. I also mixed the green paint with a tiny bit of black to get a more muted green.

Once everything is all dry, you’re ready to assemble the poppy.

Using your awl (or whatever pointy thing you can make a little hole with), make two holes in each of your leaves (as shown above).

Put a little glue inside the largest egg cup, then place the medium cup inside the large one.

It’s not entirely necessary to use glue but it might help keep the poppy together a bit better.

Fold the petals down a little (carefully so the petals don’t rip). Then make a hole in the centre of the two assembled cups.

Prepare the stem – if using chenille stems, twist two together. I found that one wasn’t quite strong enough to support the poppy standing up. If using floral wire and it is thin, you might need to double it up as well. The one I had was very thick and strong enough to support the poppy.

Thread the stem from behind through the centre of the poppy and twist the end of the stem to secure it.

Now place the smallest egg cup upside down in the centre of the poppy. I found you don’t need glue as it stayed just fine as is, but you can add some if you’d like!

Now you can thread the leaves onto the stem by going up from the back of the leaf and down through the next hole and then carefully sliding the leaf up the stem.

Now add a little black paint to the centre of the poppy. You can leave it as it is or add a little more detail if you’d like!

I added a few little white dots to this one but some others I liked the look of just the back in the centre with some surrounding black dots.

Here are the completed poppies! The one on the right was made just the same as the stemmed one but I just glued the leaves onto the back of the flower – these ones are perfect for adding to a Remembrance wreath if making as a class.

I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial and will have a go at making your own egg carton poppies!