So far, I haven’t been lucky enough to visit India but I would like to offer you and your children to create something associated with this distant and exotic country. Something to stimulate your imagination and yet not too hard to complete. I have recalled Indian shops in Poland and colourful elephants made of fabric that hang one above the other. I’m sure you know what wonderful souvenir I’m talking about – I once bought this herd of small elephants for my daughter. Therefore, I thought to come up with a similar decoration but from paper.
WE WILL NEED:
- coloured paper, patterned paper, glossy or matt paper – the more varied, the better
- elephant stencils (which I have prepared for you to download)
- scissors
- glue
- ribbon or thick thread
Step 1
Print elephant stencils on the coloured paper. If you don’t have a printer, you may create your own stencil, cut it out and outline it on the paper to create as many elephants as you want to use for your decoration. Remember that the number of elephants must be even.
Step 2
Cut out your elephants. Place the ribbon between two elephants and glue them together. Do the same with the remaining elephants until you have the whole herd. Now it’s best to put your elephants inside a thick, heavy book, placing additional weight on top of it. Doing this will help the glue hold better and the paper will remain smooth, without wrinkles.
Step 3
Maybe you have a little bell or a small rattle to hang at the end of the ribbon? It will be a perfect addition to your work. An elephant is said to be the symbol of good luck, so let these handmade elephants be the source of enjoyment for your children when they go to sleep. There is an old Ukrainian cartoon about a boy named Petryk, who was counting baby elephants while trying to fall asleep. The baby elephants were constantly running, hiding from the boy and were very naughty – I believe that yours will be completely different from those in the cartoon.
