Storybook Summer post by Sara of Creative Jewish Mom

Hi, I’m Sara from creativejewishmom.com, and we are so excited to share with you one of our cutest ever craft projects! Thanks so much to Marie for inviting us to participate in her Storybook Summer Series which is how this project came about. This is the first time we’ve made a craft project inspired by a favorite story, and the results were so much fun, I think we’ll try to do it more often!

One of our very favorite stories is the classic by Margret and H.A. Rey, Curious George Flies A Kite. The story is filled with so many things we’d love to do: fishing, kite flying and petting baby bunnies! And of course the wonderful vintage illustrations are always a joy for mom, and the ending is so sweet…..not to spoil it for you, but George gets a baby bunny as a gift at the end of the story, and that is my children’s dream too. I’d love to help them realize their dream, but first we would need to learn how to build a cute rabbit hutch ;)  So in the mean time, let’s get crafting with kites!

Supplies for Summer Kite Wall Art:

• plastic drinking straws, we used neon colored ones
• white glue, we used high tack craft glue which is a bit hard to squeeze out of the bottle for kids, but helps speed the project along
• colored tissue paper
• colored crepe paper (or you can use tissue paper)
• white string or yarn
• round wooden skewers (or toothpicks will work if that’s what you have on hand)
• mod podge or a mixture of white glue and water
• a hot glue gun (for adult assistance)
• scissors

Step 1: Cut pieces of straws and glue them to your tissue paper base to form kite shapes. As shown in the photo, make the horizontal cross bar from one un-cut length of straw, as you’ll use this portion to hang (or fly?) your little kites. The vertical cross-bar is then made from two pieces. You can make kites of any size, though for the largest size possible, use complete straws for your outside border and then fill in the inside framework with pieces cut to size as necessary.

Glueing the kite shapes to the tissue paper was so much fun we filled a whole large sheet of tissue paper!

Step 2: After the glue has dried somewhat or better yet, completely (we couldn’t wait that long!) cut out your kites by cutting the tissue paper just along the border formed by the straws. To stabilize the kite, run a wooden skewer down through both of the vertical cross bar straw pieces. Phew, this solves a little technical problem I hadn’t thought of, and round wooden bamboo bar-b-que skewers are exactly the right size for our largest kite!

Step 3: Apply designs to the front of your kite with mod podge or a mixture of white glue and water, and make small tassels from crepe paper. We simply cut small widths of crepe paper from the flat roll in which it came, cut off one end, and tied a string around the other end. Attach your tassels to the kite with small dabs of hot glue, applied by an adult. Make bows from crepe paper—we used a small stack to give our bows some weight. Simply cut a stack of small rectangles and then cut two triangular notches in the middle of the rectangle, around which you tie a small length of string. Glue your bows to a length of string, using hot glue, and then attach that resulting kite tail to the underside of the kite with hot glue.

Thread a string through the horizontal straw on the back of each kite, and you’ve got yourself a super cute piece of summer wall art! I think this would be just adorable for a summer birthday party or any kind of festivity, though I have to say, I think we’ll be hanging this in the boy’s bedroom to remind us of our fun afternoon of crafting and our favorite storybook!

It’s been a pleasure to be here on Make and Takes, and I hope you’ll stop by and visit me at creativejewishmom.com. I think you’ll not only enjoy my kid’s crafts and extensive recycling crafts, but I’ll bet you’d love to learn how to crochet a rug from recycled sheets, wouldn’t you? Or learn how to cook some delicious Moroccan inspired meals with very little effort? Great do stop by, I’d love to meet you, and share with you a little glimpse of our life in Northern Israel.

Sara Rivka Dahan, the creator of creativejewishmom.com, is a designer and crafts writer who lives with her husband and five children in the gorgeous rolling hills of Northern Israel. Her goal is to help other moms enhance their daily lives and enrich their homes with creativity.