Guest Post: Easy Printer Crafts for Kids by Tina

Easy Printer Crafts for Kids Are you trying to cut back on spending money on toys and entertainment? Are your kids bored of playing with what they have now? Or do you just encourage them to do something other than watching TV and playing video games? Have you ever considered using your computer to keep your children busy? Not just by playing games and watching videos online, but when you combine the use of your printer, you can find endless activities to do with your kids.

  3D Paper Crafts


3D Crafts are easier than ever. Nowadays, there are so many printables online with folding guides drawn on to help you know exactly where to make your creases. Just look up 3D paper crafts and you’ll find a plethora of free templates. If your kids are on the younger side, you can find 3D alphabet paper characters making it a fun and educational activity to do together. Parents, just help them with the cutting, folding, and gluing, and they’ll have something fun to play with afterwards. Print the template on cardstock to give some strength and sturdiness to your paper figures. This will help them be able to play a bit more roughly than if it were printed on regular paper. 3D crafts are perfect for the older ones to stimulate their mind as they go on and try to figure out how to assemble each character that can range from action figures to princesses. If they don’t “play” with toys anymore, then they could go ahead and decorate their room with the 3D figures. Paper Masks & Headbands



If you want to encourage your children to use their imagination more during their playtime, how about making paper masks and headbands according to their favorite character. First, try making a family activity out of picking out the masks, printing them, and decorating them. If you’re making a lot of masks, try making it a contest and pick out the best ones in the end. Then cut out the decorated mask or headband template, assemble using a popsicle stick at the bottom of the mask or string to go around the head, and let your kids go out and pretend to be their own character. This makes for a great rainy day or party activity. Puzzles Another way to get everyone’s creative juices flowing is to print out a puzzle template. You can find blank puzzle patterns or coloring page puzzles for free online. Regardless of which one you choose, just color them in or embellish them with sequins and glitter, cut them out, mix them up, and try to put them together. If you want to try to make your puzzle pieces last, think about printing the puzzle on cardstock. You could even laminate the page before you cut out the pieces. This is a great way to have new puzzles all the time without spending a lot of money on buying new ones at the store. Plus, it’s a 2-in-1 activity which could help occupy a lot of your child’s time.

  Themed Activity Book Instead of buying activity books, try making one yourself. You can tailor it to your kids age and by what kind of characters or theme they want. For instance, if your child loves superheroes, you could compile various superhero printables like word searches, connect-the-dots pages, coloring pages, mazes, etc. based on their age, and staple them together like a book. If they complete the whole book, then you don’t have to worry about adding it to your grocery list, you just have to print out another book.
  Paper Dolls & Finger Puppets This might bring back bits of nostalgia, but paper dolls are still around. Once more, just search for paper dolls online and you’ll get a result of thousands of dolls. Some are already colored, but you can find paper doll templates that are blank allowing you and your child to decorate them. If paper dolls aren’t as appealing, how about making finger puppets? There are a lot of different themed finger puppets on the Internet. All you have to do is color them in, cut them out, and cut finger holes or attach a paper ring/popsicle stick on it so you can hold the puppets. You can put on a show for the whole family. If it becomes a regular family activity, try making a finger puppet theatre to pull “the show” together. This post was brought to you by Tina, a major contributor for 4Inkjets.com, the leading provider of discounted ink cartridges. On her free time she likes to read, do scrapbooking projects, and go outside with her dachshund.