Making appliques is a fascinating creative process for adults and children. Crafts from cotton pads, which can be found in every home, are created using simple patterns using colored paper, scissors and glue.
Features and scope of application of crafts
Sometimes the most ordinary household items can find an extraordinary use. For example, simple cotton pads can be turned into beautiful crafts and appliques. The use of pads for crafts is convenient because they have a soft fibrous structure, the shape of an even circle, are easy to cut with scissors and glue with paper glue.
Cotton pad applique for children can be either very simple or more complex, rich in details. It depends on the age of the child and his skills in decorative and applied arts.
When making an applique, it is important that there is an adult next to the child who can promptly prompt and show how to correctly make this or that element.
Crafts made from scrap materials have practical value for work in creativity lessons with children in order to develop their skills and personal qualities. Another option is to use them for interior decoration.
The main areas of application of cotton pad applications:
- Children's crafts on paper in the form of figures of animals, fruits, and objects from the environment.
- Creation of New Year trees, Christmas tree decorations of different shapes and balls.
- Making flowers and bouquets for decorating premises.
- Creation of decorative panels, topiaries, Christmas wreaths.
- Using craft materials to decorate postcards.
Cotton pads are used together with plasticine, colored paper, cardboard, cotton buds, decorative stickers, rhinestones, beads, sequins. The pads are very easy to paint in different colors.
Necessary materials
To make crafts from cotton pads, you will need tools and materials that can be found in every home.
Materials, tools and their characteristics are presented in the table below:
| Name | Characteristic |
| Cotton pads | They can be of different sizes and textures. |
| Paper | Colored, foil, office, double-sided, self-adhesive, with printed designs. |
| Cardboard | Colored, gradient, white, corrugated. |
| Pencil | A simple pencil for marking and contouring the applique. |
| Ruler | For even separation of parts, construction of geometric elements. |
| Tassels | For coloring the elements of the composition. |
| Tools and paints for decoration | Watercolor paints, gouache, felt-tip pens, markers, glitters. |
| Scissors | Tools with blunt ends for cutting out parts. |
| Glue | PVA, hot glue, office glue. |
When making crafts with children, it is necessary to pay attention to the quality of paints and glue. They must have a safe composition, excluding toxic components.
Joint creativity with a child involves using a comfortable space. The workplace can be set up on a table or on the floor. The main thing is that it has good lighting and enough space to place materials for work.
Master classes
Crafts from cotton pads - easy to make and accessible to children from 3 years old. To make the work easier for younger preschoolers, the outlines of the future applique are first drawn on paper. If necessary, details are glued from colored paper in the form of additional elements of the composition, and blanks for the craft are cut out of cotton pads.
Older children can make the applique themselves. Just show them the finished sample.
Snowman
An applique made of cotton pads for children in the form of a snowman has many interpretations. You can make a simple silhouette from whole pads, or you can create a real picture-panel that will decorate the New Year's interior.
For a simple application you will need:
- cotton pads;
- a sheet of blue paper for the base;
- a piece of yellow and purple paper;
- felt-tip pens;
- PVA glue;
- scissors;
- pencil.
To make it you need to do the following:
- Using a pencil, draw the outline of the future applique on paper. Mark the location of the snowdrifts, snowman and tree.
- First, draw a trunk and glue 4 cotton circles onto its branches.
- The snowman will consist of two cotton pads. Therefore, glue the lower pad closer to the center of the picture.
- Next, glue 2 rows of cotton pads below the snowman's body. First glue the top row, then overlap the second row. The pads can be divided in half.
- Finish making the snowman. To do this, glue the cap onto the paper base, then glue the second disk on top, depicting the snowman's face.
- Make a scarf out of yellow paper, use a marker to draw arms in the form of branches. Make eyes out of 2 blue ovals, cut out an orange nose in the form of a carrot. Use a red marker to draw stripes on the cap and make a button.
- Cut a small circle out of a piece of cotton pad and make a pompom out of it for the cap.
- Decorate the surface of the applique with white paper snowflakes.
- The picture can be supplemented with houses with snow-covered roofs, made from cotton pads cut in half.
Caterpillar
The rainbow caterpillar will delight children with its brightness and ease of manufacture. For painting you will need gouache and a container with water. The material for the applique can be pre-painted and dried. Or you can do this process together with children, as a stage of making the craft.
To paint cotton pads, you need to dissolve some paint in water, dip a cotton pad and put it on oilcloth to dry. You can paint each pad separately with a brush. For the caterpillar, you will need to make 6 circles of different colors.
To make a caterpillar, you need:
- Paint the disks in different colors as you wish. You can make all the blanks multi-colored or do everything in one color.
- Apply marks on a sheet of paper for gluing the caterpillar elements and lay out the parts in advance to visualize the result.
- Apply glue to the marked areas and glue the disks one after the other.
- On the last disk, which represents the head, draw eyes and a mouth.
- Use a colored marker to make the caterpillar's horns. The head of the hotel can be made from a disk, slightly reducing its diameter, and cutting out solid horns.
- Cover the surface of the applique base with flowers cut out of colored paper.
Lamb
Cotton pad applique for kids can be made in the form of a sheep. Younger children can be offered to make a sheep from 2 disks. An equally simple craft can consist of several cotton pieces.
A sheep-shaped craft can serve as a New Year's toy if you glue 2 disks together, attach legs cut out of colored paper between them at the bottom, and glue the head on top.
To work you will need:
- cotton pads;
- cotton swabs 2 pcs.;
- black beads;
- flowers and grass from colored paper for decoration;
- scissors;
- a sheet of colored cardboard for the base.
To make the craft you need:
- First, cut out the head, ears, bangs and clouds from cotton pads.
- Cut out a sun from one disk, make triangular cuts along the entire diameter, and paint it yellow.
- Mark the locations of the sheep, clouds and sun on the cardboard.
- Cut the cotton swabs in half.
- Glue one round piece to the center of the composition, which will serve as the body of the sheep. Leave the bottom edge unglued.
- Apply glue under the bottom of the disk, place cotton swabs in pairs and press the applique, securing the sheep's legs.
- From the prepared elements make the head, ears, bangs and tail.
- Place the sun, clouds, flowers and grass on the cardboard.
Chickens
To do this, you will need to paint several disks yellow. To do this, first dilute the dye in water, soak the disks in the solution and let them dry.
For 3-year-olds, you can suggest making a simple applique from one disk. For older children, crafts in the form of a composition that includes eggshells and elements of the environment in the form of flowers, grass, and grains are suitable.
You can make a three-dimensional toy from cotton pads if you use a wire frame for the chickens' legs. Such a craft can serve as a table or interior decoration for Easter.
To work you need to prepare:
- decorative eyes;
- orange chenille fluffy wire;
- cotton pads, colored yellow;
- orange paper.
To make volumetric appliques, you need to do the following:
- Make 2 legs for each chicken from chenille wire.
- Cut out a triangle-shaped beak from orange colored paper.
- For each chicken, make 2 oval wings by cutting them out of a cotton pad.
- Using hot glue, secure the chickens' legs between the two disks. Also glue the beak between the disks.
- Glue the chicken's wings and eyes to both sides of the body.
To create a simple applique, you will need 2 yellow disks and 1 white one. For the beak and eyes, you will need black and orange paper.
The sequence of making the applique:
- From a white disk, you need to cut out half of the egg shell. To do this, you need to cut the disk in half and make random zigzag cuts along the straight edge.
- Cut 1 yellow disk in half. This will be the body and wing of the chicken.
- Glue the applique pieces in the following order: the body of the chicken with the round side up, the egg shell from the white disk, the wing with the round side down and the head of the chicken.
- Glue the beak and eyes, cut out of colored paper, onto the top circle.
- Decorate the surface of the craft with multi-colored flowers.
- Using glue, you can attach millet or sunflower seeds to the craft.
Hare
New Year's decorations in the form of a rabbit or a white hare can become a decor for a child's room. From cotton pads, you can make a favorite character of children from the cartoon Smeshariki. To make it, you will need 3 cotton pads. The blanks can be pre-painted blue.
To ensure that the body elements are proportional, it is recommended to print out a ready-made diagram of Krosh's figure and cut out the blanks from cotton pads.
To make this craft you will need:
- Mark the location of the hare figure on the cardboard and lay out the blanks in advance.
- Glue the paws and ears one by one.
- Glue 1 round disk on top, onto which, using hot glue, attach the facial elements: eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, eyebrows.
A children's craft in the form of a hare, which even younger preschoolers can handle, can be made from 5 cotton circles. If desired, the blanks can be painted in the color you like.
The originality of the craft may depend not only on the elements of the applique themselves, but also on the base chosen for the work and additional decor.
To make a winter hare you will need:
- Cut 3 cotton pads in half. The halves will serve as ears, upper and lower paws.
- Glue two whole cotton pads to the center of the applique.
- Make ears and paws from the halves.
- Use colored markers to draw the hare's eyes, nose, mouth and whiskers.
- The composition can be supplemented with cotton snowdrifts, sun and clouds.
Flowers
Applique and all sorts of three-dimensional crafts for children can be made from regular cotton pads. Beautiful realistic bouquets can be made from cotton roses, daisies and marguerites.
To make a rose you will need the following materials:
- wheels, painted or white;
- wooden skewers;
- green corrugated paper;
- PVA glue and hot silicone glue.
To create a rose you need to do the following:
- Trim the sharp ends of the wooden skewers with scissors.
- Start placing the petals one after another, securing them to the skewer with hot glue.
- The density and volume of the bud can be varied.
- Make leaves and sepals from corrugated paper.
- Glue a strip of corrugated paper onto the stem, gradually gluing in the sepals and leaves of the rose.
- Place the prepared flowers in a vase.
The creation of daisies or chamomile differs from each other only in the shape of the petals.For chamomile, you need to cut the petals into oblong shapes, and make the petals of daisies from whole disks.
The flower centers are made from circles painted yellow. It is convenient to use sticks with balloon holders for this work. During the manufacturing process, cotton pads are glued to the inside of the balloon holders. The yellow core is glued over the petals in the center of the flower.
Flower makers recommend starching cotton pads to make the petals smooth and elastic.
You can make an original postcard for March 8 from disks and cotton swabs. A vase with calla lilies is easy to make and is suitable for creativity lessons in kindergarten.
To work you will need a sheet of cardboard folded in half of size A4, colored paper for making a vase and leaves. Additionally, you can decorate the card with adhesive glitter, sequins or rhinestones.
To make a postcard you will need:
- Cut out a vase from colored paper and glue it along the bottom edge in the center of the card.
- Cut out green leaves and glue them onto the cardboard at the neck of the vase.
- Make 5 pieces of inflorescences. To do this, take half of a cotton swab, painted yellow, and wrap a white cotton pad around it so that you get a cone shape, tapering downwards.
- Glue the flowers, placing them at the neck of the vase. First glue the two upper flowers, then secure a row of three lower inflorescences.
- Decorate the surface of the postcard to your own taste.
Birds
An applique made of cotton pads for children can be simple and flat, or it can become a three-dimensional model. Figures of various birds are made from the craft material. To do this, you need to print out the image template and cut out the necessary parts from the disks.
Often, only one disk serves as the basis for the body. Additional details are cut out of halves of cotton circles. Small elements are created from colored paper or drawn with felt-tip pens.
Craft options:
- Stork in a lake surrounded by aquatic plants.
- Bullfinch on a branch of a snow-covered tree.
- Chicks in the nest.
- Swans in a pond with reeds, greenery, butterflies made of colored paper.
- An owl on a tree branch against the background of the starry sky.
- Exotic colorful birds made from painted discs surrounded by tropical forest plants.
Cat
The simplest and most accessible idea to keep a child busy is making an applique. To create a fluffy texture of cat fur, cotton pads can be divided in half and glued with the fuzzy side up.
To work you will need the following materials:
- cotton pads, colored or not;
- template image of a cat with separate elements of paws, tail, ears and muzzle;
- scissors and pencil;
- colored cardboard for the base;
- PVA glue or stationery glue stick;
- colored paper for decoration.
To make an applique in the form of a kitten, you need to do the following:
- Transfer the details onto paper and cut them out of cotton pads.
- Lay out the applique elements on cardboard and see what the finished image will look like.
- Consecutively glue all the elements of the body, paws and tail onto the cardboard.
- Use a marker to draw the kitten's eyes, nose, and whiskers.
- Glue the elements of the composition around the cat figure. These can be home furnishings or a natural landscape.
A simple craft without using templates can be made from 4 discs. 2 whole circles will serve as body and head elements, a disk cut in half will serve as paws. From the fourth disk, cut out the whiskers, tail and ears of the animal. The elements need to be glued sequentially: first the body, then the paws, head, tail, muzzle details.
Beautiful applique ideas
Decorative and applied arts are available for both children and adults. From improvised materials, you can make various decorative items to decorate an apartment, a country house, or rooms for celebrating significant events.
On the topic of winter
The winter theme is perfect for creating crafts from snow-white cotton pads. To create them, you don’t need to paint the craft material.
Variants of winter crafts and compositions from cotton pads:
- An image of a Christmas tree made from cone-shaped discs glued together, decorated with tinsel, rhinestones and snowflakes.
- Winter cityscape with houses made from a combination of cotton swabs. Snowdrifts and clouds are created from cotton pads, snowflakes are glued together from cut cotton swabs. The picture is decorated with yellow-painted stars and a moon.
- Christmas tree decorations in the form of Santa Claus's head in a colorful cap with a beard made of cotton pads
- A three-dimensional Christmas tree made of cardboard and covered with cotton cones. Each branch is decorated with colored rhinestones, and a star is glued to the top.
- Christmas decorations in the form of angels, which are created according to a simple pattern from folded cotton blanks.
- An applique in the form of a Christmas tree branch made of colored paper with balls in the form of cotton pads, decorated with glitter and bows.
- Volumetric Christmas tree balls made using the kanzashi technique.
- Snowflakes glued together from folded strips cut from cotton blanks.
- Complex New Year wreaths made from a large number of cotton pads, decorated with New Year balls, bells, bows
- Various applications in the form of snowmen, snow-covered residential buildings, animals against the backdrop of a winter landscape.
On the topic of autumn
The correct shape of cotton pads is a great option for creating autumn crafts. The round shape can imitate foliage, tree crowns, the shape of fruits, vegetables, mushrooms.
The fun part of making fall crafts is the gradient coloring of the leaves.. To do this, you need to dilute water with dye in different containers and prepare a medical pipette. The fibrous material will allow you to evenly distribute and mix the borders of the paints. The process, accessible even to a small child, will amaze you with the effectiveness of the result.
The process of painting autumn leaves with a yellow-orange gradient is as follows:
- Cotton pads should be laid out on oilcloth.
- Next, you need to apply drops of paint of different colors to the surface of the cotton base one by one.
- After painting, dry the blanks.
Autumn craft options:
- Tree with autumn leaves made from colored paper and painted cotton pads.
- An applique of an autumn forest with multi-colored tree crowns, each of which consists of one colored cotton circle with branches drawn with a felt-tip pen.
- Rain cloud made from a combination of discs and cotton swabs.
- Craft in the form of a hedgehog against the background of colorful autumn leaves.
- A bright basket with fruits and vegetables.
- Composition of autumn flowers.
- Ghost applique for Halloween celebration.
Beautiful applique is the most accessible and interesting technique of decorative creativity for children. Crafts from cotton pads help develop a child's imagination, imaginative thinking, perseverance and ability to listen and understand.
Author of the article: Maria Andryukova
Video on the topic: volumetric applique from cotton pads and colored paper
Volumetric applique SNOWDROPS from cotton pads and colored paper: