The diary of Dad

We love playing with paper plate crafts, they are so flexible and just perfect to bring out a kids imagination. These paper plate cars are simple to make but so much fun!

Our Son, Robbie, is three years old but with an August birthday he will be starting school in September. It still seems bizarre to me, but it’s happening! With that in mind we are starting to introduce him to more arts and crafts in the hope that he will be all set and ready to go to big boy school when the day comes.

Robbie has always been obsessed with cars. Almost every toy he owns is a vehicle and as a general rule, if it’s not got wheels then Robbie’s not interested. With that in mind, it makes perfect sense to get him started on paper plate cars.

The greatest part of crafting with paper plates is that it really allows a kids imagination to run wild. There are no limits to the different colours, paints glitter and tissue that can be added to design them and as the plates are so cheap, a mistake or two is not a disaster.

We have already made plenty of different paper plate designs such as these butterflies, but it was only a matter of time until we had to move on to cars!

What you need to make paper plate cars

Paper plate crafts are so simple and only require a few basic craft tools. There are endless different ways to decorate your car and make it sparkle but these are the essentials you will need to make the car.

• Paper plates
• White or black card
• Child friendly glue
• Kids scissors
• Paint, pens or crayons
• Anything decorative in your craft kit

How to make paper plate cars

Making the cars is easy and depending on the kids age, they will be able to do the majority of the activity themselves. As my Son is only three, I obviously did the scissor work and helped a little with the glueing but older children will be able to complete it all.

The first step is to cut a paper plate in half, straight through the middle. This will give you the bodies to make two cars. Now it’s the fun part.

Allow your kids to go wild painting and decorating what is soon to be the cars body. For our cars we used paint but I have also seen really nice looking cars made with coloured tissue paper. How creative you get with your child depends entirely on their age and ability. You may want to add extra decorations such as a little glitter and sparkle or some race car numbers to the paper plate.

Once your paper plate body is complete, it’s time to turn it into a car! To do this, simply cut out a couple of circles for wheels and two window shapes. You can paint the wheels if you fancy it, though we left ours plain as it looks just as effective without the added colour. The last step is to carefully stick these on to the plate, remember to make sure any paint used is dry first. That’s it, we have a beautiful paper plate car!

Of course these cars are so quick and easy to make that it is worth making a few. There are endless combinations of colours and designs to make and with one plate making two cars it is a really cost efficient kids craft too.

We hope you have fun making your own paper plate cars and would love to see how you did! If you are looking for more kids activities at home, this moon sand recipe is great for toddlers and preschoolers and will provide them hours of entertainment.

I know how tough it can be keeping a kid entertained at home and hope that these ideas help a little. Take care and see you soon, Dad.