Crafts for Diwali

Diwali FootPrints | Diwali Kids Party Hats | Sparkling Centerpiece | Ram and Sita cone dolls | Elephant Paper Bunting | Lotus Flower Garland | Rangoli Craft | Hanging Diwali Light | Diwali bands for your Door top/ Entrance hanging

Create decorations with a mischievous edge for Diwali, a heritage-rich festival for Hindus. Students work with a partner to design Lakshmi's colorful footprints.

1. During Diwali, Hindus of all lands welcome Lakshmi (also spelled Laxmi) into their homes by cleaning and decorating. Tiny footprints of Lakashmi are found around the house to show her arrival.

2. Cover the art area with recycled newspaper. Students work in pairs. Each student takes a turn rapidly covering each other's feet (one at a time) with Markers. (Yes, it tickles!) Quickly, while the foot is wet, press it on Paper. The marker only shows on this special paper, not on your feet. Wash feet with soap and water and dry with paper towels when finished.

3. With Scissors, cut out the footprints. Decorate them with markers and Glitter Glue. Remember, the footprints are talismans of wealth and prosperity, so decorate them accordingly. Air dry flat.

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Diwali is right around the corner and I was recently asked for a party hat idea for the celebration. Here is an easy and great craft to make at your party this year:

You will need:
Bright colors of card stock,
Confetti,
Glue or Tape,
Glitter Paint,
Scissors

1. Roll your paper into a cone shape. Cut off the extras paper at the bottom of the cone to make it round. Use your first hat as a pattern to cut out more hats from different colors of paper.

2. Cut out pretty shapes to glue onto the top of the hats or use ribbon and other decorative objects. These shapes could be of Diwali celebratory objects, i.e. oil lamp shapes.

3. Glue the hats together and then glue on sequins or use glitter paint to decorate them. Kids can make "fireworks" out of their glitter creations on the party caps.

Happy Diwali!

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Fireworks add excitement to any festive holiday. Create your own sparkling centerpiece for a permanent celebration!

1. Collect several different lengths of cardboard tubes. With Scissors, cut the tubes in half so you have six or more pieces.

2. Remember the bursts of color and light you see when watching fireworks? Use Gel Markers to decorate your tubes in exciting colors and patterns.

3. Use wrapping-paper scraps, aluminum foil, and other colorful papers and metallic wrappings to create your fireworks. Cut the paper into long, slender strips to resemble steamers of light. Apply School Glue to the inside ends of your tubes, then tuck in the colorful paper explosions.

4. Arrange the colored tubes to look like fireworks. Tie them together with ribbon or metallic holiday wrap. Stand them on end. Arrange more colored and metallic papers around the base for a wonderful fireworks centerpiece.

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You will need:
some white card or thick paper;
glue;
felt tip pens;
scissors;
other decorative materials (glitter, sequins, etc).

Instruction
Ram, the banished prince, and his wife Sita, who Ram saves from the clutches of the demon Ravana, are central to the Diwali festivities. Honour their story with home-made Ram and Sita cone dolls, which are fun and easy to make. Firstly, cut out some even semi-circles on your card or paper. They can be made in a variety of sizes but the bigger they are the bigger the picture you'll be able to draw on them - a semi-circle that takes up most of an A4-sized sheet of paper is about right.

Cut these shapes out and then draw a line from the centre of the straight edge down the left-hand curved edge of the shape to make a small triangle (your gluing tab) in that top left-hand corner. Then in the middle of the semi-circle, with the head at the top of the straight side, draw a picture of Ram or Sita. You can add decorations and pictures around your drawing, too.

Ram is traditionally depicted as having a blue face and body, and wearing a gold crown, while Sita is depicted in traditional Indian dress, with a gold head-dress (you can find lots of visual references on the web, such as this image). Make the pictures bold and colorful, using sparkly bits and glitter. Finally, bend the points of the semi circle backwards and glue the right-hand point over the triangle on the left-hand point to make a cone.

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You will need:
large sheets of paper,
either coloured or plain;
scissors;
felt tip pens;
other decorative materials (sequins and sparkly bits);
sellotape.

Instruction
Ganesh, the god of good luck and wisdom, had an elephant's head and is also honored during Diwali. Why not make your own Ganesh-inspired paper bunting to decorate the house with? This is a really easy activity - it just calls for some basic drawing skills (which the kids can try or mum or dad can help out with, by providing a template to copy). Firstly, get a large piece of paper - if you have a roll of craft paper that will be ideal. If the paper is quite wide, cut it in half so you have two long lengths of paper. Then fold the paper over on itself, lengthwise, till you reach the end of the paper to make a paper concertina.

On the top fold of paper draw half an elephant, with the trunk on the left hand side, one ear, the body and two legs (effectively a picture of an elephant side on). Then carefully cut around the picture. Pull out the paper and you'll have a row of elephants facing each other! These can then be coloured and decorated. For a truly Indian feel, colour them in vibrant shades of pink, orange and indigo, then liberally decorate with sequins and other sparkly bits. Make several concertina pull-outs and then stick together to make a really long row of elephants which can be hung across the walls or mantelpiece.

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You will need:
different coloured crepe paper;
string or thick thread;
small dried pasta tubes or macaroni.

Instruction
A symbol of peace and tranquility in Indian culture, the Lotus Flower is used in many Indian religious festivals. This is an easy way to make your very own lotus flower garland. Firstly, cut out lots of flower shapes in different sizes. Lotus flowers have lots of tear-shaped petals - look on the web for some pictures as a template for your drawings and cut your pictures out, making a small hole in the middle. Then cut the string to an appropriate garland length and tie a big knot in on end, leaving a bit of string at the end for tying.

At the end of the string thread through a piece of dried pasta and then grab a handful of the flower cut-outs together and thread the string through the hole. Then add another tube of pasta and continue the process until the garland is finished. Finally tie the two ends together to complete your garland.

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Rangolis and Diwali is synonymous. The most common practice is to make the Rangoli at the main entrance of the home, inviting Goddess Lakshmi for year round prosperity. However, you can also hang rangolis above doors. Here we give you a Rangoli idea that you can hang on the walls, by making it on a piece of large cardboard, or make it directly on the floor.

Materials you will need:
A full size Cardboard piece, if you intend to hang it.
Black marker pen
coloring of any sort, suited to the craft.
Rangoli pattern (click here to print out a pattern of your choice)
Clean, washed and dried Sand and Glue

Instructions :

Print out a Rangoli pattern of your choice from our Rangoli page and trace it onto cardboard (or the floor, as the case may be), using a black marker.

Now dye the sand by mixing it with coloring, making as many different colors as you desire. Definitely make some of your (or your child's) favorite colors.

Mixing the colors will give you new colors.

Let the dyed sand dry completely.

Spread glue onto the Rangoli, section by section.

While the glue is still wet, have children carefully sprinkle the colored sand within the Rangoli pattern. Make it a joint effort, with kids doing the bulk of sprinkling. You can cover the undesirable areas for a color with newspaper to avoid undesirable sprinkling.

When the Rangoli is finished, let it dry thoroughly.

If you had made it on a cardboard, make two holes on two corners, and hang it wherever you want.

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You can make this craft a month before Diwali starts, and hang it in your balcony, to announce the advent of Diwali.

Materials You will need:
A Sheet of cardboard, cut into size 20cm X 6.5cm.
A colored paper (preferably marble paper) of your choice, cut it into size 19cm X 8.5cm
A different colored paper, of size 19cmX19cm
White paper of size 20cmX6.5cm or water color.
A large piece of string or ribbon.
Scissors, Glue and stapler.

Instructions:

Paint it into a contrast color, or white, with water color, or just stick plain white paper, throughout the cardboard.

Roll the piece of cardboard.

Take the piece of color paper of size 19cm x 8.5cm and fold it in half.

Now from the lower, closed side, make deep, straight cuts with scissors, keeping a margin of 1cm at the top.

Now unfold the piece of paper, and stick in the upper and lower part of the cardboard cylinder, using the margins.

Take the remaining piece of paper, cut in in the same way keeping a margin of 1cm, but this time without folding.

Stick the paper along the lower part of the lantern, using the margin.

Make two holes in the top, and use the string/ribbon to hang your lantern.

You Diwali hanging lantern is ready. You can put in a florescent bulb inside to light it.

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Instructions:

Check out our Door hanging page, and printout three of five door hanging designs. You can also try combinations of different bands.

Now let them be colored by crayons or water colors, by your kids. Let the coloring be a only kids activity.

Stick or tape the bands from behind so that the different bands together so that they form a symmetrical chain.

Tape the chain to the top of your door frame.

Your Diwali Entrance hanging chain is ready to be flaunted, and invite Goddess Mother Lakshmi as well.

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We are purposefully not giving the craft to make Diwali candles at home, as we feel it is too dangerous for kids, and we do not want any mishaps to anyone before Diwali. However, kids can buy the candles (which is much easier), and then decorate them for Diwali. The following site has some wonderful ideas on candles decorations for Diwali. Just click here, and use the ideas for Diwali decorations for your home.