Craft Basket
Sticker & Washi Tape Collage
A mess-free collage experience perfect for little fingers learning to peel and stick.
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Ages 1.5+3 min prep
This is the basket I hand my youngest when I need eight minutes to finish something, and it has never once failed me.
Peeling a sticker is genuinely hard work for a toddler. You can watch the concentration on their whole face. My daughter started at a year and a half, mostly sticking things on her own arms, and slowly moved to the paper.
I keep a small box of tape rolls and sticker sheets on a low shelf so she can bring it to me herself. Almost no prep, almost no mess, and the collages end up taped to the fridge.
What you'll need
- Thick paper or cardstock
- Colorful washi tape
- Large stickers
- Optional: crayons for adding drawings
- For the pop up card: coloured card, white paper, crepe paper in pink and green, foam heart stickers and a glue stick
How to make it
- 1
Tear or cut washi tape into short strips and place them within reach.
- 2
Show your child how to peel the backing off a sticker.
- 3
Let them stick tape and stickers anywhere on the paper.
- 4
Encourage them to add drawings or scribbles around the collage.
Where it goes next: a pop up flower card
Once peeling and sticking stops being the whole challenge, the same basket turns into something with a bit more structure. We fold a sheet of coloured card in half, and everything gets built on the inside.
Start with the folded card closed so it feels like a proper envelope. A single strip of tape across the front keeps it shut until someone opens it, which is half the fun for a small child handing it over.
How we build the inside
Cut a rectangle of white paper, fold it into a long box shape and glue it flat in the middle of the card so it stands out when the card opens. That is the flower planter.
Fill the planter with strips of crepe paper snipped into fringe, and roll a few tight crepe paper spirals for the closed buds. Tear green crepe paper into leaf shapes and glue them along the bottom edge as grass.
Fan fold two long strips of pink crepe paper and glue one to each inner side, so they open like a curtain. Finish with foam heart stickers on thin paper stems above the planter.
Everything here is peel, tear, roll and press, so a toddler can do most of it and an older child can do all of it.
Make two and compare
My two made one each on the same afternoon, one on orange card and one on pink, from exactly the same tray of supplies. They came out completely different, which is the best argument I know for putting out materials instead of a template.
They give beautifully. Grandparents get one, a teacher gets one, and the leftover fringe goes back in the box for next time.
Tip
Washi tape peels off most surfaces easily, making cleanup a breeze.