Catechist Craft Clip: Paper Towels

For best results, use paper towels that are supple, strong, impressed with interesting textures, and solid white (no printed pattern).

Banners
Make festive banners for celebrations and feasts by making 2 ¾” pleats (accordion fold) in several panels of paper towels, horizontally and then vertically. While the towel is folded, dip corners or sections in vegetable coloring or egg dyes. Unfold and hang high on strings that crisscross the room.

A variation on the first idea is to fold as above and then cut out small geometric shapes or hearts, taking care not to cut completely through the folds (as in cutting out a snowflake).

Puppets
Make puppets out of cardboard tubes from rolls of paper towels or bathroom tissue or pieces of rolled construction paper, and drape paper towels around them to form clothing: robes, gowns, cloaks, veils, etc. Before attaching to the puppet, add colors and patterns to the “clothing” using crayons or markers. Hold “clothing” in place on the puppet with twine, yarn, glue, tape, or staples. Great for biblical figures/puppets to use for acting out scenes from Scripture.

Wisdom Scrolls
Make wisdom scrolls by placing one panel or several connected panels horizontally on a table and writing across it a Scripture quote or inspiring message about faith. To each end of the strip, glue a thin piece of wood, dowel, or paper towel cardboard tube. Roll the ends inward together. You can store your wisdom scrolls and use them in lesson plans; you can unroll them and place them on display for instruction and inspiration; you can place them on your prayer table.

Paper-Towel Blooms
Make paper-towel blooms by placing a desert plate (about 4” to 6” in diameter) on three paper towels stacked on top of one other. Trace around the plate. Hold the paper towels securely together and cut out the circles. Fold the circle stack in half, creating a straight edge and a curved edge. Fold in half again, along the straight edge, and then in half one more time. Hold at the point and fluff open the layers at the curved edge. Secure at point with tape. For a flower with a stem, secure the bloom to a drinking straw or pipe cleaner.

Jeanne Heiberg is the author of Advent Arts & Christmas Crafts (Paulist Press) and Advent calendars (Creative Communications). She has taught art, writing, creative catechetics, and meditation, and has directed parish catechetical programs. Jeanne writes, paints, and gives writing workshops in upstate New York.

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Source: CATECHIST Magazine, October 2009
Copyright 2009, Peter Li, Inc. All rights reserved. This article is protected by United States copyright and other intellectual property laws and may not be reproduced, rewritten, distributed, redisseminated, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast, directly or indirectly, in any medium without the prior written permission of Peter Li, Inc.