How to Make a Thanksgiving Pilgrim Card

If you have family and friends who live far away, you probably plan to send them a Thanksgiving card. A homemade card has much more sentimental value than one that was purchased in a store. Close relatives particularly appreciate receiving cards which were made by children. This pilgrim card project is simple enough so that many kids can do it with minimal assistance. It makes an attractive card with plenty of room for your personalized greeting, both inside and out.

Things You'll Need

• Construction paper
• Printer
• Printer paper
• Scissors
• Craft blade
• Glue stick
• Black permanent marker
• Colored pencils

Instructions

1. 

   Click on the template included with this Step and print it out. Select your printer's "Landscape" option before you click "Print." Place it over an 8 1/2 by 11 inch piece of construction paper. Use the dotted line in the center as a guide to fold the construction paper in half.

2. 

   Cut out the pilgrim template along the outer edge. Then carefully begin to cut the template apart along the black lines. Cut the pilgrim's hat, hair, face and jacket. Don't cut out the collar or hat buckle yet.

3. 

   Put the hat and jacket template segments over black construction paper and trace around them. Cut out the pieces of black construction paper and set them aside.

4. 

   Place the pilgrim's face from the template over a piece of pink or peach colored construction paper. Trace around its edge, then cut the face out. Do not cut the features out. Trace and cut the hair segments using brown or yellow construction paper.

5. 

   Apply glue to the back of the black jacket piece with a glue stick. Attach it to the front of the card, which is on the right side. Glue the face shape, hair and the base of the hat to the card.

6. 

   Place the face segment of the template over a piece of chipboard. Use a craft blade to cut out the eyes, nose and mouth from the pilgrim template. Cut a slit in the nose and eyebrows with a craft blade so that you can use them as a guide. Cut the collar from the jacket and the buckle and strap from the hat segment of the pilgrim template. Trace around the pilgrim's collar and hat strap over white construction paper, and trace around the buckle over yellow paper. Cut these pieces out as well.

7. 

   Use the face template to lightly mark the eyes, eyebrows, nose and mouth on the pink construction paper face. Glue the collar on top of the jacket. Glue the white hat strap onto the hat, and place the buckle on top of the strap. Make construction paper eyes, eyeballs as well as a mouth and glue them on. Draw on any additional features in permanent black marker. Hand-write a greeting such as "Happy Thanksgiving" on the front and include a personal message inside the card.

Tips & Warnings

• Guide the kids through the process of printing out the template and making the card. It will help them to learn about using the computer and following detailed instructions.

• You may need to cut the construction paper down to match the pilgrim card template.

• If your printer's margins put the template off center, simply cut it down so both sides match. Then cut down the construction paper to the same size as the template.