How to Make Turkey Feathers Out of Paper
Whether you need colorful turkey feathers for Thanksgiving classroom wall decorations, a creative fall table centerpiece or a seasonal kids' craft, design your own using basic craft supplies such as card stock, patterned paper and scissors. Let the kids help create the paper feathers featuring creative touches like fringed edges and shaded lines. The completed turkey feathers are easy to attach to craft projects with a dab of white glue or a strip of double-sided tape.
Things You'll Need
- Card stock or patterned paper
- Round dinner plate
- Pencil
- Scissors or craft knife
- Colored pencils, markers, crayons or craft chalk
- White glue
- Glitter
- Sequins, stickers or foam shapes
Instructions
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Fold a piece of card stock or patterned paper in half. Ensure the folded paper is as long as you want the turkey feather to be and at least half the desired width. If you want to make a 6-inch-long by 2-inch-wide feather, for example, the folded piece should measure at least 6 inches long by 1 inch wide.
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Position the rounded edge of a circular dinner plate face down on top of the fold in the card stock or patterned paper. Choose a plate size that's at least three inches wider than the length of the folded card stock---if you're creating a 6-inch-long feather, use a round plate that's at least 9 inches wide.
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3
Trace the rounded edge of the plate onto the card stock with a pencil. Cut along the pencil line with scissors or a craft knife. Unfold the feather---it should look like a tall and narrow oval with pointed ends.
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4
Add designs to the surface of the feather, such as shading the folded center line and the edges with colored pencils, markers or crayons or craft chalk sold at scrapbooking, rubber stamp or craft stores.
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5
Create a fringed look along the sides of the feather by using scissors to make 1/2-inch-long cuts into the edges of the paper all the way around the feather. Space the cuts 1/8 to 1/4 inch apart.
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Give the paper feathers additional color and sparkle, if desired, by creating shapes, patterns or words on the surface with white glue. Sprinkle glitter onto the glue while it's still wet. You can also add dimensional accents like sequins, stickers or small self-adhesive foam shapes.
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Tips & Warnings
To save time, cut the paper feathers freehand instead of tracing an arc onto the folded card stock using a dinner plate.
If young children will be handling the paper or card stock feathers to create a Thanksgiving craft, use scissors to round the tips of each feather to prevent the kids from poking themselves with the pointed ends.
Do not let kids use razor-sharp craft knives to cut out the turkey feathers. Let the children cut the shapes out with blunt scissors or simply cut the feathers out ahead of time and give the kids the pre-cut shapes to decorate. Ensure you've stored the cutting tools out of the kids' reach when you're not using them.
