This adorable paint stick ballerina craft will be a hit with little dancers who love to make and create! It’s an easy group activity for a dance class or a dance party.
Recently, while we were crafting, a couple of the hooligans were discussing their year-end dance recitals, and it got me thinking that we should do a dance-themed craft.
We made these sweet ballerina ornaments for the Christmas tree a couple of years ago, but they were pretty tiny, so we’ve tweaked those ballerinas & made these paper plate ballerinas today. Hooray! Another one for the letter B in our Epic A-Z paper plate crafts collection!
The results are super-cute, and the girls had a lot of fun making them. Don’t you love the little ballet slippers?
Let me show you the easy step-by-step, and then your kids can get busy making some paint stick ballerinas of their own!
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To make our paint stick ballerina craft, you’ll need:
- Wooden paint sticks (ask for a handful at your local hardware store or paint store)
- Acrylic craft paint
- paint brushes
- Paper plates
- pink ribbon
- yarn
- glue
- tape
- satin ribbon
- sequins and craft jewels
- markers
Making your ballerinas:
To start, we cut a paper plate in half, and painted it. Some hooligans chose traditional pink for their ballerinas, and some chose different colours. Your child can choose any colour at all.
Next, we painted the body portion of the paint stick, leaving an unpainted section at the top for the ballerina’s face and hair, and an unpainted portion at the bottom for her legs and slippers.
We then glued the tutu to the paint stick body, and added sequins to the tutu. The sequins aren’t necessary, of course, but we thought they added a nice touch.
For the hair, we squeezed some glue onto the top inch or so of the craft stick, and we wound a length of yarn around it. Then we glued the loose end in place.
Next, we drew faces on our ballerinas.
You can use paint or Sharpies or washable markers like we did.
Just do a little test on the back to make sure the marker ink doesn’t bleed into the wood too much. If they do, you’ll want to paint your faces on.
Now, you’re going to finish with your ballet slippers.
This was our favourite part of the project because it really made our dolls look like ballerinas.
With pink paint, paint “slippers” on the bottom inch or so of your paint stick. Next, add your satin ribbon. We tried gluing our ribbon on with school glue, but it wouldn’t hold, so we ended up taping it in place. A hot glue gun would definitely work.
And there you have it! An adorable paint stick ballerina for the kids to play with display.
Wouldn’t this be a great craft for a dance class or a dance party?
If you liked our paint stick ballerinas, you’ll also like:
Coffee Filter Ballerina Ornament
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Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.
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