Paper Weaving

Incorporate the basics of color schemes and color families as you make this lovely paper weaving craft.

Materials Needed

	1.	Cut a piece of construction paper or any colored paper into a square.
	2.	Fold the square in half.
	3.	Cut evenly-spaced slits starting from the folded edge and continuing up to about a half inch from the opposite edge. It may be helpful to draw vertical lines to use as guides while you cut.
	4.	Open up the paper.
	5.	Cut 1-inch wide colored paper strips. The strips should be longer than the length of your square's side.
	6.	Get one paper strip and weave it horizontally across the slits, going over and under the slits.
	7.	Push the woven strip to the top and start with another one.
	8.	Repeat until your paper weave is full.
	9.	Flip the whole square weave. Apply glue at the ends of each paper strip.
	10.	Fold the excess length of each strip inwards and press to glue them in place.
	11.	Flip the square weave so that the folded ends are concealed at the bottom.
	12.	Cut a larger piece of construction paper or craft foam to frame your paper weave. You can use a pair of craft scissors to create a more interesting border.
	13.	Glue your paper weave on top of the paper frame. Decorate the frame with any or a combination of these materials: glitter glue, puffy paint, sequins, beads, small craft foam shapes, stickers, buttons or other decorative materials.

	This paper weave project can be done in certain color combinations to introduce color basics such as primary colors, secondary colors, monochromatic colors, or rainbow colors. Our demonstration is a primary color combination (red, yellow and blue).
	Here's a monochromatic paper weave using different shades of pink.
	This African-themed paper weave uses earth tones. Puffy paint (also called 3-D paint) was used to decorate the border with African-themed symbols and patterns.