DLTK's Holiday Crafts for Kids
Paper Strip Necktie Craft

This is a simple cut and paste patterning craft that lets young children practice making a pattern while creating a nice craft keepsake for dad on Father's Day.  You can hang it up in dad's office, print a message on the back or use it to decorate the front of a Father's Day card.

We used two colors, but you can use more, if you like!

Materials:

• a printer,
• a piece of paper,
• scissors,
• glue,
• Optional:  patterned scrapbooking paper or construction paper

Instructions:

• Print out the necktie template.
• Print out the paper strips template or (optional) instead of using the template you cut out your own strips of paper from scrapbooking paper or construction paper.  I like to just use construction paper or scrapbook paper -- it's quicker, easier and looks great but some children really like using scissors to cut along lines which the template provides.
• Set aside the necktie template for now -- we won't be using it quite yet.
• Cut paper strips about an inch wide and 8 inches long from the paper strip template, from construction paper or from scrapbooking paper.
• Talk to the children about making patterns -- for example, one red, one blue, one red, one blue.  Ask them what kind of pattern they would like to make and have them lay out a few strips of their pattern on the table.  Some children will enjoy spending quite a bit of time playing with their patterns before they begin gluing pieces on.
• Turn the necktie template UPSIDE DOWN, so the black lines are lying on the table.  You can still see them a little bit through the paper.
• Squeeze glue all over the backside of the paper if you tend to work quite fast or just put it on a section of the paper if you need a little more time.  You can squeeze it straight from the bottle or use a plastic cup with glue inside and a popsicle stick for applying it.
• Lay your paper strips on the paper, recreating your pattern.  You can put them on the paper horizontally or diagonally -- vertically doesn't work quite as well for the necktie.
• Let dry.
• While it's drying, take a piece of white paper (or whatever color you like) cut out two triangles that are pretty close to the same size -- we did this by folding about a third of the paper over and then cutting off the corner.  When you unfold it you can cut along the fold and you'll have two matching triangles.  Set your triangles aside for now.
• Once your glue is dry, flip the paper over so you can see the black lines.  Now carefully cut out your necktie shape -- this is the best time for an adult to lend a hand.
• Glue the matching triangles at the top of the necktie so the points are overlapping a little in the center -- this is the collar of the shirt.
• Write a nice message to dad on the back or glue your creation to a homemade card.
• Note:  We got fancy with our tie -- we actually added the horizontal strips at the top of the tie AFTER we'd let it dry and cut it out -- we glued them overtop of the other, diagonal paper strips, let it all dry (again) and then trimmed off the excess.
• Note 2:  It looks nice with or without the collar so feel free to skip that part, if you like!

Craft Templates:

• Close template window when done printing to return to this screen.
• Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers).

 Necktie Template       (B&W)

 Paper Strip Template (color)

Printable version of these instructions