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How to Design Paper Masks

Masks are used not only to hide a person's face but also to express different emotions and parts of the wearer's culture. Children can learn about those different cultures and the expressions and characteristics they displayed, by making their own masks. The children will also learn artistic concepts such as the proportion of decoration and the purpose of symmetry, a characteristic of the real human faces beneath the masks.

Things You'll Need

  • 1 pad of multi-colored construction paper, 9 by 12 inches
  • Scissors
  • Pencil
  • Glue
  • Colored paper
  • Sequins
  • Glitter
  • Feathers
  • Fishing Line or string
  • Single hole punch
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Instructions

    • 1

      Tear one piece of the multi-colored construction paper from the pad and fold it in half vertically (hamburger-style).

    • 2

      Unfold the paper and draw the shape of face on one side of the paper so the fold in the paper bisects the face shape.

    • 3

      Cut the face shape out from the rest of the paper.

    • 4

      Draw the shapes of two eyes on one side of the face cutout, with one eye shape on each side of the bisecting fold.

    • 5

      Cut out the eye shapes from the face cutout to create eyeholes.

    • 6

      Decorate the mask by gluing pieces of colored paper, sequins, glitter, and feathers to each side of the mask. Cut a piece of colored paper to resemble a mouth and glue it to the mask. Allow the mask to dry for 15 minutes after applying all decorations.

    • 7

      Punch one hole in each side of the mask above and behind where the person's ears would be.

    • 8

      Cut about 9 inches of the string and loosely tie each end of the cut string through one of the holes so the string can loop behind the wearer's head and rest on her ears. Have the person try the mask on and then adjust the string if necessary. Once the string is adjust so the mask fits comfortably, tie the strings tightly.

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