Take-Home Craft Ideas for Winter: Perfect for Day Services for Seniors
Many people enjoy doing crafts at nursing homes and day service centers, don’t they?
This time, we’re introducing craft ideas for seniors to make in winter that they can take home from day service!
We’ve gathered easy-to-prepare projects, including those that use recycled materials and supplies from 100-yen shops.
When it comes to crafts, aside from large decorations to hang on the wall, most items can be taken home.
More intricate projects that require fine motor skills may take several days to complete, but the sense of accomplishment and joy when they’re finished is exceptional.
Of course, there are also cute crafts that can be made in a single day, so please use these ideas as a reference for craft activities at nursing homes and day service centers.
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[For Seniors] Winter Take-Home Craft Ideas for Day Services (111–120)
Santa Claus
This is a Santa Claus mascot made by using the distinctive shape of a lactic acid drink container, which narrows slightly toward the top.
Attach double-sided tape to the container and wrap felt around it.
Once you’ve created the clothing and face areas with felt, simply add parts like the face, hair, and beard to finish.
Because it involves assembling small parts, it exercises your creativity while also developing fine motor skills.
Besides Santa Claus, it’s also fun to try making various mascots that take advantage of the container’s shape.
Suede-like 3D mask
There are many occasions to wear a mask, such as preventing infections or when you have a cough.
So why not try making your own mask using a mask kit? While there are gauze-style mask kits, here we’ll introduce a chic suede-style mask kit.
The kit includes suede fabric, elastic, and a pattern.
Besides the included suede fabric, you can also use suede in other colors.
You can make two types of masks.
For one, trace the pattern onto the fabric and cut it out with scissors.
Sew the fabric with a sewing machine to finish.
For the other, attach elastic to the ear sections of the mask to make it.
A mask you make yourself is likely to bring a happy feeling when worn, especially for older adults.
Tree
When it comes to essential Christmas decorations, the “tree” is a must, right? It’s the main feature of Christmas decor, and many places—like senior care facilities—create large wall-mounted trees when December comes around.
There are many ways to make tree decorations, but here’s a super simple one: a tree made from origami.
Fold the origami paper into a triangle, make cuts with scissors, then open it up.
You’ll get strips that you glue one by one toward the center.
Finish by adding a star and a tree trunk, and it’s done! It’s a great idea for a small craft to take home, too.
Toilet paper Santa Claus
A toilet paper roll transforms into an adorable Santa Claus doll! First, cover the toilet paper roll with felt in Santa colors like red and white.
For Santa’s fluffy beard and the fur-like parts on his hat, use cotton or fluffy yarn.
For the facial features like the eyes and nose, we recommend using small pieces of felt cut to shape, stick-on eyes, or felt balls.
You can also add decorations to the outfit if you like! Give it a try and make a warm, charming Santa doll.
Heart coaster
How about an easy-to-make heart-shaped felt coaster? You don’t even need to sew—just use glue.
Round the edges and cut two pieces of felt into the same shape, then make vertical slits in both.
Interlace the slits one by one, folding them together like a weave.
Glue the last section to finish.
If you don’t round the edges or leave excess, you can weave with strip-shaped felt to make a square coaster.
Try different color combinations you like.
Heart-shaped trinket box
For one of winter’s big events—Valentine’s Day—heart motifs are a classic, aren’t they? Let’s make a box with a large heart prominently featured out of origami to enhance the holiday’s happy atmosphere.
When creating the box parts, it’s important to crease well, fold in the edges, and make firm reverse folds so the corners and sides are sturdy.
Of the two boxes of different sizes, use one as the lid and attach the heart in a prominent spot to finish.
Add your own originality with choices like the heart’s size and differences in color between the box and the lid.
Heart Pom Pom
This is a heart-shaped pom-pom made by weaving yarn onto a fork.
It’s also a fun twist that everyday tableware can become a knitting tool.
Thread the yarn through the middle and one groove of the fork, wrap the yarn around the whole fork, then use the yarn threaded through the center to tie everything together and remove the fork.
Cut open the looped parts and trim to finish the pom-pom.
Combine three pom-poms to create a heart shape.
It’s important to use pom-poms of the same size, so pay close attention to the number of wraps and how widely the yarn spreads.