[For Seniors] Simple and Fun: Craft Ideas You Can Make with Everyday Items
What we introduce here are easy craft ideas for older adults.
They’re all easy to incorporate into recreational activities at senior facilities such as day service centers.
Using familiar, everyday materials, these crafts are simple to make, making it easy for seniors to give them a try.
We hope you’ll use craft-making to help stimulate both mind and body.
Since it involves using the hands, it also serves as brain training and can help prevent dementia.
Be sure to read this article and use it as a reference for craft activities.
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[For Seniors] Simple and Fun: Craft Ideas You Can Make with Everyday Items (1–10)
Hina dolls
Yakult containers are small and very well suited for making doll-shaped crafts.
Making Hina dolls with them turns out very cute and gives a sense of the season, so I recommend it.
First, apply glue to the lower part of the container and wind chunky yarn around and around.
It’s fun to mix two colors.
Make the imperial prince’s crown and the princess’s hair and crown out of felt, and fit them into the narrow part at the top of the container.
Make the scepter and fan from felt as well and attach them with glue.
And with that, your slightly artistic Hina dolls are complete.
reindeer
You can make reindeer and Santa decorations using Yakult containers.
To remove the dent in the middle of the container after peeling off the label, wrap felt around it twice, then stick double-sided tape on the outside of the container and wrap yarn tightly around it without gaps.
Attach a bell to a felt strip for the collar and fix it to the reindeer’s neck area with double-sided tape.
Make the antlers from felt reinforced with a cardboard template, and attach them.
For the ears, use felt without a backing and attach them with a hot glue gun.
For the eyes, use stick-on pearl embellishments colored with a black marker.
Finish by attaching a red pom-pom for the nose.
Totem pole
A totem pole refers to a columnar wooden sculpture erected by Indigenous peoples of North America.
They are characterized by colorful decoration and faces painted on them.
This time, let’s make a totem pole by decorating a Yakult container.
The method is up to you, but decorate the container with colored paper and, at the end, draw patterns and faces with a pen and color them to finish.
If everyone makes multiple totem poles and stacks them, it will look just like a real totem pole.
The detailed decorating involves using your fingertips, and thinking about what design to create as you go should be an enjoyable process.
[For Seniors] Simple and Fun: Craft Ideas You Can Make with Everyday Items (11–20)
Perfect Fit Shinkansen
The Yakult R-1 container has a distinctive streamlined shape, and you can actually use that shape to make a Shinkansen that can be coupled together.
You’ll need R-1 containers, masking tape, vinyl tape, strong magnets, and beads.
First, embed a strong magnet in the cap section, put beads into the body, and close the cap.
Cover the body with white masking tape, add windows and patterns with vinyl tape, and you’re done.
It’s really fun that the caps snap together so the trains can couple.
Glowing Snowman
How about making a fun Christmas-time snowman using just empty Yakult bottles, round stickers, and decoration lights from the 100-yen shop? Peel off the outer label from the empty Yakult bottle, then use round stickers to create the snowman’s features.
For the nose, cut a large round sticker into a triangle—it works great.
Put the decoration light inside, and you’re done.
Even if it’s not a snowman, you can add any pattern to the empty bottle and pop in a decoration light to use it as various kinds of ornaments.
box
This is a simple square box made with origami.
Because the pattern of the origami paper shows clearly on the outside, choosing the right paper is an important point.
The size of the box changes with the size of the paper, so it might be good to pick the paper size to match what you want to put inside.
Make crisp creases and fold along them, aiming for precise folds that keep the white back side from showing.
Since the key is to fold accurately along the creases, this activity enhances fine finger movements and concentration on the creases.
basket
How about making a basket that can hold small items? A woven-looking shape might seem hard to make, but if you have a paper cup, it’s easy! Just get a paper cup in your preferred size and wrap it with paper cord or jute twine.
For the handle, attach a braided cord.
Add decorations like lace, and you’ll have a cute basket in no time.
If you want a larger basket, simply use a bigger paper cup.
Try putting in candy and other snacks, stationery, and all sorts of little things.
