[For Seniors] Liven Up Setsubun Crafts! Handmade Ideas Using a Variety of Materials
As Setsubun approaches, memories of childhood filled with bean-throwing and ogre masks come flooding back.
If you enjoy crafts together with older adults, nostalgic stories will blossom and smiles will naturally appear.
Using familiar materials like paper plates, origami paper, and Yakult containers, why not handcraft Setsubun-themed items such as ogre masks, ehomaki, and bean-throwing cups? With a little creativity, the ways to enjoy it are endless.
Spending time savoring the seasonal tradition while working with your hands will warm everyone’s hearts.
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[For Seniors] Get Excited with Setsubun Crafts! Handmade Ideas Using Various Materials (51–60)
Recommended for class activities! Draw your favorite demon
When you think of events in February, Setsubun probably comes to mind.
And when you think of Setsubun, you think of oni (ogres).
How about making unique oni crafts as a recreation activity? Staff can prepare the base parts in advance, such as the oni’s face, horns, and hair.
The rest can be drawn or decorated by the seniors, resulting in oni full of each person’s creativity.
Oni with one or two horns, or even a one-eyed oni—each one uniquely made by the participants.
When these oni are displayed on the facility walls and brighten up the rooms, some seniors may feel the season and grow fond of them.
It’s a project that enhances the Setsubun spirit and brings enjoyment.
Oni and Setsubun decorations made with paper bowls
Create three-dimensional Oni and Otafuku figures using paper bowls.
Paper bowls sold at 100-yen shops work perfectly.
Cut the bowls for the Oni and Otafuku, and use crumpled origami paper to form their faces and hair.
You can also make the Oni’s distinctive, permed-looking rounded hair by crumpling origami paper.
Yarn or thinly cut strips of origami paper can also be glued on as hair.
Because this craft involves crumpling and squeezing paper, it uses the hands a lot.
It’s said that “the hands are a second brain,” with many nerves connecting the fingertips to the brain.
Using the hands and fingers helps activate the brain and can aid in dementia prevention.
Enjoy this brain-training craft activity and create wonderful pieces!
Demon doll
I think there are many elderly people who live alone.
Making little ogre (oni) dolls to give out as a service to liven up the Setsubun atmosphere for them would likely be appreciated.
If you’re going to make them, why not team up with friends and make lots? Cut slits in a paper cup to create a big, opening ogre mouth.
Use construction paper to make the ogre’s face from the upper lip upward for the top part of the cup, and from the lower lip down to the chin for the bottom part, and attach each piece.
Since the ogre’s mouth opens and closes, it’s fun to move it and use it like a puppet.
Try to make the ogre’s face as cute as possible so they’ll want to display it for a long time.
Oni handprint stamp art
Here’s an ogre (oni) version of handprint stamp art! First, paint your hand with acrylic paint or similar and make a handprint.
Once the paint dries, draw in the hair, eyes, mouth, and other features.
If you scribble curly hair around the base of the fingers, the fingers will look like horns, and the shape naturally becomes an oni.
Decorate the background with drawings or stickers, and if you line up everyone’s pieces on the wall, you’ll have a unique exhibition of oni! Even those who find drawing difficult can enjoy this together with simple handprints.
[For Seniors] Get Excited with Setsubun Crafts! Handmade Ideas Using Various Materials (61–70)
Setsubun crafts using a milk carton and origami
This is a small container decorated with a cute ogre (oni) mascot made by combining a milk carton and origami.
Since it’s a box inspired by Setsubun, putting roasted soybeans inside would enhance the atmosphere.
Cut off the bottom of the milk carton, wrap it with origami and glue it on to make the base, then create the mascot and attach it.
If you assemble an oni from cut parts, it’s quick and easy; if you attach an oni made from a single sheet of origami, you can enjoy a more three-dimensional look.
It’s important to balance the color of the base with the color of the oni you attach.
Otafuku mask
Beauty ideals change with the times.
The so-called beauties of the Heian period were a bit different from what we consider beautiful today—the standard was said to be people with plump cheeks. The image is like the “Otafuku” face, right? Written in kanji, Otafuku can also be “お多福,” and it’s an essential mask for Setsubun, the festival that invites good fortune.
Some people make it using colored paper in an origami or papercraft style.
Others go all out and make it with papier-mâché.
There are plenty of videos that carefully explain how to make one, so use various tutorials as references and create an extra-special Otafuku mask.
If you wear it as a surprise, it will surely bring smiles to the faces of older adults.
den-den daiko (Japanese pellet drum)
This is an ogre-themed version of a den-den daiko (a hand drum toy you shake)! First, cut out the parts like the ogre’s face, hair, and horns.
Glue the round face piece onto thick paper, cut along the outline, then attach the other parts and draw the face details.
Secure a chopstick firmly to the back with tape, and make holes on both sides of the face.
Thread strings with crumpled aluminum foil balls through the holes and tie them, and it’s done! Since it’s just paper and aluminum foil, it won’t make sound, but the way the ogre’s face spins around is surprisingly cute—you might find yourself wanting to keep shaking it!