Lucky Daruma: Craft ideas for decorating January wall displays for seniors
Daruma dolls are popular as lucky charms that bring good fortune throughout the year.
They are often displayed to ward off illness and misfortune and to pray for household safety.
In this article, we’ll introduce crafting ideas for daruma decorations that are perfect for January wall displays!
We’ve gathered a wide range of motifs, from items used in New Year’s decorations to classic themes for wall art.
Many of the ideas can be made slowly while seated, making them great for recreational activities for seniors.
Try creating a wall display of daruma that you’ll feel attached to by drawing your own original patterns or adding messages.
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[Good Luck Daruma] For Seniors! Craft Ideas to Decorate January Wall Displays (41–50)
Felt rabbit daruma
Let’s try making a cozy-feeling rabbit Daruma using felt.
Cut the felt into narrow strips and attach them one by one to a felt core.
Once it forms a lantern-like shape, make and attach the ears and face to finish.
Decorating with buttons, pearls, and other items from the 100-yen shop craft section makes it even cuter.
With a bit of tweaking, you might even be able to create zodiac animals.
The cute style should make it enjoyable for seniors to craft as well.
It’s also recommended to take it home and display it in your room.
paper quilling
How about making a cute, round daruma using paper quilling? Quilling is a craft where you roll thin, tape-like strips of paper into coils to form various shapes, and it’s enjoyable even for beginners.
You can find tools and materials at craft stores, but it’s fine to use substitutes from a 100-yen shop, too.
If you don’t have a slotted quilling tool, you can cut a small notch in a toothpick to hold the paper and use that.
Once you’ve made a plump, three-dimensional daruma, it would be lovely to set a New Year’s goal and look forward to drawing in its eyes.
Papercraft wall decoration
With papercraft, you can enjoy serious crafting while keeping costs down.
It’s also recommended if you want to make high-quality wall decorations.
To begin with, papercraft refers to models made entirely out of paper.
The process is similar to assembling plastic models, and it’s great for finger dexterity and brain training.
If you want to give it a try, it’s smoothest to print and use templates available online.
If you’d like to take on more challenging papercraft, look for designs with three-dimensional structures.
cat daruma
This is an origami “cat daruma,” which combines a daruma with a cat—also popular among seniors.
The folding process doesn’t involve any particularly complex steps, so take your time and fold each step carefully.
The finished daruma has cat ears and is very cute.
If you tuck the ears in, it becomes a regular daruma, and by changing the folding method, you can also change the ear color.
If you use it as a wall decoration, people might enjoy the subtle twist and say, “Huh? This daruma looks a bit different,” and it could become a popular little character.
Fukuwarai (a traditional Japanese “lucky laugh” face-making game)
With a Fuku-warai Daruma wall decoration, you can have a lively time even during the making process.
The idea here is to create a Fuku-warai Daruma, play with it, and then glue the pieces in place as-is to turn it into a wall decoration.
When making the parts, you can design details like the eyes, making it easy to add originality.
If cutting out small paper pieces is difficult, it’s perfectly fine to have participants join from the playing stage of Fuku-warai instead.
First, focus on having fun and give it a try.
paper plate
Decorations made from paper plates are recommended because the warmth of the material is soothing.
The steps are simple—fold a paper plate in half and attach red construction paper—but the key is whether you can form the daruma shape well.
The trick is to keep the curves in mind and cut the head slightly smaller than the body.
Also, it helps to make the body a bit exaggeratedly rounded.
If you fold the paper plate in several times and adjust the size as you go, it will turn out nicely, so keep that in mind too!
paper clay daruma
Let’s make a daruma doll using air-dry paper clay.
It’s lightweight and can be made while seated, making it a perfect craft activity for seniors.
Because you can chat with others as you work, it also helps expand opportunities for social interaction.
Using your fingertips during the process may stimulate the brain as well.
Knead the paper clay by hand and paint it in your favorite colors.
If you add a single kanji character of your choice to the finished daruma, it will give the piece a distinctive, expressive touch.