Inside: A fun and easy 3-D Paper Bag Turkey Craft perfect for kids and adults!
Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and what better way to celebrate than with a fun turkey craft?
In this step-by-step guide, we’ll show you how to create an adorable 3D paper bag turkey that will add a festive touch to your holiday decor, it makes a cute centerpiece.
Paper Bag Turkey Craft
This Thanksgiving turkey craft is easy enough for kids and adults to enjoy making it.
With minimal supplies needed this craft is cheap to make and looks impressive.
Turkey Paper Bag Craft Supplies
- 8-10 Paper lunch Bags
- Glue
- Construction Paper
- Markers
- Scissors
- Googly Eyes
3-D Paper Bag Turkey Craft
This paper bag turkey craft is so fun and easy to make. The part that takes the longest is the prep for putting it together.
Making the Feathers
The small side of the paper bags is what will be our feathers. You can keep these brown or use markers to color them so your feathers are different colors.
We found that opening the side of the bag and keeping it flat made it easy to color. Then fold the bag back to how it originally was laying for the next step.
When coloring the bags be sure to color all the same sides of the bags, we colored opposite sides for a few of our bags.
Putting Together the Turkey Base (the Feathers)
To make the base for your turkey you are going to take 2 your paper bags and cut them just under the flap so they are really short bags.
Now you are going to put the flap side down of one of the full size bags and make a “T” with glue on the back to just below the flap.
Place one of the short bags flap side down on to the “T” of glue. Make another “T” and glue the other short bag.
Now continue making the “T” of glue and adding the remaining full size bags.
Once you have stacked all the bags, make sure you have pressed down firmly and the bags are all glued together well.
Grab the two outside edges of the bag on top and bottom of the stack and pull them out. The bags should open like an accordion creating a colorful circle.
Place a “T” of glue on the top bag, pull the bags open and press firmly all the way down the bag to get your wings to stay open.
The easiest way to glue these ends together is to put your arms inside the bags and press.
Go around the whole bag pressing the sides together and opening the bags as much as possible so that the feathers will stand up.
Making the Paper Bag Turkey
Now that the feathers are ready we get to make the rest of the turkey.
Grab a piece of construction paper and something circle to trace. I used a salad size plate.
Trace the circle on the plate and cut it out. This is going to be your turkey head.
Next cut a triangle out of orange or yellow paper for the beak and a little red squiggle for the wattle.
Glue the beak, wattle and googly eyes to your turkey head.
Putting the Paper Bag Turkey Together
Now that the turkey head is done you are going to put glue all over the back of the circle.
Glue the turkey head to the paper bag feathers covering the two short bags.
You will need to put your arm inside the bag and press the head and bag together so it will stay attached.
Fluff the feathers and your turkey should be able to stand as a cute centerpiece or decoration for Thanksgiving. You can also add string at the top and use it as a door hanger if you prefer.
More Thanksgiving Activities for Kids
Here are a few more Thanksgiving activities we love doing with our kids each fall.
Handprint Turkey Craft – Turn a cute handprint into a fun turkey to decorate with this Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving Paper Bag House Craft – Make a fun paper bag house perfect for Thanksgiving. This unique craft is perfect for elementary age kids.
Free Printable Thanksgiving Color By Number – Print as many of the Thanksgiving color by number (or letter) printables as you would like. There are 10 different Thanksgiving images to choose from.
Thankful Tree– One of my favorite Thanksgiving traditions is putting a up a Thankful tree and adding leaves with all of our blessings.