Flower Lei Craft
Lei* are kind of a big deal in Hawaii. Giving and receiving lei is a custom that has been around for centuries and lei are used for more than saying aloha and welcome. People make lei for holidays, birthdays, funerals, weddings, graduations-you name it, there’s a lei for it.
We typically picture lei are made from flowers but they can also be made of shells, sees, nuts, feathers and even animal bones and teeth. the but leis can me made of just about any flower in just about any color. The material a lei is made from can sometimes symbolize different meanings such as love, friendship or even good luck.
After seeing Penelope Dullaghan’s illustration of a lei in the book The Good Song by Alexandria Giadoni, I knew immediately that sending subscribers the materials to make a paper lei would be a fun activity. It’s a fun and easy craft and the result is so pretty! (And the dexterity exercise is perfect for little ones learning tie their shoes or improve their handwriting.) Since I needed hundreds of flowers for The Good Song’s box, this immediately became a job for the Cricut Maker. No ad here, just being honest-it would have taken a lot of hours to cut out all those flowers!
Paper Lei Materials:
Flower stencil or my flower Cricut template
Colorful cardstock
String
Tape
Scissors
Straws
Paper Lei Instructions:
Cut out 20 flower shapes in several different colors.**
Cut straws into 20 one-inch sections.
Cut 36 inches of a non-fraying string. (nylon craft string works great for this!)
Tape one end of your string to your work surface.
Thread paper flowers and straws in an alternating pattern until they are all on the string.
Remove taped end from surface and tie loose ends together.
Trim the access string.
Your lei is now ready to wear-or give!
While watching the boys work on their leis, I began to think about the different shapes that would be fun to make paper for different holidays: paper hearts for valentines Day. Clovers for St. Patrick’s Day and Egg shaped cut-outs for Easter!
The possibilities are endless…and so is the fun!
Did you know…?
May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii in Hawaii Nei!
Every year on May 1st, Hawaiians celebrate May Day as a day of aloha. It is a statewide holiday that has been celebrated since 1928!
The Hawaiian language does not distinguish between singular and plural nouns.
So while it is common to hear the word leis refer to many lei, it is technically not a real Hawaiian word.**A quick and simple option is to cut out circles, cut a few slits into the circle and
‘fluff’ by folding the tabs up and down in opposite directions.