Thanksgiving Craft Project: Pilgrim Card

This craft project is for creating a Thanksgiving pilgrim greeting card out of construction paper. This is a wonderful card to send to family members around Thanksgiving. This craft project is easy enough for most children to complete it with moderate adult supervision. It's so inexpensive to make, it's almost free. Whenever possible, use construction paper scraps left over from other projects to make the pilgrim.

Pilgrim Card Craft Project Materials:

Construction paper

Glue stick

Scissors

Pencil

Black permanent marker

Pilgrim craft templates

Exacto blade

Click on the second image accompanying this article. Click "Enlarge." Right click on the pilgrim card template image and select "Print picture..." Navigate to the third image and follow the same steps to enlarge and print that pilgrim card template as well.

Place the first craft template over a piece of construction paper. If it's 8 1/2 by 11 inches, simply fold it where the dotted line is on the template. If it's larger, use the template as a guide to cut it down to letter size. From the second Tnansgiving pilgrim craft template, cut out the pilgrim's head, hat, strap, buckle, hair, collar and main body.

Set the hat and main body portions of the pilgrim craft template over a piece of black construction paper. Put the hair segments over a piece of brown or yellow paper. Put the collar and pilgrim hat strap pieces over white paper, the head over pink paper and the buckle over yellow paper. Trace around them lightly in pencil. Cut out these pieces and set them aside.

Place the pilgrim head segment over a piece of corrugated cardboard. Use the Exacto blade to cut out the eyes and mouth. Then slice through the nose and eyebrows. Set the head template back over the pink pilgrim face and use the holes and slits as a guide to mark the pilgrim's features lightly in pencil. Use the head template as a guide to trace some some white eyes and teeth, and some black eyeballs and lower mouth.

Apply the glue stick to the back of the black main body segment. Attach the white collar on top of the black body segment. Estimate where it should go on the front of the Thanksgiving card by looking at the first pilgrim card template. Glue the head segment over this. Attach the hat, then glue the strap and buckle over this. Attach the hair. Glue on the white eyeballs and black mouth segments, using the pencil marks as a guide. Apply the black eyeballs and the white teeth over the top. Use the black permanent marker to draw the nose, eyebrows and dimples.

Write a happy Thanksgiving holiday greeting on the front of the card, and include a personal message on the inside. Make a homemade envelope to personalize your Thanksgiving pilgrim card.