Paper Mache

Ah, messy crafts. The thought is enough to make me cringe, grit my teeth, and have chills up and down my spine all at once. As a child I hated getting my hands messy. Play in the mud? Never. Squish up ingredients for meatloaf? Ewww. This problem seems to have carried over into adulthood.

So when I looked at the assignment list for my boys a few Fridays ago and saw "make masks" I cringed. Maybe we will skip this one, I thought. At that moment, my 9 year old son said, "We get to make masks today!"

Crud.

I pointed out the other option--make a railroad spike out of cardboard and tin foil--and was met with silence.

Double crud.

Sigh. FINE, we will make masks. From paper mache, the ultimate in messiness. It was rainy out so we had to do it inside, no less. This was a history project (our sorry attempt at something resembling a Noh mask)for the 7 and 9 year old boys but 3 others wanted to join in.

The bowl of doom


We used 2 parts water to 1 part flour. It is important to stir the mixture every so often while you are working with it.







Deep breaths, I will be calm... Please stop waving your paint brush around like a flag!





Oh, all right! I will admit it, it was fun. The mess wasn't too awful, especially since my oldest daughter did hers after everyone else and did most of the cleaning up. They didn't come out anything like they were "supposed" to, but they all put their own personal touches on their masks.