Making a carnival mask for beginners

Carnival is just around the corner. In addition to Guggenmusik, carnival parades and celebrations, the fifth season also includes costumes. To put the finishing touches to your costume, you need a mask.

We are happy to offer you two craft ideas here.

For advanced users:

You will need:

• Round balloon
• Newspaper
• Paste
• scissors
• string
• Paint and brush

Inflate the balloon , it should be slightly larger than the head you will be wearing. Use a waterproof pen to draw the eyes, mouth and, if necessary, nose on the balloon. Make sure that the outline matches the person wearing the balloon.

Make the paste ready for use according to the instructions on the packaging. Tear the newspaper into small pieces.

Now you can start pasting the balloon face you created earlier. Dip the pieces of newspaper into the paste and place them on the balloon. Leave out the mouth, nose and eyes. It is important to only paste up to half of the balloon. Repeat the procedure until there are at least four layers of newspaper pieces.

Then allow the paste balloon mask to dry thoroughly. It will take a few hours, preferably overnight. Once everything is dry, you can carefully remove the mask from the balloon. Carefully make a small hole on each side with a pair of scissors . Pull the string through it and adjust it so that it sticks to the head of the person wearing the mask and knot it tightly. A little tip: You can also use an elastic band. This allows the mask to be pulled on and off easily.

Now there are no limits to your or your child's imagination. Paint and decorate the mask to suit your mood or the carnival theme.

For last-minute masks and smaller jesters and fools

You will need:

• A paper plate (makes two masks)
• Colored paper or waterproof felt-tip pens
• Paint
• Feathers
• Scissors
• Adhesive tape
• Binding thread

Paint the back of the paper plate in a base color of your choice. Allow the paint to dry thoroughly. Then cut the paper plate in half, each half will make a mask. Paint two peepholes for the eyes and carefully cut them out. In our experience, the best way to do this is with nail scissors . Make a hole on both sides with the scissors and pull the binding thread through and knot it. Then decorate the mask to your heart's content.

We hope you have fun making the masks and enjoy the carnival.