Lemon Paper Fan
Looking for a fun and refreshing summer craft for the kids? These lemon paper fans are bright, cheerful, and the perfect way to cool off on a hot day! All you need is some construction paper, kabob sticks, and a little creativity. And the best part? You can easily switch things up to make other fruity favorites like limes or watermelon slices!
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Why We Love this Lemon Craft
- Adorable! These lemon paper fans are bright, cheerful, and look like a slice of summer!
- Minimal mess. No big messes here—just some painting, coloring, folding and gluing!
- Summery! These lemon fans are perfect for cooling off in the summer and make great lemonade stand decorations!
- Totally customizable! Use our guide as a base and tweak it to create other summery fruit fans like watermelon, orange slices, or limes.
Our lemon fan was inspired by these adorable fruity fans by Sew Crafty Me! If you love summer paper crafts, don’t miss our paper fish puppets, 3D peppers and handprint corn on the cob! These fun and easy paper crafts are simple, fun and make the ideal indoor activity for keeping kids busy on hot days
✂️ Supplies
Notes on key supplies are provided below. Please see the “how-to” card for a full list of supplies and quantities.
Construction paper– Yellow, of course! Card stock will also work and is quite sturdy but may be harder for little hands to fold.
Paint– We love the smooth, shiny look of Acrylic paint but any white paint will work.
Kabob sticks– We love kabob sticks because they are long and sturdy! Any craft sticks or popsicle sticks will also do the trick. Just steer clear of flimsier items like straws—they tend to bend and won’t support the fan well.
📋 Instructions
Step 1. On two different squares of paper, use white paint to draw two vertical lines and a horizontal line about 1 inch from the paper’s edge—forming an open rectangle shape. Then, paint a fourth line straight across the middle, connecting the two vertical lines.
Step 2. Draw tiny scattered brown dots along the inner edges of the vertical white lines on both pieces of paper.
Step 3. Once paint has dried, fold both papers accordion-style.
Step 4. Use a glue stick to glue the ends without white lines together to form one long accordion.
Step 5. Wrap a piece of yarn or string tightly around the center of the accordion, then trim off the excess ends.
Step 6. Gently spread the folded paper into a semi-circle and glue the ends together to hold the fan shape
Step 7. On the straight edge of the other side, use a hot glue gun to glue the two sticks to each end to create handles for your fan.
Enjoy your lemon fan!
✔️ Tips and Tricks
- Let paint completely dry before folding your paper accordion style. Otherwise it may smudge!
- Feel free to experiment with the size of your lemon paper fan! We used 8×8-inch squares, but you can easily size up for a bigger, bolder fan!
- If you’re using popsicle sticks for the handles, consider gluing two together to make each handle longer and easier to hold, since a single stick can be a bit short.
❓ FAQ
Any sturdy stick, like kabobs ticks, popsicle sticks, craft sticks or wooden skewers will work great for the handles. Just steer clear of flimsier items like straws—they tend to bend and won’t support the fan well.
The key to even folds is taking your time—don’t rush! For extra accuracy, use a ruler to lightly mark equal sections before folding.
We found that two 8×8-inch pieces of paper made the perfect-sized fan for our kids—easy to hold and fun to use! But feel free to size up and try 10×10 or even 12×12-inch paper for a bigger, bolder paper fan craft.
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🍋 Lemon Paper Fan
Equipment
- glue stick
Supplies
- 2 pieces Construction paper (yellow, 8×8 -inches )
- Acrylic paint (white)
- Colored pencil (or marker (brown or dark orange))
- 1 piece Yarn (white or yellow, 4-6 inches )
- 2 Kabob sticks
Instructions
- On your yellow square paper, use white paint to draw two vertical lines about 1 inch in from the left and right edges, and a horizontal line about 1 inch down from the top—forming an open rectangle shape. Then, paint a fourth line straight across the middle, connecting the two vertical lines. Your design should look like a sharp-cornered letter "A." Repeat on a second yellow square.
- Use a brown colored pencil or marker to draw tiny scattered dots along the inner edges of the vertical white lines on both pieces of paper.
- Once the paint has completely dried, fold both pieces of paper accordion-style.
- Use a glue stick to glue together the ends that don’t have any white lines, joining them to form one continuous accordion shape.
- Wrap a piece of yarn or string tightly around the center of the accordion, then trim off the excess ends.
- Gently spread out two sides of the folded paper to create a semi-circle. Use your glue stick to glue the two loose ends together so the paper holds its shape, forming a half-circle fan
- On the straight edge of the other side, use your hot glue gun to glue two kabob sticks to each end to create handles for your fan.
Video
Notes
-
- Let paint completely dry before folding your paper accordion style. Otherwise it may smudge!
-
- Feel free to experiment with the size of your lemon paper fan! We used 8×8-inch squares, but you can easily size up for a bigger, bolder fan!
-
- If you’re using popsicle sticks for the handles, consider gluing two together to make each handle longer and easier to hold, since a single stick can be a bit short.
