Diwali themed carnival costume

There are three colourful Diwali themed items you can make from paper in this workshop. They are:

• Diwali flame headdress

• Diwali pattern collar

• Diwali hand held paper diya

You will need

• A4 paper (and preferably a printer)

• Scissors

• Glue

• Paint and paint brushes or coloured pens

You can access the full instructions and templates to print out in the PDF - simply click on the button below to download. If you want to follow the instructions online, and just print out the templates then these start from page 10 onwards.

Diwali Flame Headdress

This amazing headdress is so easy to make. First print out the templates on page 10 to 12 of the instruction & template booklet, or if you don't have a printer, copy the pictures below onto three pieces of A4 paper.

Paint or colour your designs

Once you have drawn or printed your templates, it is time to decorate. You can choose to do them in flame colours such as orange, yellow, red and pink or you can get creative and use different colours. You can also pain the pieces of the base in similar colours to blend in. Once painted and dried, cut out all your pieces.

Fix your headdress together

To put your headdress base together you first cut out the two base pieces. The longstrip will form the back of the headdress base and the bit with two semi-circles will frame your face. Stick the two bits together at the edges so that it fits nicely on your head. You may want to ask a friend or a teacher to help with this bit so you get the fit right!

Next, you add on your flames. The big flame shape can sit on the front, with the two smaller flames each side at an angle to make up the whole headdress. Check the pictures below to see what it should look like!

Diwali Pattern Collar

Next we have a patterned collar you can make out of paper to go with your headdress.

First print out the templates on pages 13-16 of the instruction booklet. These templates will give you four A4 pieces which make up the collar base. The 4 base pieces you need should look like the picture below (if you don't have a printer, you can copy these onto four pieces of A4 paper).

Next decorate your collar pieces. The collar resembles a diya, which is a special oil lamp which is burned during Diwali. They are all really colourful , so you can be as creative with colouring your pieces as you like! Once you have finished painting/colouring you can cut the pieces out.

Finally you can stick the pieces together to form the collar. First you will stick the two top neck pieces together at the top edge. Next, you will take the bottom two pieces and fix them to your top joined up piece on the right, and on the left. Finally you will curve up the bottom edged of the two lower pieces so that when you wear the collar it folds upwards to resemble an oil lamp!

Hand held paper diya

Our final piece is a hand held paper diya which you can wear on your wrist to go along with the rest of the pieces of your Diwali costume.

First you should print out, or draw, the templates. You can find the templates for this item on pages 17 to 20 of the instruction booklet. Note that there are two variations of the main diya shape (pages 17 and 18). You can see these in the pictures below. No printer? No worries! You can copy them onto A4 paper.

There are also a range of items which you may choose to decorate with on pages 17 to 20 of the downloadable booklet. The choice is yours!

Paint and cut out your diya pieces

Once you have printed out your pieces you can colour them in. We have coloured in the peacocks and the flame shapes in bright colours, as you can see in the pictures below. Then cut them out.

To make the lamp shape. First take the strip of paper from the bottom of your lamp shape template (page 17 or 18) and glue it into a ring. Next take the diya shape and stick it on, curving it into a lamp shape and using the tabs to fix it to the paper ring you have made. Glue it at the back to hold it together. Here are some pictures to illustrate:

Finally you can decorate your diya with your bird and flame shapes. Stick them to the sides and front to make a really lovely colourful celebration item for Diwali.

Did you enjoy this workshop? You can find out more about Diwali and access some colouring sheets in this post.