DIY Kites

Make your own kites with tissue paper, dowels, string and stuff to decorate with! Your kids will enjoy hours of fun flying these in the backyard!

The girls had so much fun playing with these DIY kites we made last weekend! The orange bird is Sophie’s and the blue one is Audrey’s. Keep reading to find out how to make your own DIY kite!

Supplies for making a kite

Tissue Paper in various colors
Feathers or other light items to decorate with
Small Wooden Dowels
Markers
Tape
Glue
Yarn

How to make a kite

Start by crossing your dowels in an X shape and wrap the place where they intersect with yarn.

Use the size of your dowels as a guide to determine how large to cut the tissue paper. It should be slightly bigger than the dowels, and you will need 2 identical pieces for the front and back. I let Sophie and Audrey draw their birds and then helped cut them out. Next you’ll glue the front and back pieces together with a thin line of glue around all the edges.

Let the kids decorate their DIY kites with markers, feathers, streamers or other light objects, Don’t weight it down too much or it’ll be too heavy to fly! Then tape the dowels in the center as shown below, and tie yarn on either end of the horizonal dowel. Tie the 2 pieces of yarn together near the bottom of the vertical dowel, leaving a long tail for flying.

To prevent the tail from getting tangled, we rolled up a small piece of cardboard to use as a spool for the extra yarn.

The girls LOVED playing with these DIY kites! Audrey wore herself out so much she had to go take a nap before I could get any pictures of her playing. But Sophie took her sister’s blue kite for a whirl!