Things to make from a finished colouring page

A finished colouring page usually lives on the fridge for a week and then disappears. Here are twelve better ends for it. All of them use things already in the house: scissors, glue, old cardboard, thread. An adult should do or supervise the cutting for young children.

1. A greeting card

Fold a sheet of chart paper in half. Cut out the coloured picture, leaving a thin white border, and paste it on the front. Write the greeting inside. The diya suits Diwali, the heart a birthday or Mother's Day, the flower a get-well card.

2. A stick puppet

Paste the coloured animal on thin card, such as an old cereal box, and cut it out. Tape an ice-cream stick or a straw to the back. Two or three animals make a puppet show behind the sofa.

3. A jigsaw puzzle

Paste the whole page on card. When it is dry, draw four to eight wavy lines on the back and cut along them. Keep the pieces in an envelope. Fewer, bigger pieces for a three-year-old; more for a six-year-old.

4. Bunting for a party

Print the balloons, kite or heart several times. Colour, cut out, and tape them along a length of thread. Hang it across a door.

5. A story book

Choose four pictures: say the house, the cat, the boat and the moon. Colour them, put them in an order, and let the child tell a story that joins them. Write one sentence under each in the child's words. Staple the pages. The child has written a book.

6. A window picture

Colour with sketch pens, then rub a little cooking oil over the back of the paper with cotton wool. The paper turns see-through. Tape it to a sunny window and the colours glow like glass. The mandala and the butterfly are best for this.

7. A name plate for the door

Cut out a coloured picture the child loves, paste it at one end of a strip of card, and write the child's name beside it in big letters. Hang it on the bedroom door or stick it on a school bag shelf.

8. A memory game

Print two copies each of six easy pictures at a small size (choose "6 pages per sheet" in the print window). Colour both copies of a picture the same way. Paste on card, cut into equal cards, turn face down, and take turns finding pairs.

9. A mobile

Colour the sun, the moon and stars and the rocket on both sides, cut them out, and hang them on threads of different lengths from a coat hanger. They turn in the breeze.

10. Lacing practice

Paste a simple picture such as the apple on thick card and cut it out. An adult punches holes around the edge. The child threads a shoelace in and out. This trains the same finger control as writing.

11. A gift wrapper and tag

A coloured page wraps a small present nicely. Cut a little shape from the scraps, punch a hole, and tie it on as the tag with the giver's name.

12. A wall gallery

Run a string along a wall at child height and hang this week's pages with clothes pegs. Change them every week, and let the child choose which one stays. Looking back at a month of pages shows a child their own progress better than any praise.

A note on keeping and throwing away

You cannot keep everything. Photograph the pages on your phone, keep a few favourites in a folder with the date on the back, and let the rest go. Pages coloured on only one side can be turned over and used again for free drawing.