Don’t let the fancy French name fool you. Papier-mâché is by all accounts one of the literally cheapest, easiest, messiest crafts one can possibly get into. And it’s fantastic.

Papier-mâché creations are often left to the devices of those who oversee grammar school art display cases, but this versatile craft can easily be made at home, even for functional purposes.

For my husband and I, it all started with brainstorming about our interior decor.

Years ago, any conceptualizing about our home’s look and feel would have easily been within context of choosing wall paint or assembling our couches feng shui-style.

But when you have young tots, decor brainstorming often refers to something related to childproofing, arranging Hot Wheels race tracks, or in this case, preparing dinosaurthemed decorations for an upcoming birthday celebration.

At some point in our enthusiastic, late-night dino decor conversation, my husband and I began to wax nostalgia about grade-school art projects. Out of the blue, he asked, ‘Do you remember papier-mâché?’

Did I ever. I was never particularly fond of close encounters with blown-up balloons, but using them within the framework of papier-mâché creations was an agreeable exception.

How I loved wrapping balloons, taped-together cardboard tubes, and anything that could be morphed into some inventive structure with goopy, mummifying newspaper strips to make threedimensional creations.

I’m not so sure that’s how the ancient Egyptians rolled at funeral arrangement time, but wrapping formations in gooey strips today is a fabulous exercise in creativity.

Papier-mâché is not for the faint of heart. It’s messy. It’s gross. It literally translates to ‘chewed paper’.

This is why we stick with its alternate, elegant, French moniker.

Papier-mâché is a cinch to make– you already have everything you need in your home. Just take a looting dive through the bottom of your recycling barrel for items such as cardboard, yogurt cups, tin cans. Assemble these thoroughly cleaned and dried items together with masking tape to form different structures. And as for the aforementioned balloons – if you have a leftover party stash laying around – they’re a papier-mâché staple. Although you should never staple a balloon.

Papier-mâché strips adhere well to balloons; the final product’s spheric structure will hold up well long after the inner latex has popped.

To make your mix, combine equal parts flour and water, well-whisked together to form a cake-batterlike ‘glue’.

After you’ve read this very newspaper you hold in your hands, rip it into long strips. I won’t be offended, I promise.

You’ll need a large working surface. And time. And eventually, paint.

Add your giddy kiddos and you’re good to go.

Submerge the paper strips into your mix; wipe away excessive drips upon removal. Have your children cover your formed structures with multiple layers.

The messier, the better. And don’t worry– flour won’t stain their clothing.

The shapes and textures you create from wrapping together a skeletal sculpted work of recycling art will be fabulous.

Your papery creations, which may take several days to completely dry, can then be painted.

As for our dinosaurs: Last weekend, my husband and I threw caution to the wind and masking tape to the cardboard shapes one very late night until we’d haphazardly cobbled together decent dinosaur formations.

While old ‘Seinfeld’ episodes played in the background until wee hours of the morning, we gave a brontosaurus his Coffee-Mate creamer container neck, a stegosaurus triangular cardboard scales taped to his balloon body, and so forth, until we were satisfied with our four makeshift dinos whose contents had been just rifled from recycling hours earlier.

Seemingly moments later, our eldest came bounding in to wake us up.

It was early morning; there was no time to lose. Dino mâché game time.

We all enjoyed a messy, fun morning filled with goopy newspapers and giddy laughter.

The finished products resulted in not-too-shabby creations for our first attempts at papiermâché.

Perhaps we’re inspiring future paleontologists; most likely we’re helping develop creative young minds. But bringing an economical art idea home from classroom projects past certainly made for an entertaining memory for the books.

A total mess, for sure, but nonetheless a dino-mite time.

— Michelle Cote is the art director of the Journal Tribune. She enjoys cooking, baking, and living room dance-offs with her husband, two boys and a dog. She can be contacted at mcote@journaltribune.com.