Thursday, July 21, 2011

Scrap Yarn Art for Children


A (age 10) came home from a library sponsered craft session, with a pretty, little, scrap yarn, heart glued to a piece of cardboard.


It looked like something the younger girls might like too, so I cut up a cardboard box, and gathered some odds and ends of yarn, together with a couple of bottles of school glue, scissors, and a pencil.


I made one with the girls, as a demo, detailing each step, as we went.

1. Draw a simple picture, lightly, in pencil, on a piece of cardboard (thick cardboard is good, because it won't bend, and loosen the yarn, once the glue is dry).


2. Outline part of the picture in glue. Only do one part of the picture at a time, so the glue doesn't start to dry, before you're finished.


3. Cover the glue with pieces of yarn. Lay, and press the pieces into the glue, trimming the yarn as you go.


4. When the picture is finished, set it aside to dry.


After the first one, I let them go on their own. I probably should have supervised the use of glue, to prevent waste - we ended up with at least one heart, that will still be drying next week. But, leaving the room was the only way to keep myself from jumping in, and "helping".


And really, at 5 and 6 years old, this project was perfectly doable for both of them on their own. They had a great time, gluing and crafting for well over an hour, visiting away like a couple of ladies at a missionary circle.



This might not be a good project for children who are phobic about dirty fingers (I have one of those, too), as it's quite messy. By the time they were done, the girls' fingers were covered in dried glue, and fuzzy bits of yarn. Happily, these two don't mind getting messy, and produced a large number of beautiful portraits and pictures of people, flowers, butterflies, and hearts.


It's great to be a homeschooler.

7 comments:

OurWanderingAdventures said...

Ooo I love that! I think we will paint the cardboard first, since they are hankering to paint right now! haha!

Phyllis said...

Oh, they are so cute!! Such a simple thing to do as well! That is a winning combination. We made tiny wreath Christmas ornaments one year by cutting out tiny little rings of cardboard and glueing on yarn with red beads, but I never thought about making other things in the same way. What a great idea.

April said...

Very fun! My daughter is like that with the messy fingers. She loves doing arts and crafts but hates when paint or glue gets on her fingers, she wants it cleaned off immediately.

Ticia said...

Oh that is so much fun. My kids go back and forth on the whole messy fingers thing.

Debbie said...

These are so cute. I was thinking of some crafts with yarn now that Selena has learned that she can actually cut yarn into pieces.

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

Those are very nice art pieces! We did something like this with yarn and scotch tape - Anna loved it since she is not a big fan of messy sticky fingers.

Tina said...

I totally understand the "had to leave the room" thing. I always want to "help" too!