These are easy to make and they are fun to play with at home or on the go.
You will need:
- Glue
- Foam paper (2mm or 3mm thick)
- Scissors
- Hole punch
- Shoelace, string or ribbon
Good to have:
- Cookie cutters
- Markers
- Large blunt tipped needle
The Project:
Glue two sheets of foam paper together. Once they are dry and don’t peel apart, I let yur child pick out simple shapes (we traced cookie cutters) to cut from the now doubled foam paper. After cutting out your shapes, use the hole punch to make evenly spaced holes around the edge of your project, making sure not to get too close to the edge. Now you can teach them to sew, connecting the holes with the ribbon as you would on a connect-the-dots picture.
Tips:
- I let my son glue the two pieces of foam paper together and then let them sit under a phone book (or other flat bottomed heavy object) to dry. You could do this before involving your kids, though, because it took a really long time (all day, actually) for the pieces to fuse together and dry completely.
- The easiest thing for really young children to sew with would probably be a shoelace with the plastic tips.
- I used grosgrain ribbon because it doesn’t generally like to tangle and knot the way other ribbons and string do. Unfortunately, the knot at the needle was rather thick, so I decided to hot glue the ribbon flat on itself after threading it through the needle. It’s semi-permanently attached, and can be cut off or carefully pulled apart to replace the ribbon if needed. The needles are only $1 at any crafting store, and there are a few in a pack. My son loves that he gets to use a real needle, so it’s wonderful to have.
- If you do not have any shoelace or special needles on hand, you could always use a little glue to stiffen the tip of the ribbon or string. Just dab a little glue on the tip of the string, roll it between your fingers to shape it if you need to, and let it dry.
- The kids would have a blast decorating these! Use some googly eyes, glitter, markers, etc to really personalize these cute little sewing boards!
- Put everything into a little zipper baggie and toss it in the diaper bag for a quick, mess-free activity while you’re out and about!
