Crafting with Kids

I have decided what my dream job would be. It combines two of my favourite things...kiddies and craft. I have decided that I would LOVE to teach kids to craft...to love creativity...to enjoy the process and journey that creativity takes you on. I have always been a crafty person but in the last few years as I have seriously gotten into sewing/crocheting/knitting and lots of other crafting pursuits I can truly say that it has changed my life. I know that may sound slightly stupid to the uninformed but for those of you out that in the know..you will know what I mean!
Anyway, in the lead up to Christmas and that beautiful long stretch of 6 week school holidays I thought I would do some posts on crafting ideas for kids. It is a great way to celebrate different seasons (Christmas, Easter, Halloween etc) and a great way to keep little hands busy. On top of that, helping children be creative has so many benefits...I will post more on that soon!
My first crafting with kids project is for a craft activity called "God's Eyes". I have no idea why they are called that but they are cool nonetheless! I did this at work with the kids this week and they loved it. I recommend it for kids aged 4 and up - they need to have a grasp on their fine motor skills and a decent amount of hand-eye coordination, but hey, if you have a child prodigy, try this at any age!

The finished project looks like this:

Here is a quick tutorial to show you how EASY it is...

Collect some sticks - I got mine from across the road of my home...under a big gum tree!

Chop to the required size and pair them up. 

You will need two sticks of identical size for each god's eye you make.

Choose your yarn. Any thickness, any texture will do. Scraps are great!

Place sticks in a "cross" shape and tie first colour yarn in a simple knot

Take yarn and wrap around the sticks diagonally one way, then go the other way. It should feel firm by now and ready to start making your diamond.

Wrap your yarn around each stick, moving around in a square motion, wrapping once around each arm of the cross. With younger children, it is best to let them do the wrapping of the yarn while you hold and turn the cross. That way, you can make sure it's tight enough and the yarn stays close together.

To add another colour, don't worry about tying it off, just wrap it around one of the arms and then keep going, spinning the cross as you wrap the yarn around the arms. If you keep going, wrapping the yarn once around each arm, you will end up with a diamond shape. 

You can make them as big or small as you like. It is so simple, I wrap my yarn in a anti-clockwise motion.

If you do decide to change colours, you will just need to snip the ends off as you come to the end and they are not long enough to make it to the next arm. Don't worry about tying them off, they are wrapped so much around the sticks, they won't come undone.

When you get to the size you want your god's eye to be, snip the yarn and use a yarn needle to thread the end into the back. You could also tape it to the back if you wanted to. I would recommend doing this part yourself for younger children and for older children, have them use a plastic needle specially designed for kid's use.

Tie a ribbon around the top arm of the cross and then make a loop in the ribbon that will allow you to hang your god's eye up.

I just used some scrap yarn I had at home to quickly do these up, took me 15 minutes. 

I had an idea that you could make small ones to tie on the front of Christmas presents, hang them as decorations in your tree or allow the kids to decide where they might look best!

That's it....easy peasy!

I will be back soon with more kiddie craft and other creative ideas!

Ciao

Bella

xxx