Make Fun Crafts with and for Your Kid with Project Kid

April 8, 2017 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

I’m a sucker for craft idea books. I don’t always make projects directly out of them, but I think they’re a lot of fun to look at, and to have on hand for those days when the girl wants to do something crafty but doesn’t have any ideas of her own.

Project Kid: 100 Ingenious Crafts for Family Fun by Amanda Kingloff was inspired by upcycling, reusing and re-envisioning basic household items into something new.

The projects are divided into general categories:

animal kingdom
hold everything
home sweet home
playtime
ready to wear
the great outdoors
abstract expressions

Each project includes a detailed supply list and lots of step-by-step instructions. While the title of the book makes it seem like kids would be creating these projects themselves (at least to me), many of them will at least require supervision, if not just the adult doing it themselves.

That said, there are definitely projects here that I would love to make for or with my kid. To name a few: butterflies made out of joiner biscuits (in a shadowbox for extra cuteness), a pom-pom covered pull toy made from cardboard and old toy cars, tiny suitcases made out of mint tins, envelopes made out of book jackets, a super cute Melissa and Doug tray upgrade made with paint chips, woven paper cups used to decorate twinkle lights, a photo family tree made out of branches, a homemade memory game made with a kid’s drawings, a super cute hot air balloon made from a yogurt cup and a paper lantern, a pirate ship made out of newspaper, necklaces made from old T-shirts and a bird feeder made from a nut can.

These aren’t all completely original — what book is? — but there are some good ideas and basic techniques here that should get you and your crafty kiddos thinking about fun projects you can make together.

Learn more about the book (there’s a new one, too) and get more cute projects on the Project Kid website.

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Easy Lacing Cards to Make for Kids

Lacing is a great fine motor activity, and most kids go through a phase where they enjoy working with lacing cards. It helps promote focus and is a great quiet activity for kids to do in the car or to fill time in the classroom. And of course knowing how to lace is the beginning of knowing how to sew, which is great for all kids to learn (more on teaching kids to sew here).

There are lots of ways to make your own lacing cards. This one is just a pin but it’s easy to make lacing cards with any shape a child is into using cardboard and a nail to poke the holes. This could be fun for letter and number recognition or spelling the child’s name. Or try this version from Hey Azka, which uses a hole punch to make bigger holes so you can lace with shoe laces.

You can also just do lacing cards with paper, but it’s a great idea to print them on card stock and/or laminate them to make them sturdier for little hands. Homeschool Share has a set of alphabet lacing cards, which are free with email signup. Deceptively Educational has a set of number lacing cards with numbers 0 to 10.

Picklebums has some basic shape lacing cards, too.

Living Life and Learning has a bunch of cute printable lacing cards, including back to school designs, shoes kids can lace and learn to tie and ocean themed lacing cards. She also has tips for making your own lacing cards.

A Rose Tinted World made their lacing cards with craft foam, which makes them a little more durable than paper and you can cut it more easily than cardboard. They used a die cutting machine but you can also cut shapes by hand.

I also love the cat and mouse cards from Seam Whisperer. They also have some spring themed designs. So cute!

If you want to make lacing cards that are more open ended, check out this tutorial form Pretty Life Girls to make lacing cards that are more like geo boards. Theirs are made with wood but you can also do this with cardboard, craft foam or card stock.

Have you read?

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