Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Cardstock Crafts for Kids: part 1


The following tutorial is featured on the Discount Cardstock blog today! It is part of a three part series that I hope you'll enjoy!  (Be sure to stop by the blog for promo codes and sales going on!)

Thanksgiving Lacing Cards
By Laura Williams
DCS Designer
As a mom, I’m always looking for quiet activities to occupy my children in doctors offices, on airplanes, and at church. Today I’d like to share one of three simple paper projects to create for kids. No fancy tools or supplies are needed – seriously, you can complete all three of them in a day.
My other 2 upcoming cardstock projects for kids:
    • Project 2: Paper Beads – October 30th, 2012
    • Project 3: Mini Coloring Book – November 6th, 2012

1. Lacing cards are a perfect activity for a toddler or preschooler with busy hands. To create this Thanksgiving lacing card, I started with a fabulous turkey printable coloring sheet, at www.coloringpages7.com. Some of my favorite simple coloring sheets, with many themes and seasons, can be found atwww.easycoloring.com, and www.twistynoodle.com.

2. I printed my turkey on 4 colors of card stock. Some printers handle thick paper better than others – if yours doesn’t cooperate, you could print it on paper and photocopy onto cardstock. Or create your own simple shape without a coloring page.


3. Next I paper-pieced the turkey. If you are new to paper-piecing, it basically means that you cut out different sections of your image from different colors, and assemble it together. This is one of my favorite techniques when using stamps, but cutting out this large simple turkey and putting it together was even more fun than I expected!


4. Adhere the layers together, and then punch holes using a hole punch. Cut a length of yard and let your little person lace away!

5. A few notes:
a.) I’m thinking about laminating this lacing card before I hand it over to my 3-year-old. I’ll just have to go back and punch the holes one more time.
b.) I purposefully left that little space between the turkey’s feet uncut. I’m pretty sure that poor Tom turkey would be legless within 3 minutes of that certain 3-year-old handling it! (Think about your image before you start – choose something easy to cut, and that will lend itself to lacing the edges.)
c.) Wrap tape around the end of the yarn to make it easier for little hands to manage.